Professional Development, Leadership, and Community
This domain tests professionalism: how you grow as a practitioner, collaborate, protect children and families, and connect with community resources.
Collaboration and teams
- The IEP team (ages 3–21) writes goals, services, and placement; the IFSP (under 3) is family-focused and delivered in natural environments.
- Related services include speech-language, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and school psychology.
- Paraprofessionals and co-teachers need defined roles, shared planning time, and respectful communication.
Families and community
Epstein's six types of involvement: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. Effective engagement is two-way, culturally responsive, and offered in the family's preferred language and format. Home visits and daily contact build trust.
Law and ethics
IDEA guarantees a free appropriate public education, least restrictive environment, procedural safeguards, and due process. Section 504 provides accommodations when a disability substantially limits a major life activity. FERPA protects education records. Teachers are mandated reporters: suspicion of abuse or neglect requires a report to child protective services, and you do not investigate or promise secrecy first. NAEYC's Code of Ethical Conduct sets a priority order - children first, then families, then colleagues and employers.
Worked example
A parent asks whether another child in the class "has an IEP." Correct response: acknowledge the question kindly, explain that information about other children is confidential, and redirect to the parent's own child. Confirming even eligibility violates FERPA and family trust.
Traps
Confusing IEP and IFSP; promising confidentiality before a disclosure of abuse; reading a family's nonattendance as indifference rather than a barrier such as transportation, shift work, or language; substituting personal opinion for the code of ethics.