Family roles in their children’s education: A critical discussion of the future roles of families in educating their child with special educational needs and disabilities.

One of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic is partial or whole school closure, which requires students in all age groups to study from home in some countries. For students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), distance learning can be a challenge in terms of meeting all the students’ unique profiles of needs. The parent educator has been highlighted in the literature as an important part of successful practice. However, the response to the current pandemic has included an emphasis on the family being more engaged in the formal education process. For instance, with respect to the family or caregiver’s knowledge and skills, this suggests that they need to be prepared and trained for using specific interventions and strategies used for their children in schools (Stenhoff et al., 2020). Therefore, this paper discusses how parents’ roles in their children’s education need to be considered by educators now and in the future. This is supported by the experiences of one of the authors who has a child with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to give an authentic picture of their role in educating their children during the pandemic. This paper is useful for SEND parents and workers in the education field.