The Future of Education

Children with special needs has to be a part of intervention programs based on their needs. However, these interventions may not be enough to benefit from them at the highest level. Parental involvement plays a critical role in these interventions. Success in special education first depends on the accurate diagnosis of the individual with special needs. Obtaining information about the medical records, problems, needs and routines of these individuals is possible through communication with all family members, especially their parents. Since parents and other family members are the first educators of these individuals, their participation in educational practices is important for the child's development and the effectiveness of educational services (Turnbull & Turnbull, 2015; Walmsley & Mannan, 2009). For this particular study, it was aimed to examine the cooperation between special education teachers and the parents of children with special needs. In this quantitative study, two focus group discussions were conducted with five special education teachers and ten parents with special needs children, separately. The data was analyzed through content analysis. The findings were reported in xxx categories: expectations from parents/special education teachers, ways for cooperation with parents/special education teachers, issues encountered during cooperation, and the coping strategies to solve this issues. The results provide insights for government policy initiative and further research in special education.