A Family’s Guide to Engagement

Chapter 7: Partnering With Your Child’s Team

Introduction: A team will consider your child’s strengths and needs and will make important recommendations about your child’s education and services. You can be a strong team partner by actively engaging in discussions about your child, sharing important information, and speaking up about your child’s needs. Asking questions at team meetings and sharing your thoughts about your child’s needs will help you be fully engaged in the team’s recommendations and help the team make better decisions.

Definitions:

Children with developmental delays and disabilities have a variety of needs that require the expertise of their parents and professionals working together to plan for services and supports. There are different teams you may see as you advocate for your child. Some teams are made up of parents and professionals from multiple backgrounds who can address the needs of the whole child and family, while others may all come from the same profession. Some of these teams are:

IFSP team: This team is defined by Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to develop an individualized family service plan (IFSP) to provide early intervention services to infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities and their family. Team members include parents and other family members, a service coordinator, professionals involved in the assessment of the child’s needs, and providers of services to support the child and family.

IEP team: This team is defined by Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and comes together to make decisions about educational services and supports required for a child with a disability to get appropriate services through an individualized education program (IEP). Team members include parents, teachers, school administrators, school therapists, school psychologists, and any other person involved in making decisions about the child’s educational supports.

CBDD team: County boards of developmental disabilities (CBDD) in Ohio operate to provide educational and support services to children who have developmental disabilities. County boards provide a variety of services throughout the lifespan, including early intervention services, school-age educational services, waiver services, and more. CBDD teams provide services through an individualized service plan (ISP). ISP meeting members include the person with the developmental disability, parents, a service and support administrator (SSA), and others required to make decisions about services and supports.

FCFC team: The Ohio Family and Children First Initiative (FCFC) operates to provide service coordination that identifies needed individualized services and supports to families who have needs across multiple service systems. Team meetings are individualized to include appropriate agency/ school staff and family identified support persons reflective of the child /family needs.

Healthcare/Medical team: If your child has special medical needs, you might be part of a medical/healthcare team. Each healthcare provider is a member of the team with a special role. Some team members are doctors or technicians who help diagnose disease or conditions. Others are experts who treat conditions or care for patients' physical and emotional needs. They are all there to create a plan to take care of your child’s healthcare needs.

What Families Should Expect:

Most systems that provide services and supports to families who have children with developmental delays or disabilities operate through teams. These teams are in place to bring together professionals with expertise in issues affecting children with disabilities, and parents. Together, you and the professionals determine needs and plan for services and supports for your child. The best outcomes occur when you and the professionals are true partners. You should learn about the meeting process and issues being discussed, provide important information about your child, and fully engage in the discussion.

What Families Want Their Team Members to Know:

  • I am meeting many of the team members for the first time at my child’s meeting. It would help me if key team members could reach out to me before the meeting to introduce themselves and give me information about how they work with my child. I would feel more like a team member if I had some kind of relationship with team members outside of the meeting time.
  • It is hard to speak up when there are a lot of people at the meeting, and often the professionals speak first and then ask for my input. By then, I feel like everything has been said, or I forget what we discussed during the first part of the meeting. It would be easier for me to provide input if I am asked for my opinion as we discuss each topic.
  • Often, I am learning about the information we discuss for the first time at the meeting I am expected to give input on. This information is complex and uses a lot of technical terms. I would be able to give more input on the information if I had it in advance and had some time to think about it. Please provide me with copies of important documents and a draft agenda for the meeting ahead of time so that I can fully participate.

What Team Members Want Families to Know:

  • Approach the meeting with the assumption that everyone sitting around the table has an interest in doing what is best for your child. If that is the starting point, it lays a foundation for success. Team members may value different processes, strategies, or practices than you do, but it is okay to ask why a particular strategy is being suggested. Just as parents have different styles, some teachers value routine and accountability while others value creativity and choice. These are all acceptable positions. People with different ideas and styles can work together to develop a good plan for your child.
  • There are many different ways to provide services and supports to your child. Be open-minded and think outside of the box. You may ask us to provide a service in a way that does not work for your child’s teacher or classroom, but we want to find a way to provide services that work for everyone.
  • We will have our best meetings when you are fully engaged in the meeting process. You can be fully engaged by telling us about your child, providing input to the discussion, asking questions, and communicating regularly with your child’s providers. Let us know how we can help you be engaged.

Family Checklist:

  • Do I know my child’s team members and how to reach them?
  • Do I attend meetings about my child?
  • Am I prepared to provide important information about my child to the team?
  • Do I ask questions and contribute to the discussion?
  • Do I ask for clarification if I don’t understand?
  • Do I bring ideas about services and supports for my child to the table?

Team Member Checklist:

  • Do we provide drafts of documents to parents ahead of time so they can fully prepare for the meeting?
  • Do we always have a meeting agenda?
  • Do we ask for parent input at the start and throughout the meeting?
  • Do we take meeting breaks to allow all team members to stay focused?
  • Do we start every meeting with a positive statement?
  • Do we balance positive and negative information?

Resources: