The 1986 Amendments to the Education of All Handicapped Children's Act (P.L. 99-457) require that the individual education plans for students ages three to five, "must include instruction for parents so that they can be active and knowledgeable in assisting in their child's progress" (U.S. House of Representatives Report, 99-860, p. 20). Expansion of special education services to preschool children, will require educators to increase their efforts to involve parents in the child's educational program.

Because schools have traditionally focused on child needs, additional insights into the parent involvement process are needed to effectively implement broader-based models more likely to result in active parent involvement. The purpose of this study was to examine teacher and parent perspectives on involvement to better understand the involvement process. Teacher and parent interviews were conducted in a large well-developed public preschool program. The interviews, together with observations and program documents, were analyzed to gain a better understanding of involvement practices. The teachers interpreted the parents’ level of involvement according to how well they complied with teacher prescribed activities and teacher expectations. Parents rated as most involved were seen by the teachers as cooperating with child-level activities, expressing an interest in participating and providing positive feedback for teachers' efforts. However, parents identified as least involved were viewed as not initiating contact with the teacher or showing little interest in participating in program activities. Most teachers relied on positive feedback from the parents to continue their efforts with them and use it to define the relationship with them. The teachers attributed the variations in involvement to family characteristics and to their belief about the family's concern for the child's development.

The meanings which the parents gave to the involvement practices were distinct for the least and most involved groups. How the parents conceptualized the child's development and their belief about their impact on it appeared to contribute to parents' perceptions about their role in the involvement process. These differences in role perception can explain their interactions with the teachers as well as their level of participation in activities. Levels of involvement can be further explained by the degree to which activities were relevant to a particular family's needs and the control they felt to act on their own behalf. The understandings gained from examining parent and teacher perspectives of the involvement process can help ensure effective involvement practices with families.