The purpose of this project is to provide support to the Florida Department of Education in meeting the requirements of Indicator 8 of the State Performance Plan. Under the State Performance Plan, mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004), all states are now required to collect and report data on the “percent of parents with a child receiving special education services who report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities.”

The FDOE has a long history of gathering data from parents by means of large-scale surveys. Between 1999 and 2005, Florida’s monitoring system included a parent survey component, enabling parents to share their perceptions about services provided under IDEA. The University of Miami (UM) was responsible for survey design, data collection and data analysis related to this statewide parent survey. UM also assisted the state to create reports and disseminate findings of the survey.

In 2006, the FDOE conducted its first statewide parent survey in accordance with the new State Performance Plan. The survey instrument used by the FDOE was developed by the National Center for Special Education Accountability Monitoring (NCSEAM) under the leadership of Dr. Batya Elbaum, who served as head of NCSEAM’s Parent/Family Involvement Workgroup. The survey includes a 25-item rating scale, the School Efforts to Partner with Parents Scale, that has been adopted by a large number of states for use in reporting on Indicator 8.

In 2006, surveys were mailed to the entire population of parents of children receiving preschool services. For parents of students K-12, survey forms were mailed to all parents of students receiving special education services in districts with special education membership equal to or less than 4,000. In districts with special education membership greater than 4,000, surveys were sent to a random sample of 4,000 parents. A total of 177,901 surveys were sent out; of these, 18,725 (10.5%) were returned.

In 2007, the second year of implementation of data collection under the SPP, the same sampling plan was implemented. Additionally, parents of students K-12 were given the option of completing the survey online, using as a login an arbitrary individual ID number provided in the material they received by mail. Packets were mailed to 179,710 parents; a total of 16,812 (9.4%) were returned. Approximately 11% of parents of students K-12 who completed the survey did so online. In 2008, the opportunity to complete the survey online will be extended to include parents of preschool children. Additionally, a small number of districts will pilot “web-only” access to the survey. That is, parents will receive a mailed invitation to participate in the survey and instructions as to how to access the online version. Parents in these districts will not receive a paper copy of the survey and postage-prepaid return envelope. Districts participating in the pilot must have a plan in place to provide support to parents to access the survey online.

Based on the 2006 data collection, Florida reported baseline data indicating that 29% of parents perceived that schools adequately facilitated their involvement. In 2007, that figure was 30%. The first two objectives of ESE Parent Survey Project are (1) to continue to oversee data collection related to Indicator 8 and (2) to conduct data analyses for reporting state and local results as required by the State Performance Plan. The third objective is to assist the FDOE’s Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services to develop an evidence-based model for improving district- and state-level performance on Indicator 8. The fourth objective of the project is to develop and apply a logic model to examine the relationship between district-level performance on Indicator 8 and on other Indicators included in the SPP. It is expected that the results of these analyses will provide a foundation for developing strategies to increase parent involvement and improve student outcomes.