In the past, parents of children with disabilities have spearheaded several policies for individuals with disabilities. However, little is known about their experiences with legislators. To address this gap, focus groups and surveys about legislative advocacy were conducted with 127 parents of individuals with disabilities across four states. The…

Self-determination skills are a potential predictor of post-school success for individuals with disabilities. This study examined the perspectives of special educators of students in preschool through age 22 in one school district who participated in multiple professional development and coaching sessions on self-determination including the…

Refugee youth attend schools in every state in the United States. Yet, little is known about their schooling experiences or the ways in which schools engage their parents. In this paper, we resituate notions of parent involvement by focusing on the interactions between refugee parents and U.S. schools drawing on data collected during a twenty-six…

This pilot study was designed to rigorously test, using randomization, a parent-to-parent advocacy mentorship program for parents of children with ASD within a low-income, mostly Latino population. The study design includes randomization to a parent IEP advocacy mentorship or to receive the program materials after intervention. Specifically, this…

This case study analyzes the impact that parental advocacy has on the academic success of students with a disability attending an urban elementary school and the factors that enable or inhibit parental advocacy. The Individual with Disabilities Education Act (2004) (IDEA) established the legal guidelines for the protection of students with…

The authors investigated cultural resourcefulness among seven Black middle-class families who proactively collaborated to ensure their children's academic excellence in a highly racialized suburban community in southern California. Their children achieved high grades and successfully entered and completed higher education at elite U.S.…

Throughout the past decade, scholars have argued that the persistent achievement gap between Black male students and their White peers is a result of unequal and inadequate educational opportunities instead of inherent differences in their capability or character. School counselors can help support Black males by using equity-focused…

In educational settings, where decisions must regularly be made related to what type and focus of services to provide, having a parent/caregiver advocate in their corner can be very important to children who are deaf or hard of hearing. In this article, the author presents how to best support families and caregivers who are disconnected,…

This article expands a more inclusive parental engagement framework by broadening notions of educational leadership using an example of organizing actions of Latina parent leaders amid a hostile anti-immigrant climate within an urban elementary school. Researchers draw on Yosso's community cultural wealth framework to analyze how a Latinx parent…

Low graduation rates in many Tennessee high schools present a significant problem. Many students are not prepared to graduate. Parent involvement advocates contend that the more involved parents are in their children's education, from preschool through the secondary schooling levels, the better the probability their children will graduate from…

Rural teachers and educators are increasingly called upon to build partnerships with families who use languages other than English in the home (US DOE, 2016). This is equally true for rural schools, where the number of multilingual families is small, and the language and cultural backgrounds of students differs from those of school. This article…

Little is known about the processes that foster positive development specifically in adolescent Black girls from low-income backgrounds (Kirshner & Ginwright, 2012). Scholars (Larson & Ngo, 2017; Simpkins, Riggs, Ngo, Ettekal, & Okamoto, 2017) have called for investigation into how the cultural assets of adolescents of color contribute…

Although parent involvement is a cornerstone of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), few individual parents of children with disabilities participate in civic engagement to voice their suggestions for the next IDEA reauthorization. To address this gap, a civic engagement training was conducted with 95 parents of children with…

The person-centered individualized education program (IEP) transition planning has emerged as a primary indicator of quality services, and as a predictor for successful post-school outcomes for transition-age youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, these person-centered transition practices are not uniformly implemented across the…

Although parents of children with disabilities often advocate for special education services, most research has only examined advocacy from the perspectives of parents. Given that advocacy is an interpersonal exchange, it is crucial to understand the perspectives of parents and school professionals. In this study, focus groups were conducted with…