Recruit the parent onto “team kid”

Ultimately, we are trying to recruit the parent onto “team kid”. I have found that conflicts often arise when the parent does not feel heard or feels “ganged up on”. This is where the relationship building that the SPED teacher does from day one with parents so that before the meeting even starts potential conflicts are diffused because the parent has been heard and everyone in the room is on “team kid”. One strategy that I would use is that if the meeting is going in a direction that is not healthy then I would stop the meeting and let the parent know that we need to gather more data about the core of the conflict and then schedule another meeting when the data has been collected or if necessary another professional can be consulted.