Effects of Collaboration Among Related Service Providers, Teachers, and Paraprofessionals in Special Education
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to discover the effects of collaboration between special education teachers, related service providers, and paraprofessionals in special education classrooms. Much of the previous research has dealt only with speech and language providers and has focused on the effects on students and staff. The goal of the study was to fill in those gaps and discover the effects of collaboration in the classroom, with special attention given to effects on student achievement, staff knowledge and skills, and classroom environment. A mixed-methodology survey was given to special education teachers, related service providers, and paraprofessionals who worked within special education classrooms in a rural school district in the midwestern United States that spanned kindergarten to Grade 12. The classes used for the study were made up of all/mostly students with intellectual disabilities or cross-categorical populations of students. It was found that the percentage of related services that occurred in the classroom, as reported by the related service providers, increased as the years of experience of the providers decreased and that collaboration between staff members increased staff knowledge and skills and student achievement and improved the classroom environment. Data from the study and reviewed literature indicate that collaboration is essential to improve classrooms and student success. This suggests that practitioners working in schools should strive to collaborate with other staff members to enhance educational outcomes.
Institution: University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7214594659