Latinx Mothers’ Experience and Navigation of Home-School Collaboration During the Pre-Referral Stage

• In Event: Research In Progress Roundtables Session 4
  In Invited Roundtable: Navigating Special Education: Inclusion, Placement, and Immigrant Family Experiences (Table 1)

Abstract

Families often suffer when their children are facing significant learning challenges. This suffering may be exacerbated for Latinx mothers operating in contexts that constrain their home-school collaboration efforts. This qualitative study explores what Latinx mothers faced and enacted when their children were struggling academically but had not yet been referred to evaluation for special education services in elementary school. The pre-referral experiences and actions of 12 Latinx mothers from one urban district in southern California are surfaced by employing plática methodology in order to examine how various factors impact their attempts to collaborate with teachers before their students were provided an Individualized Education Program.

Author

• Yone Rodriguez, Claremont Graduate University