Parents: To Inform or To Consult?
I recently attended a seminar dealing with how schools should interact with parents. The seminar, hosted by lawyers, highlighted some recent examples of case law where interactions between schools and parents broke down in relation to children with special needs.
The salient point of the seminar was that schools and parents should enter into “meaningful consultation” with each other and how that consultation should look like.
It was noted that “consultation” is not the same as “informing”. Giving options, both parties willing to listen to each other, “give and take”, getting to a “win-win” and “having an open mind” were some the terms used to describe “meaningful consultation”.
It was also noted that schools should not develop a plan of action in isolation and merely ask for parental support. Schools should, for example, include parents in developing a plan of action.
Of course all consultation should be conducted from a student centered perspective and should vary in form and type according to the specific needs of the child. One of questions that came up was