The present multidisciplinary research study investigates parents’ engagement in schools combining Education and Human Resource Managementperspectives. Parental engagement has been defined as a relationship in which family and school share responsibility for the benefit of the children they serve and their families (Head Start, 2014; Stefanki, Valli, & Jacobson, 2016). School–home relationships are considered an effective means to help students, families, and neighbourhoods. These relationships may vary depending on the circumstances of the student, the family, and the school (Lasater, 2016; Stefanki, et al., 2016). Within this framework, we research whether work environment variables impact parents’ engagement in schools, which in turn may affect students’ academic achievement (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). In particular, we examine the role that specific work environment variables, namely supervisor’s support, coworkers’ support and control over work matters, play in the school engagement of employees who have children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). According to Rothbard (2001), individuals inhabit multiple roles both in the workplace and at home, and can be very engaged in one or some of them. The author asserts that individuals’ diverse roles do not exist in a vacuum, but they are rather affected by attitudes, emotions and behaviours.

Parental engagement includes direct or indirect actions that support a child’s school experiences at home or at school, such as helping with homework, communicating with teachers, helping in the classroom, attending school events, participating in parent-teacher conferences, or even being involved in a parent-teacher organization (Epstein & Sanders, 2002; Pomerantz, Moorman, & Litwarck, 2007). Parental engagement in a child's life is considered to be essential for academic and social success (Baker, Wise, Kelley, & Skiba, 2016; Stefanki et al., 2016).  Certain research studies have indicated that schools proactively build upon relationships with parents and call upon their ideas and thoughts (Crea, Reynolds, & Degnan, 2015; Ferlazzo & Hammond, 2009). As such, parental engagement constitutes a strategy for the school to develop trust and to share decision-making with families (Ferlazzo & Hammond, 2009). However, most studies in this area include parents of typically developing students in general education settings. Among them, there are studies that investigate the relationship between parental engagement and students’ academic achievement and motivation (Henderson & Mapp, 2002), as well as parents’ beliefs, ideas and behaviours regarding their involvement, responsibilities and activities in children’s education (Hoover-Dempsey & Jones, 1996), and parental style and expectations (Jeynes, 2005). On the contrary, little research has been conducted among families with children with SEND (Abrams & Gibbs, 2002; Harry, 2008). Although several reports around the world (e.g., CARERS, 2012) have highlighted the unique needs of working parents of these children, past literature has not sufficiently focused on their job situation. Since parents of children with disabilities constitute a working population that is considered to have an extra burden in their family lives, it is valuable to investigate their levels of school engagement.

            Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the school engagement of parents/ employees’ with children with disabilities, focusing on their professional and family lives in the UK. In particular, we aim to (a) explore whether specific job resources are correlated with levels of school engagement of employees with children with SEND; and (b) to identify demographic characteristics that may influence parental engagement in schools. The research questions are as follows:

1. Are ‘supervisor’s support’, ‘co-workers’ support’, ‘work and family control’ correlated with parents’ school engagement?

2. Do demographic characteristics of parents of children with SEND (such as gender, age, education, hierarchical rank, employment sector, part-time job status) influence school engagement?

To identify the attitudes of employees who are parents of children with disabilities, a survey research in the form of a self-administered questionnaire was designed. The questionnaire was designed based on evidence from the existing literature regarding school engagement, supervisor’s support, coworkers’ support and control over work and family issues. We collected data from parents of children with SEND, who are full-time or part-time employees in the UK. We approached parents through special education and inclusive education institutions. As a precondition for participation, parents stated that they were employed in a public or private organization during the period of the study. Anonymity and confidentiality were assured. We collected a total of 206 usable questionnaires. The survey constructs measured parents’ attitudes toward work and school, as well as work-family demographic information. We adopted the Walker et al.’s (2005) six-item scale to measure school engagement. Supervisor’s Support to the participants was assessed employing the Thomas and Ganster’s (1995) 9-item Supervisor Support Scale. The examined items referred to the frequency with which the participants’ supervisor engaged in specific supportive behaviors in the past two months. We measured coworkers’ support adopting four items from Thomson et al.’s (1999) scale and developing an additional item based on Allen’s (2001) work. To measure control over work matters, we adopted 5 items from Thomas and Ganster’s (1995) control construct. We validated the structure of the employed scales through confirmatory factor analyses. Cronbach's Alpha coefficients were calculated to assess the reliability of the scales. Participants also reported several demographic characteristics, such as industry of employment, education, work experience, number of children and number of children with disabilities. We performed correlation analysis to examine the relationship between the independent variables and employees’ school engagement. Research questions were tested using hierarchical regression analysis. We evaluated the risk of multicollinearity among the independent variables calculating Tolerance and Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) diagnostics (Hair et al. 1998).

The preliminary results of the hierarchical regression analysis on school engagement revealed a positive relationship between supervisor’s support, coworkers’ support, control over work matters and school engagement of parents of children with SEND. Among the demographic variables considered in the study, hierarchical rank at work was found to be negatively related to parents’ levels of school engagement. Employees who (a) rank lower in the organizational hierarchy (b) enjoy higher level of supervisor’s support (c) receive higher levels of support by coworkers and (e) have more control over work matters, tend to display higher levels of engagement in their children’s school life. These findings may be essential for theory and practice, in light of the positive relationship that existing literature identifies between parents’ engagement and children’s success. Overall, the results of the study highlight the role that work environment plays in the school engagement of employees who are parents of children with SEND, thus benefiting both the disciplines of Education and Human Resource Management. In addition, the results of this research constitute the first attempt to identify relationships between variables of the work environment of parents who have children with SEND and their engagement in their child's education. Consequently, valuable information may be elicited with regard to the relationship between work environment and school engagement, allowing for the determination of variables that are crucial in parents’ engagement and children’s educational and social success. This research displays several implications for research and practice, while simultaneously providing a fresh interdisciplinary perspective on family-work issues. Both Educators and Human Resource Managers could significantly benefit from the results of this research to better design their policies and practices.

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