The education of students with special needs, which are included in elementary school programmes with adapted implementation and additional expert help, requires a systematic and planned expert work, which incorporates an individualised programme. It is a complex and responsible task to make such a programme one that is of good quality, therefore it implicitly requires a good communication and cooperation between school staff and the student’s parents. What is also needed is mutual respect and acknowledgment of the team members, trust, mutualisation, goal orientation and responsibility in reaching agreements.
The above mentioned represents important elements of a successful inclusion of children with special needs into elementary school education, but it mostly ensures equal educational opportunities. I have interviewed six parents of students with special needs, attempting to acquire their point of view on their own role and their individual and subjective experience within the process of implementing the individualised programme; I was also interested in their insight in the forms and purposes of the parents’ cooperation with the members of the expert staff in the attempt to implement the individualised programme, their satisfaction with it and the possible obstacles they might have encountered. The results show that the parents are aware of the importance of their cooperation with the school staff. The interviewed parents are pleased with the school cooperation, however they wish the teachers would reach out to them more frequently in informal meetings. In the process of implementing the individualized programme, they attend all expert staff meetings and they participate most actively in the phase of forming the individualized programme. I have realised that they have not always been acquinted with their personal role, rights and obligations. The parents, whose opinions and suggestions were heared and considered, perceive their role as being active and equal, and the individualised programme as effective means of good quality, used for reaching the optimal progress of their child.
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