 The Imperial School is a very awesome place. There's no other school like this place. Students' attitudes towards school, achievement and behavior all improve when parents and family members are involved with the school. Developing strong connections to the adults in a student's life can wrap around the student and facilitate the development and implementation of effective interventions and supports. Having parents on board is so important because then you have the parent working with the teacher, the teacher is working with the parents and everybody who's involved with the child and everybody's on the same plane, the same level of understanding as to what's happening in the classroom. And then there's also that sharing of information as to what is happening at home or what is happening in social interactions with that child as well so that everybody can work together and create a plan for that child that is very workable and works for the child. Connection with families takes time, trust and a belief that parents are partners in their child's education. I think one of the things that happens is we have the conversation and I think it's a very relaxing conversation and the parents are made to feel very welcome so they're not embarrassed to talk to us about what's happening. We will talk very openly with the parents about what's happening at school, parents share what's happening at home so there's a trust and I think once you build that trust and you build the relationship it's very easy for the parents to trust what we're going to do. Now whether that means bringing in specialized intervention, supports directing parents to supports within the community, there's that trust that happens and the parents are very open to it because that relationship has already been built and it just works. Supporting children who may need modifications or adaptations to programming is most effective when families, teachers and school staff work as a team to meet the individual needs of the students. Empowering parents to participate in the process leads to a win-win situation for the student, parent and the school staff. Jacob needed a little bit of extra support so if he couldn't sit for an hour and a half on the carpet they gave him the option to go in the hallway and walk for 10 minutes. If he couldn't remember to sign or bring home his field trips forms every day or every odd week then we worked out an agenda and so then me and the teacher just checked the agenda every day. Some of the schools they believe in like suspension and sending kids home if they're troubled but what is that going to do besides take him out of the environment and so they really worked with me on how to troublesuit to get him the support that he needed in the school. Schools need to invest the time to help parents understand the benefits of working with a team and may at times need to provide home strategies for the parents to develop a successful intervention strategy for the student. At home it does take a lot of work for the parent from the parents as long as you're willing to put the work in. I mean it's phenomenal what these people can do for children.