Understanding Parent–school Communication for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Background Parents of children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) often face barriers to effective communication with schools. They often feel blamed or stigmatized for their children’s behavior and, while advocating, can feel adversarial with the school. Objective The current study aims to describe current communication for parents and teachers of students with EBD, identify parent–school communication barriers, and identify characteristics of effective parent–school communication. Method We conducted 15 semi-structured, qualitative interviews with parents and teachers of students with EBD. Interview questions focused on descriptions of the tone of their current communication, perceived barriers to communication, and ideas for effective approaches to communication. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded. Results Results show that parents’ feelings about their current parent–school communication varied by the type of school students were attending: day-treatment, neighborhood, military charter, or private treatment school. Both parents and teachers brought up complex issues with parent–school communication related to school culture and the impact of parents’ prior negative experiences communicating with schools. Parents and teachers identified barriers to communication and suggestions for effective communication related to technology, institutional issues, time, parents’ and teachers’ lack of interest in communicating, and school proximity to home. Conclusion Parents and teachers identified parent–school communication as a critical factor to promote children’s school success. Three broad recommendations emerged from the interviews targeting malleable factors to increase effective parent–school communication. We also discuss limitations and implications for practice.


INTRODUCTION
Ample research shows the benefits of a strong parent-school relationship. Parent-school involvement is shown to increase child self-efficacy for learning [1 -3], raise child perceptions of personal control over school outcomes [2], and enhance self-regulatory skills and knowledge [2,4]. Students whose parents are involved with their school earn higher test scores [1,5,6], receive better grades [7 -9], show improved social skills [5,8,10], have increased school attendance [7], have lower high school dropout rates [11], and have lower reported behavioral problems [3,8].
Although few studies have examined parent-school involvement for parents of children in special education, there is evidence of a positive impact of such involvement on parents and students. For example, one study showed that mothers of children with developmental disabilities had significantly lower levels of stress when they had a good relationship with their child's school [12].

2.
What barriers do parents and teachers face related to effective communication?

3.
How would parents and teachers define their ideal method, topic, and frequency of parent-school communication?

Participants and Setting
We used maximum variation purposive sampling [23] to capture a range of perspectives from parent and teacher informants involved with students receiving special education services for EBD at a day-treatment school (DTS) in the Pacific Northwest of the US. As noted above, parent and teacher participants were a subset of the SWIFT study [21,22]. All participants were recruited by a study representative and participated in an in-person Institutional Review Board approved informed consent procedure. Participants gave written consent to participate in the research study.

Parents-Eight
parents of students attending the DTS (n=3) or who had attended the DTS in the past 6 months (n=5) participated in the qualitative interviews. Three were from the SWIFT intervention condition, and five were from the control condition. All parents identified as white. Seven participants were biological mothers of the target child, and one was an adoptive father. Parents' education included high school (n=3), community college (n=2), 4-year college (n=2), and graduate school (n=1). Household income ranged from $20,000 to over $100,000.

2.1.2.
Teachers-Seven teachers (n=4 female; n=3 male) participated. Six teachers identified as white, and one identified as multiracial. They taught in both general education classrooms (n=3) and special education classrooms (n=4), but all had a student in their classroom who attended or had attended the DTS within the past 6 months. The teachers taught in public middle or high schools (n=4), a military charter school (n=1), a private treatment school for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (n=1), and the DTS (n=1). Years of teaching experience ranged from 1-31 years.

Interviews-
We conducted 15 individual semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews. Questions were designed to solicit descriptive information about the parentschool communication experiences of the participating parents and teachers. We asked parents: (a) to describe their current communication with schools, including methods (e.g., email, phone, inperson), topics, time spent communicating, and who initiates conversations; and (b) to identify barriers to parent-school communication. Teachers were asked parallel questions about their experiences with parent-school involvement.

Analysis
All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. We verified all transcripts by comparing the audio to the text and entered bracketed notes to provide context to the transcripts. The second author conducted the coding of all transcribed interviews by assigning portions of text to one or more codes. She developed a codebook throughout the coding process with new codes added or modified over time and compared all transcripts against the final codebook. Both authors participated in a peer debriefing process to choose representative quotes for the results section.

RESULTS
Themes regarding current communication experiences, as well as barriers to communication, emerged from the interviews. Parent-school communication varied by the type of school students were attending (e.g, day-treatment school, neighborhood school, military charter school, or private treatment school), while barriers identified were more consistent across settings. Suggestions to improve communication also emerged throughout the interviews.

