Statementing and Partnership: Working Together?

Abstract

This quote from Sally Tomlinson written over two decades ago is still relevant in the 21st century. This chapter unfolds how this is the case, via stories from the parents who took part in this research. It moves the parents from identification and diagnosis, as the previous chapter described, to how parents deal with the official processes they become involved in (whether that involves to educate, support or manage a difficulty).

The involvement of parents in the assessment processes for special education, and the actual education of their children in special schools and classes, is an area in which benevolent rhetoric supersedes reality. While government publications and professional groups urge the involvement of parents as equals, the available evidence indicates that many parents feel uninvolved and inadequately consulted in the assessment processes and uninformed, misinformed or overwhelmed by professional expertise when their children are actually placed in special education.

(Tomlinson, 1982: 106)