Best Practices Guide for Multi-Disciplinary Teams

Schools across the US are beginning to open-up classrooms, teachers are finding that they are no longer working alone or exclusively with members of their own profession. But with parent, Paraprofessionals, nurses, learning support staff, educational psychologists, social workers, and even community leaders and volunteers. This type of collaboration is called multidisciplinary teams, in its simplest terms this means members of different professions working together. Each member of a multidisciplinary team has an essential function and has valuable contribution to make in the identifying learning goals for the student, as well as the delivery of these goals across all areas from curriculum to learning opportunities and even the students extracurricular activities. Members of this team are also able to support the child at home to ensure that there is success between home and school. The success of the student depends on a strong home/school relationship; therefore, parents are strongly encouraged to participate.
Each member of the team has specific qualification and duties:
Local education agency (LEA)
A representative qualified to supervise the needs of the student, someone who is knowledgeable of the general curriculum, is knowledgeable about the availability of resources of the public agency, and has the authority to commit agency resources.
Family
Not only is emphasis upon parental participation ethically proper and legally required, but “parental involvement has been associated with higher grades, positive behaviors and attitudes, reduced absenteeism, and increased study habits” (Lawrence & Heller, 2001).
Related staff and services
This group of people can vary depending on the student or issue being evaluated. Most commonly you will have a school psychologist who may be responsible for completing an assessment of the student, analyzing and interpreting assessment data and conduct follow-up observations to determine the success of modifications put