ABSTRACT
The ideology of partnership, which has become endemic in considerations of home–school relations, is subjected to scrutiny and found wanting. This chapter opts for a functional description of home-school relations. It examines home-school relations in special education in five areas: communication; curriculum; assessment; personal support; and liaison with other agencies. Assessment can be one of the most fraught aspects of home-school relations but it is also one where close collaboration yields great benefits. Good lines of communication between home and school are paramount and should suffuse all the other activities. Schooling is quite distinct from education and is likely to be deskilled and undervalued if there is a too easy partnership between parents and teachers. Partnership may be an agreeable concept, redolent with egalitarian overtones, but the warm glow of right thinking should not be confused with dispassionate action carefully designed to achieve significant targets.
