Educators play a critical role in supporting families of young children with disabilities to help them engage in the special education process and the collaborative support for their children\u2019s learning. As a coach, I support educators to learn from and with their families, to share information, and to engage in joint decision-making about children\u2019s learning. Yet young children, families, and educators are engaged in struggles to voice and garner resources to meet their own and children\u2019s changing needs during current crises. I hear concerns of teachers and leaders and understand an urgent need to build on and to strengthen their capacity for collaboration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In communities across our nation, educators have begun to center trauma-informed care<\/a> in all our work and to make connections with how histories of trauma intersect with the topics of our conversations. Teachers can be present and aware of trauma-informed practice as they center children\u2019s experiences. This requires an understanding of disproportionality<\/a>, or how racial, cultural, and linguistic groups are both excessively targeted for special education and also under-represented in terms of accessing services, resources, and programs to support learning. As we seek to become emotionally, culturally, and linguistically responsive, educators rely on anti-bias education principles to inform our guidance documents, such as the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining (CR-S) framework<\/a>. We can also amplify stories of families\u2019 resilience and advocacy to develop and deepen awareness, empathy, and resilience within our local communities and partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As educators, we engage with families to identify needs, and we can help families become more strategic about advocacy. This may look like attending meetings at families\u2019 requests to advocate for services, or to realize existing plans for children who have qualified for individualized family service plans (IFSPs) or individualized educational plans (IEPs). It may involve asking families of children with disabilities to discuss what they are finding challenging, such as the need for access to bilingual resources or children who are not interested in engaging with online learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Governor Cuomo\u2019s recent announcement<\/a> indicated that more in-person support services will potentially be available this summer, and this is a step toward increasing access to support. Three main issues have emerged from the conversations that coaches are hearing about: a limited number of service providers, the need for more bilingual providers and resources for emergent multilingual children and families, and families who are overwhelmed and feel unprepared to balance their roles as caregivers who meet their children\u2019s learning needs at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Families of children with disabilities may want to connect with other families to share resources and strengthen and amplify their voices, participation, and leadership as part of advocacy. Here are four organizations that are powerful partners for programs and families that put children\u2019s and families\u2019 resilience and advocacy first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How have you engaged with families about their needs and their children\u2019s needs? What are some ways you have engaged in collaboration with families and professionals to develop resilience and advocacy to work towards meeting those needs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lorraine Falchi is an early childhood coach at the Institute who works with teachers and leaders. 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