Beliefs and Perspectives of Multicultural Parents Regarding Disability and Special Education

This article is an examination of the way in which disability, labeling, and special education are perceived by parents of racially and culturally diverse backgrounds. The purpose was to determine whether immigrant or minority parents had significantly different perceptions of the nature, cause, and treatment of disability in their children than the perceptions of the dominant racial and cultural group in the United States. If these parent perceptions were found to be different, the goal was to understand how and why these differences occurred and what could be done by the schools to provide the most appropriate and beneficial education and service to all parents so that they do not feel alone, excluded, or unheard in the special education process of their children.