Caregivers’ Guide to Inclusive Education
Parents or caregivers of children with disabilities play a crucial role in supporting their child’s learning. This includes navigating the education system and supporting their child’s participation in an inclusive school. They often face unique challenges and obstacles as they navigate the education system and support their child's participation in an inclusive school. These documents are part of a set of resources to support the marginalized caregivers of children with disabilities with inclusive education, which also includes guides for caregivers, teachers and schools, as well as templates for directories of resources and organizations to be adapted for specific systems. In this series: Original report: This guide for caregivers aims to (1) help them understand their rights and national inclusive education laws; (2) identify challenges and barriers they are facing in supporting their child’s learning needs and (3) find solutions that can help them to overcome these challenges. It is part of a set of resources to support the marginalized caregivers of children with disabilities with inclusive education. Shortened version: This shortened and easy to read version of “Caregiver's Guide to Inclusive Education” has been developed by “Building Bridges” with the aim of providing simplified guidance for caregivers. While this version includes all the tools and activities from the original guide, it has been designed to be easier to read and follow. The guide offers practical advice on how caregivers can support their child's learning at home, foster positive relationships with their child's teacher and school, and access specialist service. School guide: This guide aims to help schools to (1) identify specific needs faced by marginalized families of children with disabilities; (2) identify challenges they face to meeting these needs and (3) identify solutions in the form of resources that address these challenges. Teacher guide: Marginalized caregivers of children with disabilities face various challenges in navigating newly-emerging inclusive education settings. Teachers can learn about the specific needs of children from their caregivers and help caregivers to identify the best ways and materials to support their child’s learning. This guide for teachers aims supports them to engage with caregivers in (1) identifying their children’s individualized learning needs; (2) identifying the challenges in meeting these needs and (3) identifying solutions in to address these challenges. Workbook: This workbook contains tools to be used by caregivers, teachers and other school staff to apply and work through the steps presented in the guides. Based on proof-of-concept pilots in Armenia and Uzbekistan, the tools work best when they are used in collaboration between these different stakeholders. Completing the activities in the workbook will help to identify the specific challenges caregivers face as well as to identify solutions to address them. Directory of resources: An initial set of helpful materials, information and links from proof-of-concept pilots in Armenia and Uzbekistan have been included, with templates to add more local resources within each system. It is designed to be a useful first place for caregivers, teachers and school staff to search for solutions to challenges they have identified while using guides. Resources to support marginalized caregivers: Presents lessons learned from proof-of-concept pilots in Armenia and Uzbekistan, followed by step-by-step guidelines on how to adopt and adapt the resources for education ministries and others who want to implement them in their education system. Directory of associations and organizations template: A template to develop a directory of local associations, organizations and networks that exist to connect and support parents and caregivers of children with disabilities.
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