Gain understanding of the importance of partnerships between special and general educators. Identify the benefits and potential barriers to co-teaching and research supporting the collaboration among educators. Understand the roles and responsibilities, background, and importance of communicating with paraprofessionals. Describe the importance of positive communication and collaboration with parents and families. Partnerships can involve parents and professionals representing a variety of areas, including general and special education teachers, administrators, school psychologists, counselors, social workers, and community mental health agencies.
Effective communication is critical for successful collaboration.
Effective communication involves active listening, depersonalizing situations, finding common goals, brainstorming steps for achieving common goals, identifying possible solutions, and summarizing the conversation. Following these steps can be very important in solving problems. General education prereferral interventions are steps taken by schools to promote success in the regular classroom, prior to referral for special education. These actions can involve general and special education teachers, specialists, administrators, parents, and students. Effective communication and collaboration are particularly important in the referral and placement process.