ABSTRACT
Parents and those who do the work of parents, such as grandparents and other carers are typically accorded a natural authority in children’s lives. In Australia, the development of parent–teacher partnerships is an important area of national education policy and a requirement for professional teacher accreditation. In alignment with the various national tools and frameworks for improving student learning and wellbeing, education authorities in different states have developed evidence-based frameworks to assist school staff with this multifaceted process. In order to develop productive partnerships with parents, it is essential that teachers understand family systems and how the family life cycle is experienced when a child has a disability. In Western societies, families go through a series of typical developmental stages as they progress from being childless adults, to parents, and then rearing their offspring through the stages of early and middle childhood into adolescence.