Current Communication
Sub-themes for each setting-day-treatment school, neighborhood schools, a military charter school, and a private treatment school-emerged as parents and teachers described current communication. First, parents in the sample reported they felt the staff at the DTS made an effort to talk with them. They felt teachers cared that parents knew what was happening at school and cared about home circumstances. For example, one current DTS mother mentioned that her son's teacher called at the beginning of the school year just to check in: "It seemed like they were really interested in how his summer went and how...things have been going and just a check in...It was nice to have him really show an interest." A former DTS mother echoed similar feelings about the way that the DTS teacher reached out to her: "…we definitely made sure we had some communication...I write things every day and they'd send writing back." Several parents mentioned that they felt the DTS staff were always open to communication.
One parent summed it up by saying, "I think the staff is always available for me to ask questions, or they've always been very reasonable to get a hold of and very prompt." Second, all but one of the parents in the sample shared stories that showed they felt involved in planning at the DTS. One mother described a time when her son had a negative experience at home and then acted out in class the next day. The mother reported that the teacher contacted her to talk about the incident and set up a plan to regularly communicate: "We decided that anytime something would happen like that, that we'll communicate it so that she knows that he's been through something that could possibly trigger his, you know, anxiety, or anger…" Third, parents felt that the point card at the DTS was a helpful communication tool. The DTS point card includes daily teacher ratings of student behavior with specific comments Buchanan  3.1.2. Neighborhood Schools-When parents discussed the transition to the neighborhood school and new staff, they reported a range of experiences and feelings. One mother reported satisfaction that the neighborhood school continued to use the daily point card from the DTS. Although the neighborhood school did not regularly implement daily point cards, staff included a point card as a component of the behavior support plan in the student's individualized education plan (IEP). As a result, the mother said she felt the school personnel were listening to her and understood her family's needs. She discussed feeling included in the decision making at the new school and felt that the school personnel respected her family as they listened to her concerns and implemented solutions.
Another mother reported that, upon transition to the new school, she received very little information about her son: "I know it gets hard because they have so many students, but I know not all of them need as much attention as my son. So it would be nice if I could get an email or something." This mother seemed fatigued throughout the interview, saying she wanted more information from the school about her son, but felt that she would need to go out of her way to get it. She wished the school had something in place already to help her.
The third mother who transferred to a neighborhood school was the only parent in the sample who identified that she was not content with the communication at any of her child's prior schools. She reported negative feelings about the school system in general, saying she felt the schools did not respect her input. Although she discussed communication challenges at the current and prior schools, she did identify that one teacher at her son's new neighborhood school communicated effectively with her, saying, "They're very responsive to me and take my individual considerations into consideration, like what I think.
[The teacher will] call and say, 'This isn't going well. What do you think we could do?'" This mother's comments and affect throughout the interview suggested that she had a history of frustration with the school system because she felt judged and that her input was not valued. Though things were better at the time of the interview than they had been, she still wished for more respect and inclusion from school personnel, saying, "I have reached out to the Autism Consultant and she never got back to me. I've tried to include the ICC [Interagency Coordinating Council] people, and they never got back to me. I wish it was more like a team effort." Buchanan  The poor communication coupled with the difficulty her son was having at the neighborhood school led this mother to enroll her child at a military charter school. She reported that she felt the same sort of positive relationship with the charter school that she'd had at the DTS. When talking about a meeting, she said, I think that they were all thinking that we are on the same page. And they're there for the kids, I felt like. I felt kind of safe like I did with the [DTS] because I feel like they have the tools to help them with their behavior and to help them when they have a certain. If they're angry, to help them deal with certain things. I feel safe when he's there.
This mother said she felt her opinion was heard at both the DTS and the military charter school, that she was involved in the decision-making, and that the school cared about her family. Two teachers reported they wished the school utilized existing parent-school communication resources more effectively. One said, "Like there's an open house at the beginning of the year. I don't think it's designed as effectively as it could be." She went on to say that she wished the open house were an opportunity to better communicate expectations with parents for the upcoming school year, but has not seen that happen. Another teacher mentioned that many teachers do not update their online grade-books regularly, so checking grades is frustrating for parents.

Private Treatment School-One
Several teachers mentioned cultural barriers that contribute to parents feeling less comfortable in the school given the institutional structure or school culture. One teacher said, "Unfortunately in this district, we have a lot of poverty, and we have a lot of students that just flat out say...'My parents don't need this [education] so I don't need this'…" Two teachers discussed ways they try to remedy cultural barriers but noted limited success due to long-held school traditions or school culture. One teacher said that, although he typically goes out of his way to help parents feel comfortable at IEP meetings, other school personnel make that difficult: I try to always make the tone loose and comfortable, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. And it depends on the school too, because there are some district reps that'll just kinda go with [the loose and comfortable tone] and then those other district reps that really wanna do it this [formal] way.
Another teacher said that he has advocated having more at-ease parent teacher conferences: One of the things I brought up in the past with the administrator was kind of have a casual night for us, like we just wore sweatshirts and jeans, and everybody else could come the same way, and I thought that'd be very comforting for all people to come in and feel like they don't have to dress up to come to these parent-teacher conferences...Sad thing was nothing was ever done.
When asked why he thought the administrators did not implement casual parent-teacher conferences, he said, "There is a pattern I think for everything. And I think they just get used to the pattern and...change is hard for a lot of teachers."

