Abstract
Collaboration between school staff, families, and community partners is vital for ensuring all students’ success, particularly those with disabilities. In this case study, we will discuss a community-university partnership involving a university school psychology graduate program, several local school districts, and a specialized medical facility for children with autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. These partners came together to create the Families and Schools Partnership Program (FSPP). Facilitated by School Psychology faculty and graduate students, FSPP offers support to families and schools through a cohesive multidisciplinary approach to intervention. In this study, we examined the experiences of 700 families referred to the FSPP consultation team and evaluated the reasons for referral, levels of intervention required by each family, and case outcomes. As a result, we offer a series of steps and tips for developing collaborative interagency relationships, an outline of the consultation framework and processes developed, and lessons learned throughout implementation.
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This work was supported in part by The Thompson Policy Institute.
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Conceptualization: Amy Jane Griffiths, James Alsip, Kelly Kennedy, Elena Diamond; Methodology: Amy Jane Griffiths, James Alsip, Kelly Kennedy; Formal analysis and investigation: Amy Jane Griffiths, Kelly Kennedy; Writing - original draft preparation: Amy Jane Griffiths, James Alsip, Elena Diamond, Kelly Kennedy, John Brady, Cora Palma, Anna Abdou, Rachel Wiegand; Writing - review and editing: Amy Jane Griffiths, Rachel Wiegand, Anna Abdou, John Brady; Funding acquisition: Amy Jane Griffiths
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All procedures performed in studies that involve human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Griffiths, A.J., Alsip, J., Kennedy, K. et al. Families and Schools Together: Designing a Model for University-Community Partnerships to Support Home-School Collaborations. Contemp School Psychol 26, 422–434 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-021-00358-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-021-00358-5