The Family Participation Fund (FPF) was developed to meet the need for fiscal resources to help encourage and support meaningful family/consumer involvement in local, regional, or statewide decision-making activities, events, and groups. The intent of this activity is to build partnerships that reflect the diversity of our population and that are aligned with state reform mandates and initiatives. Between 2000 and 2008, over 8,400 requests for financial support were funded.
The FPF is administered through the California Association of Family Empowerment Centers (CAFEC), which works as a center of information, technical assistance, and systems change advocacy for the statewide network of local FECs. FECs work directly with families of children with disabilities to provide family education and empowerment and regularly refer families they work with to the FPF when they show interest in participating as a member of a decision-making body.
Ethnic minorities and low-income families are often underrepresented in the membership of decision-making bodies. The FPF implements outreach activities targeting these underrepresented groups to encourage their participation.
| Recipients | % | |
|---|---|---|
| African American | 4,584 | 59% |
| Asian/ Pacific Islander | 250 | 3% |
| Caucasian/ White | 1,160 | 15% |
| Native American | 168 | 2% |
| Latino/ Hispanic | 1,666 | 21% |
| Other | 37 | < 0.5% |
| Recipients | % | |
|---|---|---|
| Under $10,000 | 4,362 | 57% |
| $10-19,999 | 1,207 | 16% |
| $20-29,999 | 754 | 10% |
| $30-39,999 | 362 | 5% |
| $40-49,999 | 340 | 4% |
| $50,000+ | 583 | 8% |
| I learned valuable, useful information at the meeting | 4.7 |
|---|---|
| The meeting will make a positivie difference in the lives of children with disabilities | 4.6 |
| I felt that I was an effective participant at the meeting | 4.6 |
| I felt that other people at the meeting valued my participation | 4.5 |
| The financial support of attending the meeting met my needs | 4.4 |
Another goal of the FPF is to increase awareness and build collaborative partnerships between special education (SE) and general education (GE) by encouraging family members of children with disabilities to join decision-making bodies focused on GE issues.
| Special Education | 59% |
|---|---|
| General Education | 41% |
At this meeting we as parents were welcomed, and our input into policies affecting our children’s education was valued and utilized. Our concerns were responded to, and we saw results.
There is a lot of information to learn and share!
This meeting presented an opportunity for parents to speak directly to the School Board members and for them to hear and understand a parent’s perspective on the current state of affairs.
This stipend is a great help!
| Recipients | % | |
|---|---|---|
| African American | 369 | 39% |
| Asian/ Pacific Islander | 102 | 11% |
| Caucasian/ White | 250 | 27% |
| Native American | 4 | < 0.5% |
| Latino/ Hispanic | 203 | 22% |
| Other | 3 | < 0.5% |
| Recipients | % | |
|---|---|---|
| Under $10,000 | 384 | 42% |
| $10-19,999 | 190 | 21% |
| $20-29,999 | 85 | 9% |
| $30-39,999 | 59 | 7% |
| $40-49,999 | 67 | 7% |
| $50,000+ | 127 | 14% |
| Earlier Years | 2007-08 | |
|---|---|---|
| I learned valuable, useful information at the meeting | 4.7 | 4.6 |
| The meeting will make a positivie difference in the lives of children with disabilities | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| I felt that I was an effective participant at the meeting | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| I felt that other people at the meeting valued my participation | 4.5 | 4.3 |
| The financial support of attending the meeting met my needs | 4.4 | 4.2 |
| Special Education | 61% |
|---|---|
| General Education | 39% |
| Number of Comments | Comments made in 2007-08 |
|---|---|
| 65 | How to increase parent involvement. “How to bring family voices to meetings.” “How important it is to become involved in your school district.” ”How to recruit new members who are Latino and African American.” |
| 45 | CAC business “Discussed contents of CAC report to the San Francisco Board of Education.” “I am the CAC chair.” “Talked about the CAC information letter to parents, drafted the parent interpretation service.” |
| 45 | Discussion of budget concerns, budget and program cuts “Announcement of California budget cuts.” “Discussed budget and questioned amounts in various categories.” “We have special needs children and this cutback won’t help our children.” |
| 39 | Discussion of future meetings, trainings, and events “2008 recognition dinner plans.” “Parent symposium final plans.” “Parent symposium workshop choices.” “Planning next training.” “Planning, workshops, elections.” “Future agenda items, new business.” |
| 36 | Concerns about other specific programs related to special education “I was the only parent/org/advocate to speak on STAR and CAHSEE impacts on students with disabilities.” “Culmination requirements for special needs children.” “Inclusion of students with disabilities.” “Education Placement Center is making placement decisions, these should be made in IEP meetings.” “Transition to middle school issues.” “I talked about the transition from high school to college.” “We discussed the one-on-one that our disability students will not have.” |
