Involved Parents' Perceptions of Their Experiences in School-Based Team Meetings

We explored parents' perceptions of their positive and negative experiences in school-based team meetings as a first step toward identifying the characteristics that may promote meaningful parent participation. Parent members of a Midwestern suburban school district's special education advisory group provided open-ended descriptions of their positive and negative experiences in school-based team meetings. Their responses were coded, summarized, and reported back to participants who then evaluated the summary for accuracy and completeness. The results yielded 17 specific items that were grouped into five categories: meeting context and organization, relationships, communication, problem solving, and parent emotions. The implications of parents' responses for practice as well as for future research are discussed.