Building a relationship with your child’s teachers is a great way to ensure your child with a disability is properly accommodated in the classroom
Most parents feel anxious about sending their children to school, especially as they transition from one grade to the next or move to a new phase. Parents and caregivers of children with disabilities often experience additional stress like worrying about whether their child’s individual needs will be accommodated. We know our children’s strengths, challenges, routines, likes and dislikes better than anyone.
Here are some practical ideas of easing your anxiety while ensuring your child’s needs are clearly shared with their teacher.
Make contact
It is important to communicate with your child’s new teacher sooner rather than later. I suggest reaching out to the school as soon as possible and asking to have a face-to- face meeting with the new teacher – ideally in the classroom so that you can see and discuss the physical environment. If face- to-face is not possible, you could look at an online meeting.
Reach out via e-mail with an introduction to some of your child’s specific strengths, challenges and accommodations. I suggest not overloading them with details in this e-mail. Rather mention what you would like to chat about in your proposed meeting. An e-mail is great as it shows that you are making an effort and want to work and collaborate with the school.
Involve everyone important
Once you have agreed on a date and time, you might want to invite any relevant parties such as occupational therapist or physiotherapists (all dependent on your child) to this meeting. Sometimes they aren’t available but can share a report or resources with teachers. I would print these out or share via e-mail with the teacher.
Depending on the age of your child, their abilities and what information you will be sharing, you might want to have a meeting just with adults, then invite your child to join later in the meeting or on a separate day.
If your child is at the same school as the previous year, I suggest inviting their previous teacher to share what accommodations they made, which will help with transitioning. They may also be able to add insights into what worked and what didn’t from the previous year.
Come prepared
I would write out a simple “agenda” so that you are clear about what you want to share. This will keep you on track and ensure that you cover everything. I suggest providing a brief background to your child and relevant information about their disability. Don’t overload the teacher with long histories about the medical condition or disability.
Focus on information that will help them understand and accommodate your child the best. This can include important routines such as toileting or bowl and bladder management, feeding, medication, assistive devices (such as voice activated software, standing frames and pencil grips), provisioning of reasonable accommodation (such as scribes, additional time and note takers).
If specialists and other teachers who know your child are able to attend, let them know what you would like them to share with the teacher, for example, ideas on best place to seat your child, any practical resources and tips your teacher can use in the classroom.
If your child has an existing Individualised Education Plan (IEP) containing personalised goals, strategies and accommodations for your child from a previous school, share this with your new school as it will show what was done to accommodate and support your child previously. If your child is at the same school and an IEP was previously developed, ask for this to be discussed in the meeting as there may be some changes needed.
It is important to leave times for the teacher to ask questions and, if you child is present, time for them to ask questions and offer their perspectives. They know their bodies best – what works and doesn’t work. The more practical, interactive and co-created solutions orientated this meeting, the better for your child and their teacher.
Continue communication
It is important that you develop and foster a positive relationship with your child’s teacher. If things change, let your teacher know. For example, share when your child has been put on new medication and is expected to be drowsy in class for a few days or weeks.
Building a positive relationship with your teacher will also result in better communication coming from the classroom. For example, if the teacher is going to be absent, preparing a child who finds changes in routine hard beforehand may help with this transition.
If you child will be having tests, therapeutic or medical interventions, let your teacher know so that they can help to bridge your child back into the classroom when they are ready by preparing the class or sending work home to help them catch up.
Things that happen at home will have a direct impact on what happens at school; and what happens at school will directly impact your child at home. The better communication between you and the teacher, the more supported and accommodated your child will be.
