Technical assistance is provided over the phone and in-person to school personnel who have questions about strategies to enhance parent involvement in your school district. Click here for specific information.

A facilitator located in your region can provide answers to questions about how you can begin to understand your current practices of parent involvement. Through a specific checklist, you can review current practices, assess their effectiveness, and consider how new activities can be implemented in your district.

Schedule a time for the Director or the Region facilitator to meet with your special education team to discuss parent involvement. The facilitator can then understand where your team is at in terms of readiness and suggest toolkits and materials to move forward. The facilitator can help your group to improve the results of the Parent Involvement Survey by suggesting strategies to implement in your district. For more information and to review the resources on this site, click here.

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What are effective strategies to improve the results of the 2010- 2011 Parent Involvement Survey?

Six Steps to Improvement

1. Check with your families

Do you have their correct mailing address?  In 2009 some districts received returned surveys because they had a physical address – not the mailing address.
 

2. Talk with your families about the parent involvement in special education

Explain to the families how you value parent involvement in special education. Often it is case managers or the Special Education Coordinators who have the most contact with families. Scheduling a time now to train your staff on the distribution of the survey will help them to be prepared for March 2011.

3. Remember: It’s about parent involvement

The Parent Involvement Survey is not a measure of satisfaction or student performance. However, research clearly shows how better involvement leads to better student achievement.

 

4. Show families the survey

Example documents are available to download and view on the website of NH Connections or visit the NH Department of Education. Contact the NH Department of Education or call your regional facilitator with any questions.

 

5. Plan to send out reminders early

We all need reminders and the 2010/ 2011 survey will come out in March 2011.
Schools can use create awareness that the survey is coming and they can remind parents with newsletters, emails, phone call features, and on school websites to help parents remember the importance of their input. Please link on your district website to the NH Connections website.
 

6. Share the “what’s in it for me?”

To help underline the benefits of completing the survey, share a copy of “The Family Guide to Special Education”. This colorful and family friendly publication came about as one of the responses to the results of the first Parent Involvement Survey completed in 2008.

For additional strategies, visit the Parent Involvement in Special Education page on this website.