Guidelines for Using NCSEAM Training Modules

Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 requires states and
territories in the United States to annually report to the Office of Special Education programs
(OSEP) on the extent to which schools facilitated parental involvement. More specifically, Part
B indicator 8 is defined as: “the percent of parents with a child receiving special education
services who report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving
services and results for children with disabilities.” In addition to providing a percentage
indicating the performance on indicator B‐8 to OSEP each year, states are also required to
provide information regarding their improvement efforts.

Given the critical nature of parent involvement in education, improvement efforts by schools
need to be focused on enhancing this area. To this end, a set of seven modules were
developed based on evidence based practice that if rigorously applied will likely improve
schools’ performance on this indicator. In addition to improving facilitation efforts by schools
for involving parents of students receiving special education services, most of these strategies
are generalizable to broad education practices as well. The module content includes: General
Communication Strategies, Parent Friendly Individualized Education Plan (IEP) Practices, Home‐
School Note, behavior Strategies, Reading Strategies, Mathematics Strategies, and Homework
Strategies.

Getting Started

As stated in the indicator definition, schools are responsible for facilitating parent involvement.
The indicator is not about parents taking the initiative to become involved nor is it about parent
satisfaction. The module materials were developed with the goal of assisting schools to
facilitate parent involvement in mind. It is important to recognize several things about these
modules:

1. The modules are designed to target school personnel.
2. Each module contains the same components for easy application. These components
   are:
   
   1. Overview
   2. Agenda
   3. PowerPoint Slide for presentation
   4. Presenter Notes to guide facilitation of the presentation
   5. Handouts for the participants of the presentation
   6. Integrity Checklist(s) to guide application efforts
      
      
3. The modules are designed to be presented and applied without the assistance of
   outside resources. Therefore, all the information necessary to present the modules & to
   begin using the ideas suggested within the modules is included.
   
   
4. You know your local area best! Therefore we encourage you to make modifications to
   these materials as necessary based on your local context. It will be important to
   consider your population when developing ideas on how to best apply this information
   within your setting.
   
   
5. It is our strong recommendation that schools always start with the communication
   module, however, each module is independent of each other and may be applied as
   such. That is, a school can choose to utilize all 7 modules or just one module, depending
   on where the need of the school lies.
   
   
6. It may be helpful to identify and utilize parent resources when implementing the
   modules. Useful information may be found at:
   www.directionservice.org/cadre
   www.taalliance.org
   
   
7. We recognize that you likely have many initiatives taking place within your local setting
   and these strategies in their current form may not fit perfectly with your model. That’s
   okay! These are only suggestions and it is important to keep in mind that the concepts
   themselves are broad and can be applied to nearly any program occurring in your
   building. Best practice is simply to reach out to parents and partner with families in all
   areas.
   
   
8. The modules were developed to correspond with items on the NCSEAM Scale. A
   document (NCSEAM School Efforts to Partner with parents Scale Items by Module; pgs 1‐
   4) is provided that details each item on the scale and which modules, if applied, would
   likely improve agreeability on that item. The NCSEAM Scale has been developed to
   measure the extent to which schools facilitate parent involvement. It is a free resource and can be used at the
   local level even if your state does not utilize the instrument. More details are provided
   in the Frequently Asked Questions Document on the website, including information
   regarding the level of agreeability.
   
   
9. We hope this will be a worthwhile resource and support
   for all those across the country utilizing these materials!

Good luck in your endeavors & remember it’s about Improving Relationships & Results: Building
Family School Partnerships!