What It Is
Partnerships are relationships among people (families, individuals with disabilities, and service-provider professionals), among agencies (health, education, social welfare), and among researchers and the families and professionals they are studying.
Partnerships are important because they are the connection between the services, laws, policies, and professional knowledge, and the needs of families and individuals with disabilities. It is how things get done.
What We're Doing
We are studying how partnerships work. More specifically, we are looking at how partnerships affect family quality of life and the ability of parents to be involved in their child's education. At the program level, we are studying the partnership between administrators and practitioners to learn how administrators help professionals do their job. At the research and systems level, we are studying how participants can enhance the quality of research and policy development.