Student Counseling and Personnel Services Commons^™

African American Mothers' And Professionals' Perceptions Of Transition To Special Needs Preschool, Jana R. Ladner

Counseling and Psychological Services Dissertations

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) mandates services from birth through age 21 for children with disabilities and their families (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). Children experience significant transitions between formal parts of special education, including the transition from birth-to-age-three services, to age-three-to-five services (Fowler, Donegan, Lueke, Hadden, & Phillips, 2000). Barriers, problems, and positive factors in these transitions (Christenson, 2004; Feinberg, Beyer, & Moses, 2002; Mitchell & Sloper, 2002; Valle & Aponte, 2002) include stress, satisfaction/dissatisfaction in professional-parent interactions, resistance of professionals to working with parents, and agreement/disagreement over service provision (Christenson, 2004; Ladwig, 2003; Minke & …