A natural variation study of engagement and confidence among parents of learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

Abstract

Parents’ involvement in their children’s education is known to be an important predictor of a range of adaptive outcomes. For learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), lack of parental engagement and confidence has been highlighted as a problematic issue. Given this, the objectives of the current study were to: (i) determine the amount of variation in parental engagement and confidence in parents of pupils with SEND that exists between (school effects) and within (pupil effects) schools and (ii) to identify the characteristics at school and pupil levels that explain significant variation in parental engagement and confidence. A cross sectional, natural variation design was implemented, utilising survey data from 2123 parents of children with SEND attending 373 schools across 10 Local Authorities in England. Hierarchical linear modelling of the study data demonstrated that most of the variation in parental engagement and confidence was located at the pupil level (89.7%), with the rest attributable to differences between schools (10.3%). In relation to the former, pupils’ ethnic origin, socio-economic status, SEND provision and primary need, bullying and their wider participation in school were all statistically significant predictors of the response variable, in sum accounting for more than 20% of pupil level variation. In relation to the latter, school achievement and the proportion of pupils at the School Action phase of SEND provision (albeit marginally, at the p < 0.10 level) each predicted variation at the school level, in combination accounting for more than 80% of school-level variation. These implications of these findings are discussed, and methodological limitations are noted.