JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The Individual Education Plan (IEP) is a key element in the support of the schooling of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The IEP process requires effective communication and strong partnership between families, school staff and health care practitioners. However, these stakeholders often reported their collaboration as limited and difficult to maintain, leading in difficulties in implementing and monitoring the child’s IEP.

Objective:

This paper aims to describe the study protocol used to evaluate a technological tool (CoEd app) aiming at fostering communication and collaboration between family, school, and health care in the context of inclusive education.

Methods:

This protocol consisted in a longitudinal non-randomized controlled trial, with baseline, 3 months and 6-months follow-up assessments. After eligibility checking, 157 participants were recruited in 37 support teams, composed with at least one parent and one professional (school, health care). After the baseline assessment, the remaining 127 participants were allocated to CoEd intervention (13 teams, N = 82) or control condition (11 teams, N = 45). Primary outcomes measures covered stakeholders’ relationships, self-efficacy, and attitudes towards inclusive education, while secondary outcomes measures were related to stakeholders’ burden and quality of life, as well as children’s school well-being and quality of life.

Results:

We expect that the CoEd app will improve the quality of interpersonal relationships in children’s IEP teams.

Conclusions:

The results from this study could have several implications for educational technology research, as it is the first to investigate the impacts of a technological tool on co-educational processes.