12.09.2007

Developing good partnerships with your child’s school personnel

There are few things that foster a child potential more than a good partnership between families and service providers. Here's a short tip sheet from the Beach Center resource library about how families can form good partnerships with professionals.

Tips

1. Acknowledge and foster the provider’s commitment to your child, and to your child’s needs and best interests, as a valued partner. Be aware that each partner has unique and powerful skills, which strengthen the partnership.

2. Clarify your family’s and child’s privacy considerations and expectations in your first visit with every provider/partner.

3. Regularly discuss your child’s performance and condition in a way that invites the provider to suggest new and novel ways to help meet the child’s total needs.

4. Partnerships grow and become stronger in an atmosphere that fosters honesty, trust and respect for core values.

5. Be open and candid in discussing your child’s needs and desires; assume positive intent on the part of the partner/providers; and clarify at the outset those family culture and values that might impact how and under what circumstances services are delivered.

6. Good partnerships are flexible and respect the time and competing interests of each partner, including the school staff, parents, and child. Ask for meeting times and places (perhaps your home) that best meet you and your child’s scheduling needs.

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