10 Tips for Culturally Responsive Planning

For Culturally Responsive

TIPS Planning Meetings with Families

Use these strategies to partner effectively with diverse families before and during IEP and IFSP planning meetings.

• Brief the family about the meeting, its purpose, and who will be present well in advance of the meeting.
• Reduce the number of professionals participating unless the family has requested that others be present.
• Encourage families to bring people who are important to them—relatives, spiritual leaders, friends, and so forth.
• Be sure that a skilled interpreter is present if families are ELLs or non–English speaking.
• Incorporate practices that are culturally comfortable for the family, such as serving tea, taking time to get acquainted before beginning the meeting, or conducting the meeting in a highly formal manner.
• Encourage family input without creating embarrassment. If family members don’t feel comfortable interacting in a public forum, be sure that the service provider who knows the family best has spoken with them ahead of time and can represent their perspective at the meeting.
• Ensure that the goals, objectives, or outcomes that are being developed are matched to the family’s concerns and priorities.
• Use appropriate resources that are designed for or are a part of the family’s cultural community; for example, referral to a health care provider who shares the same language and culture.
• Enlist cultural mediators or guides to help match families with resources. Coming from the same country does not ensure that individuals share the same beliefs, values, behaviors, or language.
• Allow time for questions, and discuss the kinds of questions other families often ask. This allows questions to be answered for family members who may feel uncomfortable about public questioning.
  Adapted from Developing Cross-Cultural Competence, edited by Eleanor W. Lynch & Marci J. Hanson