About Us

Illinois Statewide Technical Assistance Center for Parents

In cooperation with the Illinois Statewide Technical Assistance Center (www.IS-TAC.org), the ISTAC-Parents project advances the ISBE's priority to improve the delivery of training and technical assistance to parents of students with disabilities throughout the State of Illinois.

Our goal is to enhance caregivers' ability to participate actively in their child's education. It is believed that such participation will help ensure that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment.

We believe parents and educators must be equal partners in the process of educating students.

Research strongly supports school-parent partnerships as effective in improving school climate and student performance. According to a comprehensive survey of 85 research studies cited in two National PTA publications, National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs (1998), and Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs (2000), the influence of parent involvement is profound and provides comprehensive benefits for students, families, and schools when parents and family members become participants in their children’s education and lives.

The ISTAC-Parents provides parent-to-parent guidance in meeting the needs of both parents and school personnel by:

• Providing support, training, and leadership for Parent Mentor grant sites.
• Developing research-based, effective, and reproducible curriculum that enhances the knowledge and skills of parents of children with disabilities in effectively building equal partnerships with educators.
• Developing parent leadership among parents and families of students with disabilities.
• Collaborating with school districts to cultivate school, family, and community partnerships.
• Maintaining a website for parents and educators to access information.
• Providing resource materials in English, Spanish and accessible formats.
• Providing a Lending Library.
• Offering a message board for parents and educators to provide continuous input on special education issues.

The Parent Mentor Project

Parent Mentors help parents of children with disabilities, in partnership with local school district personnel, to effectively navigate the educational system.

Each local parent mentor grant site is a collaboration among agencies, such as, school districts or special education cooperatives and not-for-profit parent or disability groups. Through grant funding, each local team employs one or more parents of children with disabilities as Parent Mentors.

The Role of Parent Mentors Includes:

• Sharing Information about special education laws, policies and procedures.
• Increasing the number of and improving the quality of parent and professional partnership.
• Providing training, workshops, and ongoing technical assistance for parents, school district personnel, and community members.
• Attending IEP meetings, if requested by parents.
• Obtaining and distributing materials and resources to parents of children with disabilities and district personnel.
• Promoting parent mentor services within the school district and community.
• Establishing and sustaining parent networking and support groups, as needed.
• Helping parents find and access community resources.
• Establishing and/or supporting collaboration among child service agencies and related organizations.

For more information about developing a Parent & Educator Partnership in your school district, you may download brochure or email us.

Rigorous Standards

We believe that it is important for as many parents and educators as possible to be able to view the content of this web site. As a result, we have designed and tested the site to meet the most rigorous standards.

If problems with this site occur, please contact the web master.