Cultural Brokering Intervention for Families of Children Receiving Special Education Supports

Abstract

The intersection of disability and other identities can present significant challenges to culturally diverse families and schools. Cultural brokering is an emerging practice that shows promise for helping parents navigate the special education system. In the past decade, cultural brokering has been increasingly used in healthcare and education as an intervention to provide appropriate and effective services to culturally diverse families. Using an intersectionality theory framework, this chapter highlights a cultural brokering initiative in a statewide parent to parent program to introduce the practice and utility of a cultural brokering intervention for diverse families of children with disabilities. Program evaluation for the project demonstrates that the cultural brokering intervention is effective in engaging parents to build connections and collaborations with schools and other service agencies and to be more confident in navigating educational and healthcare systems.