Regardless of the grade level or subject you teach, you will find yourself having to work with parents now and again. As a special education teacher, however, you will likely have to work with the parents of your students on a much more regular basis. After all, special needs students require an all-inclusive plan in order to achieve the greatest amount of success. Therefore, if you wish to help your students achieve the most success possible, working with their parents on a regular basis should be an essential part of your program.

Regularly Required Parent Meetings

Regardless of the type of program you are running or the type of special needs students you work with, you will meet with your student’s parents at least once per year. This is because federal law requires you to hold a case conference once per year. At this case conference, you meet with the student’s prents as well as with at least one general education teacher and a chairperson. At this time, you discuss the student’s educational plan and progress.

Scheduling Special Meetings

If your student is having difficulty with progressing toward achieving his or her goals, you might schedule a case conference meeting in addition to the regular annual conference. Again, the parent, a general education teacher and an administrator will participate in this meeting. With these meetings, the goal is to make any necessary changes to the program to help the student become more successful. Depending upon the student’s performance, you may have these meetings on a regular basis. Similarly, if you have placed the student in a highly restrictive environment – such as placing the student on an homebound educational program – you will need to meet more regularly throughout the year in order to determine whether or not that is still the best placement for that particular student.

Communicating More Regularly on Your Own

In addition to the scheduled case conference meetings, it is also a good idea for you to communicate more regularly with your student’s parents. Simply making a quick phone call on a regular basis will go a long way toward helping you build a relationship with your students’ parents. Building this relationship is important, as your students’ parents will be more likely to listen to your advice and will be more likely to follow your guidance if you have built their trust through regular communication.

Getting your students’ parents on your side is key to helping your students become more successful. Unfortunately, some parents have a difficult time following through with the things that you are doing in school. In some cases, they don’t have the means to follow through. In other cases, it’s because they don’t have a good understanding of how they can help or why the things you are suggesting they do will be beneficial to their children. By building a relationship with your students’ parents, however, they will be more likely to follow through with your suggestions and help their children find success.