| 34 | Discussion of IEPs “This information was very important because it was 7 days before an IEP and I think I was better prepared.” “Questions regarding the IEP process.” “I discussed interpretation for IEP, especially for Chinese families.” |
| 27 | Discussion of other school issues “The adoption of the Discipline Foundation Policy, school-wide positive behavior.” “School transportation.” “To understand how enrollment decisions are made.” “We are battling with staffing decisions.” “Discussed options of fundraising for curriculum needs of preschool.” “Issues with summer school inclusion.” “Raised the question of where suspended students go while on suspension.” |
| 23 | Need for Chinese translation “The CAC needs to do more outreach in the Chinese community by providing information in Chinese.” “The school district needs to provide more information in Chinese.” “I need Chinese translation.” |
| 16 | Advocacy for children “In order to be the best advocate for our child we’ll need to know how to get organized and get educated.” “Parent advocacy about IEPs.” |
| 12 | Criticism of school district programs and district relationship with CAC/parents “Deficiency of programs provided by [district].” “Censorship of our CAC newsletter by [district].” “Suspension notice content from [district] written in English is different than content written in Chinese.” |
| 6 | Guest Speakers “Had two guest speakers from [district] to talk about Education Placement Program for SE students.” “Listened to a presentation of ELL and Title One budgets and voted to approve them.” |
| Number of Comments | Comments made in 2007-08 |
|---|---|
| 54 | Chinese translation/materials “We need a translator from English to Chinese.” “It is good to have a professional translator (Cantonese).” “Provide more information to me in Chinese so I can tell other Chinese parents.” |
| 52 | More training “Public speaking training.” “Leadership training.” “Advocacy training.” “Parenting classes for parents.” “Financial support for more training; the stipend will allow my continued participation in meetings.” “Have more training, conferences, workshops to empower parents to help their children.” |
| 34 | Information more accessible to parents “More information.” “More handouts.” “Culturally sensitive resources and information.” “More speakers that will talk about SE issues.” “More info about statewide and national trends is always helpful.” “More information on the internet.” “Notified by email of all dates in the surrounding community.” “Agenda sent home with reminder flyer. Phone calls gave incorrect meeting times.” “I believe the information should be more clear and accessible for parents.” |
| 27 | Legal issues, special education laws “Legal training in Special Education law.” “Another workshop on Parent Rights and the IEP and 504 process.” “Training like ‘Partners in Policy Making,’ but held in San Francisco. Travel isn’t possible with my autistic son.”“That all members, including county superintendents, are trained in Brown Act so parent rights aren’t violated.” “More training on Proposition 227.” “Parent rights, what schools are available, how to obtain transfer if needed.” |
| 26 | More funds “More money so we can go to all the [district] meetings and talk about the problems our SE students have.” “We need more money so we can check out other committees.” “Funding for copies and printer ink.” |
| 21 | More meetings “Continue having meetings.” “Twelve meetings a year.” “More meetings to inform parents and community.” “Continue attending SEMAC meetings and getting more involved with decisions..” |
| 21 | More parent involvement “How to get more parents involved.” “How to increase membership.” “More meetings to involve parents.” “More parents/advocates/FEC leaders speaking out, making the effort to curtail this injustice.” “We need parental support and support of school district representatives. |
| 18 | Training and information about specific disabilities “Autism.” “More training on autism so I can help my son and other parents with newly diagnosed children..” “Special education transitions.” “Epilepsy.” “Training about ADHD.” “More about PDD.” “Premature babies.” “I need data on how many cerebral palsy students are in [district].” |
| 14 | Other meeting support services “It is difficult to coordinate an interpreter.” “I would like to have better translation so I can follow the meeting.” “Childcare while attending meetings.” “Need transportation home.” |
| 10 | More information on IEPs “Knowing exactly what IEP is and what we can realistically expect.” “IEP workshop.” “Web-based IEP.” “Coming up with example IEPs and having parents practice writing IEP goals and objectives.” |
| 6 | CAC administrative support and other resources “More specific info on just what powers a CAC has.” “Anything about how other CACs are recruiting parents.” “The CAC needs a paid clerical worker.” “Administrative support, roughly 8 hours/week for CAC.” |