Navigating Special Education

Book excerpt: This timely and innovative roadmap for parents, educators, and administrators highlights the importance of effective communication methodology, appropriate correspondence, and data collection recommendations. Effective communication is often missing from the IEP team’s conversation. Navigating Special Education provides a foundation for building proactive, positive partnerships that will lead to 21st century best practices for children. The 5-C Model of Communication—Conversation, Collaboration, Cooperation, Compromise, and Consensus—presented in Navigating Special Education helps to forge trusted alliances between school districts and families. Navigating Special Education draws upon the authors’ 60-plus years of combined experience by using: Anecdotal, evidence-based, real-life scenarios Templates for letter writing and extensive data collection A user-friendly appendix and glossary As stakeholders, wouldn’t you like to have successful meetings where everyone’s voice is heard, respected, and understood? After reading Navigating Special Education, families, educational professionals, college students, and special education organizations will be able to implement effective models of communication and build positive partnerships.