Parent advocacy is often critical for families of individuals with disabilities. Prior research has suggested that parent advocacy occurs across three levels: individual, peer, and systemic. Yet, little empirical research has identified the correlates of advocacy for each level. For this study, we examined the survey responses of 246 parents of…

This article presents findings from a qualitative study exploring parents' struggles over their children's education. Drawing on affective practice theory (Wetherell 2012) and feminist care ethics (Fisher and Tronto 1990), we offer insights into the affective practices of care driving parents' educational activism. We detail how parents' activism…

Objective: This scoping review aimed to map the extent of evidence on parental advocacy programmes supporting participation in child welfare decision-making. Introduction: Though parental advocacy programmes aim to empower parents navigating complex child welfare systems, the breadth of evidence has not yet been synthesised. Inclusion criteria:…

Racially minoritized parents often experience significant systemic barriers when accessing and navigating transition planning for their young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Despite the benefits of transition-focused parent interventions, only a few studies have developed or adapted these interventions for racially…

All children in the United States have a right to effective education. While an optimal learning environment is important for all students, children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to barriers to accessing high-quality learning environments. Many parents of children receiving special education services want to be strong advocates for…

While systems of support are used in schools to assist students' academic growth, parents are not always informed of the support process or the academic goals set for their child (RTI Action Network, n.d.; Troisi, 2014; Weingarten et al., 2020). In the aftermath of the pandemic, students present a wide variety of academic needs (Lewis et al.,…

The Individual with Disabilities Education Act specifies that families should be include in the special education process and they must provide informed consent. However, families from Spanish-speaking backgrounds, often report barriers to participation. In this study, we provided a forum for Spanish-speaking families to tell their stories using…

Early childhood (EC) education is increasingly becoming an inclusive environment where children with and without disabilities can learn and participate in shared daily activities and routines. Parental advocacy and engagement are pivotal factors in enhancing the quality of inclusion for children with special needs, meeting their unique…

Families who have children with delays or disabilities are often expected to become advocates for their children. Despite this inherent expectation, there is limited research available focused on advocacy during the early years (birth to three). The purpose of this study was to use qualitative inquiry, specifically semi-structured interviews, to…

Dr. Lucinda Lee Katz was born and raised in North Beach, San Francisco, CA adjacent to Chinatown proper, where she spent her K-12 years attending San Francisco's public schools. Throughout her K-12 education, her peers were primarily Chinese, but she never had a Chinese teacher. She attended Chinese school every day after school and on Saturdays…

Although special education advocates have played an essential role in obtaining rights for individuals with disabilities, there is still much unknown about their motivations, challenges, roles, and the meaning they made from their experiences. Research into Saudi parent advocates of children with disabilities and their complex daily life issues…

Research demonstrates a connection between parent perspectives and children's decisions to pursue careers in STEM (e.g. Albritton et al., 2020; Fouad et al., 2016). However, there is limited research on parents' impact on CS education advocacy. Through one-on-one parent interviews, this study found that parents engage in educational advocacy, but…

The qualitative research study was guided by the following research questions: What factors impede how parental advocacy works in collaboration with the IEP team, and what motivates parents to be involved and/or engaged with their child? The qualitative study examined the everyday experiences of parents and school personnel as they collaborate to…

Race-based over-representation in special education, or disproportionality, is a pervasive equity issue correlated with poorer educational outcomes. While racial disproportionality is described widely in literature as a persistent and significant problem, few studies suggest ways to positively disrupt this pattern. This study aimed to test whether…

Family-school engagement is integral to the success of students with autism. However, limited research has examined the conceptualization of family-school engagement from the perspective of parents of children with autism. With this in mind, we conducted focus groups with 22 parents of school-age children (ages 3-21) with autism from a…