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ABSTRACT
Understanding factors that escalate conflict, and
understanding how conflicts are perceived, particularly by parents, is necessary in developing appropriate response strategies. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that escalate and deescalate parent-school conflict from the perspectives of parents of children with disabilities, school administrators, and mediators. Data from 44 telephone interviews were transcribed and then analyzed. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze data. Eight categories of factors that escalate parent-school conflict in special education were identified: discrepant views of a child or a child's needs, knowledge, service delivery, reciprocal power, constraints, valuation, communication, and trust. Implications for preventing and handling conflict are discussed.
COLLABORATION BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND PARents rests on two Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) principles: parent participation and procedural due process. In defining the parameters of an appropriate educational program for children with disabilities, the regulations of IDEA (1997) legitimize the parent role by granting parents the opportunity for shared decision making with schools (Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank, & Leal, 1999). IDEA provides mechanisms to resolve conflicts between parents and school officials. The confrontation itself gives parents and schools an opportunity to determine what each wants for the student and how it might be possible to achieve desired outcomes.
IDEA 1997 made significant changes in the way parents, teachers, and administrators go about the important work of ensuring quality education and early intervention for some 5.8 million children with disabilities in the United States (Council for Exceptional Children [CEC], 1998). The IDEA Amendments of 1997 significantly enhanced the role of parents in the special education process. Expanded parental involvement is evident throughout IDEA in the specific areas of evaluation, eligibility, Individualized Education Program (IEP) development, discipline, procedural safeguards, and mediation (CEC, 1998).
In the process of designing and implementing an appropriate program for a student with a disability, differences of opinion inevitably arise between parents, school officials, and other professionals involved with the student. It is not always easy to understand what is right and what is legal in meeting the needs of students with disabilities. Knowing what is legal and what is right, and knowing whether it is in a person's best interest to pursue one or the other if they are not...