Assignment Paper

What does trust have to do with it? The Lived Experiences of parents Within the IEP process.

Introduction to the topic:
As members of the IEP team, parents play an especially important role in the IEP process and contribute information about their child and the family’s expectations and dreams for their child’s future. This study will explore the lived experiences of parents and trust within the IEP process.
Statement of the Problem/Purpose:
Problem-
The IEP process continues to fail at establishing positive parent involvement. Contentious issues between parents and educational professionals remain a consistent determinant of poor student outcomes in special education.
Purpose-
The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore and understand the meaningfulness and essence of the lived experiences of parent’s involvement in their child’s IEP process.
Research Question(s):
Overarching Research Question.
How do parents who have been involved in their children’s IEP process perceive and interpret the meaningfulness and essence of the lived experience?
Sub-Question1:
How do parents of students with IEP’s describe the lived experience of being involved in the IEP process?
Sub-Question2:
How do parent in the IEP process experience trust?
Sub-Question3:
How do parents of students with IEP’s perceive and interpret the essence and meaningfulness of the lived experience of being involved in the IEP process?

Significance of the study:
By conducting this study, educators can learn more about what supports impact parental involvement in the IEP process, and how a parents lived experiences could be used to support other parents.
With the information from this study supportive material for special education parents can be created by Special education parents to support other special education parents.
Some of the many participants that benefit from this study are parents, teachers, and Schools in the ESE process. The findings of this study will be used to change practice promote better policies and leadership. By providing parents lived experiences it can inform educators on ways parent Involvement and trust can be strengthen within the IEP process.
Terms to be Defined:
Trust
Lived Experiences
Parent Involvement
Individual exceptional program (IEP)
Topic of the literature to be reviewed:
History and Barriers for parents with Special Education
The IEP
The Importance of Parent Involvement
Benefits Of Collaboration
Parent empowerment
Limitations of the Study:
Personal Barriers (Experiential, Religious)
Personal Bias
Unwilling Parents
Purposed Methodology:
In this study as the researcher, I will be using a qualitative Phenomenological approach.
Data Collection Plan:
As the researcher I will be contacting parents of Special Education students that are currently in an online program. My data will be collected through a semi-structured individual interview from each parent that is engaged with the IEP process. The interviews will focus on trust and the lived experiences parents had during their students IEP process.
Data Analysis Plan:
As researcher the interview questions asked of the participants are stories of situations and moments of their experiences of trust in the IEP process. The interviews will be audio recorded and transcribed for analysis and reporting purposes. Analysis of interview transcripts employed constant comparison method of analysis.