Everybody accepts that student learning and behavior improve if parents are our partners in their education. But that’s where the general agreement ends. Too many school leaders are unclear about what strong family engagement looks like and what it would take.

Those who don’t know how to get started say, “We need to get our act together first. Then we will invite our parents.”

Special educators don’t know their job.

Now, that sounds like I’m slamming special educators, but nothing could be further from the truth.

When I was the Special Education Graduate Director at Towson University, I interviewed prospective candidates. Every time – with men and women of all ages, all shapes and sizes, all background, races and cultures – I was touched by the sense of heart-felt purpose in their response.

People have asked me to explain why I chose Included with the End in Mind as the title for my newly released book.

It is an expression of my frustration and my passion. As an educational consultant, I talk with a variety of people who have their own perspectives about inclusive education and secondary transition.

I had an opportunity to travel to Scottsdale to be a national expert for the Arizona Transition Conference. But I learned something from the breathtaking countryside.

Did I pay more attention to twitters of bird song and the caress of the gentle breeze because I stepped outside the stressors of my busy life? Was it because I took vacation time, that I became more aware? I inhaled the vivid colors of endless crowds of glowing sunflowers nodding to each other all the way back to the shadowed blue-grey goal post of the mountains.