Outside Resources
Established, evidence-based tools for family-school collaboration.
Tools from outside this project that pull in the same direction.
Why these are here
The resources below are not part of this project. They include peer-reviewed publications and established tools that speak directly to what this toolkit asks for: decisions grounded in evidence, and a room where families and professionals genuinely collaborate. Full APA citations for each source are also listed in the References tab.
Open each one to read it.
Measuring the partnership itself
The Beach Center on Disability at the University of Kansas, now part of the KU Center on Disabilities, developed the Family and Professional Partnership Scale, a free tool that measures how families experience trust, respect, communication, and commitment in their relationships with school teams (Summers et al., 2005). A team could use it the same way this toolkit uses documented need, as a way to check assumptions against real data.
Structuring the hardest meetings
CADRE, the federally funded Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Education, maintains free guidance on IEP facilitation, where a neutral third party helps a team stay focused and work through disagreement. Research on this approach found it reduced conflict and helped families and schools reach agreement without moving to due process (Mueller, 2009). It is close in spirit to the "When the team disagrees" section of the Collaborative Conversation Guide.
Building collaboration skills
Friend's Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals (2020) is a widely used text in special education teacher preparation. It breaks down the specific communication and problem-solving skills that make co-teaching, consultation, and family partnership actually work in practice, rather than just naming them as goals.
Training in family engagement
The IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University offers a free training module, Family Engagement: Collaborating with Families of Students with Disabilities, that walks school staff through building relationships, preparing for meetings, and following through after them. It is a practical companion to the Pre-Meeting Planning Tool and Collaborative Conversation Guide in this toolkit.
The research base behind this project's approach
Two recent peer-reviewed publications support the direction this toolkit already takes. Gaspar and Sahay (2025) argue that involvement frameworks built for general education do not fit special education, and that families of students with disabilities need to be understood as primary experts on their own children, not just participants. Lawrence and colleagues (2026) propose hope, meaning shared goals, pathways, and agency, as an organizing framework for family-school collaboration, which lines up closely with this project's emphasis on trust and a shared plan.
Building capacity for high-quality IEPs
The High Quality IEPs Project, a California System of Support effort led by East County SELPA and Santa Clara North West SELPA and funded by the California Department of Education and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, offers free training and resources for families, students, and school teams building meaningful IEPs. Its Unlocking Educational Benefit video series walks teams through the key components of the IEP, from assessment and present levels to identifying need, writing measurable goals, and implementing supports and services. The project frames the IEP as a shared journey with distinct steps before, during, and after the meeting, and it grounds that work in equity by intentionally removing barriers for students and families. That emphasis on capacity building and genuine partnership mirrors what this toolkit asks for, and the video series pairs well with the Pre-Meeting Planning Tool and Collaborative Conversation Guide as a way for teams to strengthen practice together (High Quality IEPs, n.d.).