Supporting Immigrant Families in Special Education: Insights and Collaborative Strategies for School-Based ABA Practitioners

The authors looked at how to bring immigrant families into IEP and ABA planning. They rewrote Epstein’s six-part family-school model into three clear steps: shared goals, two-way talk, and joint decisions.

The paper is a narrative review. It pulls ideas from family engagement, special education law, and cultural studies. No new data were collected.

The review shows that usual one-way notes home often fail with immigrant families. When schools shift to shared goals and real two-way talk, families stay in the process longer.

The adapted framework gives BCBAs scripts for each IEP step: pre-meeting calls, live translation, and follow-up check-ins.

Deochand et al. (2022) and Hugh-Pennie et al. (2022) already pushed culturally responsive ABA. Ćolić et al. (2025) extends their work by turning broad ideas into a concrete IEP protocol.

Taylor et al. (2019) first said warm caregiver bonds boost ABA outcomes. The new paper answers "how" by adding decision-making partnerships for immigrant families.

Reilly et al. (2025) give a four-step teaming model for staff. Ćolić et al. (2025) mirrors that structure but aims it at families, so the two papers dovetail in the same schools.

If you run IEP meetings, you can lift the three-step script Monday. Start with a five-minute phone call to ask caregivers their goals. Offer an interpreter or translated forms. End every meeting by asking parents to pick the next action step. These moves cost nothing and raise family attendance and trust.