"The I in IEP” Junior

Need: Research indicates that when students in special education are more involved in their own Individual Education Plan (IEP) process, the resulting objectives, services, and supports specified in their IEPs are better matched to their strengths and needs, and the students tend to achieve improved academic and other outcomes. Too often, however, students are only minimally involved in their IEP, and some students with disabilities report not being aware of even having an IEP. With regard to Hawaiians and their involvement in the IEP process, a recent study found that the cultural values of Native Hawaiian families often lead them to defer decision-making in the IEP process to professionals and to not confront professionals when they disagree with their decisions. As a result, IEPs and services often do not reflect the values and priorities of Native Hawaiian families.

Setting and Population: Middle schools in Hawaii that have high concentrations of Native Hawaiian students in grades six through eight with high incidence disabilities. It is estimated that 400 students in Hawai`i will participate in the intervention during the 3-year project. Groups that will be targeted for training include: teachers, administrators, family members of students with disabilities, students themselves, and other school staff such as counselors and transition specialists.

Purpose: The purpose is to develop and obtain preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of two interventions designed to equip educators, administrators, and parents with necessary tools to support students with disabilities from indigenous cultures to engage within and benefit from their own Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings.

Objective 1. Develop and demonstrate a professional development intervention enhancing the cultural competence of educators to support Native Hawaiian intermediate school students with disabilities to effectively participate in their own IEP process.

Objective 2. Develop a cultural brokering intervention that supports Native Hawaiian parents of intermediate school students with disabilities to better understand the special education system so that they can more effectively participate, and also support their children to participate, in the IEP process.

Intervention: The first intervention is a professional development module for education practitioners that infuses cultural competence strategies within a series of self (student) directed IEP strategies. The education practitioners will be equipped with the skills necessary to teach students how to direct their own IEP’s within the context of their culture. The second intervention is a cultural brokering model designed to bridge communication and cultural gaps between parents, students, and educators by training persons from indigenous cultures to serve as cultural mentors. The cultural mentors will support parents in learning more about the special education system and the IEP process and will expand upon strategies to further support the learning needs of their children. Both interventions will be created and piloted simultaneously in middle schools in Hawaii.

Benefits: Teachers will feel they benefited from the curriculum and would recommend it to others. Observations of IEP meetings will show that students who received the curriculum are significantly more involved compared to similar students who did not receive the curriculum. Rating scales completed by students will show that those who received the curriculum developed more of an orientation to completing high school and going on to further education compared to similar students who did not receive the curriculum.

Principal Investigator: Kelly Roberts

Partner: Hawaii Department of Education