Conducting Research With Parents of Students With Disabilities

Abstract

Historically, parents of individuals with disabilities have spearheaded systemic changes for individuals with disabilities. For example, parent advocacy and litigation prompted the passage of federal special education legislation (i.e., the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA). Since its passage in 1975, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has been reauthorized every few years. However, individual parent input in each reauthorization has been minimal. Although parents are experts on their children with disabilities and have first-hand knowledge of the implementation of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, it is unclear what changes they want made in the next Individuals with Disabilities Education Act reauthorization. Our study examined the input of parents of children with disabilities for the upcoming Individuals with Disabilities Education Act reauthorization. This case study provides an account of a civic engagement project designed to understand the legislative advocacy experiences and desires of parents of children with disabilities with respect to special education. From this case study, we hope the reader can understand the participants, research design, method, and policy relevance of the project. Specifically, the case study includes strategies and challenges in recruiting a culturally, linguistically, and geographically diverse sample of parents of children with disabilities. We also describe our approach to the research design and analysis as well as the implementation of the research design. Finally, we discuss the policy relevance of our project.

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