Taking a Family Perspective: A Principal's Guide for Working with Families of Handicapped Children.

Written for and by principals, the guide provides a framework for developing school policies which encourage partnership with the parents of handicapped children. The first two sections focus on the principal's role in family impact analysis and characteristics of families with handicapped children as they relate to the school. The next section gives principles of policy development (such as using a team approach and respecting confidentiality), and suggests a multiactivity project to identify policy needs through talking with parents and teachers, reviewing and analyzing existing written policies, and gathering information about the special education family population. Half of the guide consists of five checklists to use in developing school policy. These include a principal checklist (a list of general guidelines concerning the principal's role); school policy checklist (questions grouped in categories); teacher checklist (list of questions to ask teachers about their concerns and practices); family checklist (possible discussion questions for parents regarding their relationship with the school); and family data questionnaire (to obtain information on types of families in the special education program). (DB)