Indicator 8 - Parent Involvement

SY2024-25 Parent Survey

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and Administrative Units (AUs) conduct a survey every school year to learn how parents are involved in their child’s special education program. Please refer to the short webinar and the survey guide below:

Parent Survey Webinar 2024-2025 (PowerPoint)
Survey Guide for AU 2024-25 (PDF)
If the AU prefers to print the survey, please print one of these mail-merge ready Word documents:

English version of the 2024-2025 Parent Survey (Word)

Spanish version of the 2024-2025 Parent Survey (Word)

Print on a Ledger size (17” x 11”) paper Landscape
Add student name and unique URL code
Scan and upload the completed survey to the Data Management System, tag the document "SPP" then "Indicator 8."
Email Sarah Tarus that the completed surveys were uploaded

Definition

Percent of parents with a child receiving special education services who report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities.

(20 U.S.C. 1416(a)(3)(A))

Measurement

Percent = [(# of respondent parents who report schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities) divided by the (total # of respondent parents of children with disabilities)] times 100.

At the beginning of every school year, the Colorado Department of Education randomly selects students with disabilities whose parents will participate in the parent survey. CDE sends these surveys to Administrative Units of the students’ attendance, which in turn distribute the surveys to the selected parents. The survey collection closes at the end of the school year.

How is Colorado doing on this indicator?

Targets for the Current SPP/APR Cycle

**Indicator 8 targets - 6-year SPP/APR cycle**
Federal Fiscal Year (FFY)	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Data from School Year	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Target >=	82.19%	82.19%	82.19%	82.19%	82.19%	82.20%

Improvement Strategies for Parent Survey (Indicator 8)

Colorado Department of Education’s (CDE) Special Education Specialists and Directors will follow up individually with the Administrative Units (AUs) that need to increase their parent survey return rates. (2021-22)

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) will utilize its Special Education Director Mentors to ensure that all new Directors of Special Education understand the importance of increasing the parent survey response and utilizing the data to improve outcomes for students. (2022-23)

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) will engage our State Special Education Advisory Committee (CSEAC) members to work with local Special Education Advisory Committees (SEACs) to communicate the importance of completing the parent survey. CSEAC will help us to create a “Communication Blitz” through our Parent Training and Information Center (PTI), state conferences, and by working with other Parent Centers in Colorado to distribute flyers on the importance of completing the Parent Surveys. (2022-23)

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) will utilize Directors of Special Education from Administrative Units (AUs) that have outstanding parent survey return rates to share with other Directors across the state (2022-23):

strategies to obtain a better response rate from parents,
the importance of the parent data, and
how to utilize the data to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.

The Colorado Department of Education’s (CDE) Special Education Specialists and Directors will encourage local Directors of Special Education to check the special education dashboard which allows each Director to monitor the parent survey collection throughout the survey period. If Directors utilize this tool, it will create opportunities for them to review milestones and then encourage district staff to implement targeted strategies to improve the response rate. (2022-23)

Additional Resources

The feedback period has closed, this video is included for information on the target setting process

Indicator 8 Planning Tool for Families and Educators of Students with Disabilities (PDF)

For more information, contact:

Orla Bolger
Supervisor, Data and Monitoring Liaison
Email Orla Bolger
Phone: (720) 921-0524

Josh Fails
Online Project Coordinator (DMS) & Data Consultant
Email Josh Fails
Phone: (720) 618-0538

Sarah Tarus
Program Support Assistant
Email Sarah Tarus
Phone: (720) 765-0361

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If you have problems with broken links or accessing the content on this page, please contact the Exceptional Student Services Unit at ESSU@cde.state.co.us. Please copy the URL link for this page into the email when referencing the problem you are experiencing.