Measuring the Perceived Degree of Parent Empowerment in Home-School Relationships through a Home-School Survey

Abstract

Parent and family involvement in educational programs for children with disabilities recently is expanding beyond its earlier emphasis on limited participation in decision-making and intervention to a more family-centered approach to programming. Central to most family-centered program approaches is the desire to increase family empowerment. The Home-School Survey was developed to address the need for a brief instrument to measure changes in a family's perceived sense of empowerment that result from collaborative interactions between the family and the school staff. The current study reports on the development and initial pilot-testing of the Home-School Survey in a sample of families who have children with primarily moderate to severe disabilities.