• Teacher cannot locate parents
• Parents do not have a telephone
• Parents and teacher do not speak the same language
• Parents don’t feel their opinion and in-put are valuable
• Teachers assume that since some parents were hard to involve, that all parents are this way
• Parents are divorced
• Students live with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc... - they don’t live with parents
• Parents are afraid of being involved, because all they’ve ever heard from schools and teachers is negative information concerning their child

4. What is the emotional impact on family members of having a youngster with a mild disability?

Parents are faced with numerous demands when the find out their child has disability. Some of the feelings experienced include: guilt, denial, anger, despair, fear, confusion, etc... These feelings are broken into 3 categories by Miller:

• Disintegration: shock, grief, and guilt
• Adjustment: Alternative acceptance and denial
• Reintegration: Accommodation of child’s needs

6. How do government funded programs enhance opportunities for youth?

• counseling
• financial assistance
• peer interaction
• emotional support
• vocational training
• educational training
• bilingual education
• nutritional counseling and assistance

7. What are some due process rights of parents when a youngster is placed in a special education program?
   

• All school records are available for the parents to read
• Parents can request an evaluation for Special Education
• Parents can also refuse evaluation for Special Education
• Their child can remain in a regular classroom until they give permission for placement in Sped.
• Parent can take the child outside the school for an evaluation, and the school will pay for it.
• Parents can bring anyone they want with them to the meeting
• Parents can fully participate in the development of their child’s IEP
• Parents can disagree with the IEP
• Parents can question anything the Sped. committees chooses to do
• The child’s IEP will be reviewed and changed yearly.
• The school system will cooperate FULLY in all areas involving sped.
• Their child will be educated in the Least Restrictive Environment