3.2.3.
Time-Five teachers and five parents mentioned time constraints as a barrier. All five of the parents said that they assumed the teachers are too busy for more communication.
Three parents also mentioned that they are personally busy.
All five of the teachers who identified time as a barrier to parent-school communication said that they themselves are too busy for more communication, and three teachers mentioned that parents have busy schedules, as well. The DTS teacher said that although the point card was a part of his daily schedule, communication could be even better if teachers had extra time to leave detailed notes on the card: It's challenging sometimes though when you're trying to leave a detailed note while six students are over here, starting to spin, you know? …I wish…there was more time to leave more detailed and more meaningful notes instead of… just the "Great job!" signed, who's next?
Other teachers mentioned time constraints due to large class sizes, being over-worked, and not having adequate time to communicate with parents. For example, while discussing her preference to have more communication with parents, one teacher explained that she relied on the parents checking the online grade-book and her weekly emails but had limited time for more parent communication, saying, "… I have a hundred and sixty kids in the day, and I don't know how I would manage [more parent communication] … ideally yeah, we would be able to do that…but there just isn't time in the day."

Parents' Lack of
Interest-Five teachers identified parents' lack of interest as a barrier to parent-school communication. Teachers discussed their frustration with parents who seem uninterested in communicating despite a variety of available mechanisms and how they wanted the parents to take advantage of these systems. One teacher said, I think a lot of parents send their kids off to school and expect them to do their thing and everybody to kind of fix it here [at the school]. So, I think requiring that the parents be involved and at least acknowledging and reading [newsletters or gradebooks].
Another teacher wished that parents were more involved in the systems already in place and tried "to attend more parent-teacher conference meetings, to attend more open houses, to be more part of the community, and try to get involved more." Two parents mentioned their own lack of interest in more regular communication with the school. One parent summed it up by saying, "I think that the biggest barrier probably is me getting in to see the teacher. If I need communication, I should be requesting." 3.2.5. Teachers' Lack of Interest-Two parents mentioned that teachers seemed uninterested in getting too involved with parents. One parent said, "Maybe they don't want to deal with parents." Two teachers also mentioned that in certain situations, they do not want to interact more with the parents. One teacher said, "I do have a few helicopter moms, and that can be equally as frustrating as a parent not communicating." This teacher told about story of a mother who was continually calling to ask about her middle schooler's grades and assignments without having her child take responsibility for completing the work. Another teacher reported that she felt that parents, at times, were disrespectful of teachers' time. She identified that she wished that parents would speak more concisely: "I think being specific about-and respectful-of time. Often when I find myself getting frustrated…it's because there's a long story that doesn't have anything to do with the moment...Because then it becomes a counseling session for the family." In neither of these cases were the teachers opposed to communicating with families; they just felt that some parents communicated excessively.
3.2.6. School Proximity-Two parents mentioned the lack of proximity to the school as a barrier to effective parent-school communication. Both parents lived a considerable distance from the day-treatment school and had their children bussed to school. These parents felt that that although they had been able to stop by their neighborhood schools and chat with teachers before, the distance to the new school was a barrier to regular, informal meetings with teachers.

DISCUSSION
The parents in this study had children with EBD who were currently or had recently received special education services from a day-treatment school, and the teachers were special education and general education teachers working with the same population. The experiences and feedback from the interviews were informed by participants' experiences supporting students with EBD in schools.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Parent participants were drawn from one DTS in the Northwest of the United States. The participants were predominantly white. However, there was a range in the income and educational attainment of the parents. Conducting further interviews with parents and teachers from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds and in other geographic regions could increase generalizability of findings. Additionally, the interviews for the current study focused on parent-school communication, which is only one element of parent-school involvement. Qualitative interviews with parents and teachers about current experiences with and barriers to other forms of parent-school involvement (e.g., volunteering in the classroom or participation in after-school activities) would broaden our understanding of parent-school involvement as a whole.

CONCLUSION
Consistent with research on parent involvement for families of students receiving special education [12], the parents and teachers in our study identified parent-school communication as a critical factor for the educational success of students with EBD. The three broad recommendations to increase effective parent-school involvement that emerged from the results focus on malleable factors. Although static barriers like a parent's proximity to the school cannot be addressed via intervention efforts, strategies to increase parents' knowledge about effective parent-school communication methods, proactive communication about both problems and progress, and attention to a welcoming school culture are potential intervention targets.