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. Acknowledgments A portion of this study was presented at the 2003 annual convention of the National Association of School Psychologists, in a paper entitled "Parents' Experiences of Group Process: Guidelines for Promoting Meaningful Participation." This research was partially supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01 MH62061. We thank Jean Boyer and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful reviews of earlier drafts of this article. The authors and/or their affiliated institutions or employers have no financial or personal relationships or affiliations that could influence or bias the decisions or work as it relates to this manuscript. Note: This manuscript was received during editorship of Emilia Lopez. Editor-Elect Stephen Truscott served as the action editor.