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<p>Strong home-school partnerships are critical for promoting positive outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families in early childhood special education. Families bring a deep understanding of their children’s strengths and support needs that positively contribute to designing appropriate special education services in collaboration with the expertise of early childhood educators. While caregivers expect that early childhood educators will partner with them to help learn their special education rights and champion their advocacy on behalf of their children, many report receiving minimal guidance and support. For caregivers of young children who are navigating special education for the first time, balancing the dual and often conflicting roles of partner and advocate can be particularly challenging. In this qualitative study, we draw on systems theory and take up a phenomenological approach to explore how caregivers, all mothers, from diverse cultural, linguistic, and caregiving backgrounds perceive and respond to invitations for advocacy by early childhood educators. This study included nine mothers of young children (ages 3 to 8) receiving early childhood special education services in the United States. Data sources included a pair of semistructured interviews, special education records, and advocacy artifacts for each participant. The mothers’ narratives demonstrated how early childhood educators crafted environments that either invited collaborative or adversarial advocacy, shaping the overall quality of their home-school partnership and problem solving on behalf of young children with disabilities. These findings suggest that caregiver advocacy, when welcomed and intentionally facilitated by early childhood educators, can serve to deepen rather than disrupt home-school partnerships. It further underscores the need to support early childhood educators in developing strong home-school partnership practices which invite collaborative advocacy and ultimately promote positive outcomes for young children with disabilities.</p>

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Welcomed or Walled-Off: Educators’ Invitations for Advocacy in Early Childhood Special Education

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月6日

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  • Evelyn Ayay,
  • Stephenie Barr,
  • Angel Fettig

摘要

Strong home-school partnerships are critical for promoting positive outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families in early childhood special education. Families bring a deep understanding of their children’s strengths and support needs that positively contribute to designing appropriate special education services in collaboration with the expertise of early childhood educators. While caregivers expect that early childhood educators will partner with them to help learn their special education rights and champion their advocacy on behalf of their children, many report receiving minimal guidance and support. For caregivers of young children who are navigating special education for the first time, balancing the dual and often conflicting roles of partner and advocate can be particularly challenging. In this qualitative study, we draw on systems theory and take up a phenomenological approach to explore how caregivers, all mothers, from diverse cultural, linguistic, and caregiving backgrounds perceive and respond to invitations for advocacy by early childhood educators. This study included nine mothers of young children (ages 3 to 8) receiving early childhood special education services in the United States. Data sources included a pair of semistructured interviews, special education records, and advocacy artifacts for each participant. The mothers’ narratives demonstrated how early childhood educators crafted environments that either invited collaborative or adversarial advocacy, shaping the overall quality of their home-school partnership and problem solving on behalf of young children with disabilities. These findings suggest that caregiver advocacy, when welcomed and intentionally facilitated by early childhood educators, can serve to deepen rather than disrupt home-school partnerships. It further underscores the need to support early childhood educators in developing strong home-school partnership practices which invite collaborative advocacy and ultimately promote positive outcomes for young children with disabilities.