• Flexibility in terms of different styles and different ways to meet goals
• Communication and cooperation
• Ability to disagree and still work together
• Shared philosophy and common goals
• Getting to know each other; empathy and understanding
• Time and opportunity to plan and build classroom structure
• Joint decision-making
• Definition of roles in advance
• Supportive administrators
• Ability to handle conflicts in a constructive way
• Common sense and common courtesy
• Ability for staff from both agencies to work with all kids in the classroom
• Humor
• Put children first

"People [special education staff] working in a community-based setting need to know what they are doing and how to do it well enough to adapt to different contexts."

"Caring [is important] so when something comes up it's handled in a loving way, instead of confrontational."

• Importance of making team work together smoothly
• Finding time to communicate with entire team
• Need for child care staff to give input on CPSE
• Special education staff in classroom for short period of time
• Need to know in advance when therapy schedule changes
• Sometimes too many adults in the classroom
• Transient nature of kids, due to DDS funding

Special Education Perspective

• Need to take different personalities & styles into account
• High staff turnover means starting over again
• Need to understand different rules & regulations
• Limitations because of high number of kids to staff
• Hard to deal with behavioral challenges of child care children
• Lack of good role models in many child care centers

Parents Perspective

• Will my child be safe?
• Will my child be teased?
• Will my child get the services she needs?
• What if I don't like the way services are provided?

"Beginnings are always difficult. The starting point is the child, and things can work out from there."