The involvement of parents in their children’s education promotes the developmental skills of children, enhances the motivation to learn (Jasis & Mariott, 2010) and has a positive influence on the academic success of children (Park & Halloway, 2013). However, several factors play a role in the process of parental involvement and different parental backgrounds result in different understandings about the necessity and type of parental involvement. On the other hand, parents can be challenged by systemic barriers and their involvement can be curbed. The culprit can be the “school” itself as well as it may be difficult to access or ‘hard to reach’ (Crozier & Davies, 2007). This may be true for parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) (Lendrum et al., 2015). Research suggests that parents of children with SEND are infrequently asked or listed and are mainly reluctant to be involved. On the other hand, another group whose involvement in school is highly expected but at the same time challenged, is parents who were forced to migrate and have just settled in the new country. Immigrant parents, mainly in the context of forced migration, face several barriers to be involved in school-based engagement or home-based support (Leong et al. 2019). Their engagement, both in home-based and in school-based activities, can be challenged due to several factors such as language barriers, cultural barriers, or unfamiliarity with the school system, even more so if their children have a disability (Subasi Singh et al. 2021). However, the involvement of immigrant parents suffers mainly from static notions of culture and norms of society. Such norms can put parents in a passive, recipient role and expect from them to adjust to the new education system and to adopt it, especially given recent trends towards right-wing leaning policies across Europe. However, immigrant families bring new perspectives, different experiences, and expectations with them and their engagement can re-shape the norms about parental involvement and bring new insights to the school-parent relationship. In this contribution, we will report endeavours of Viennese schools to involve parents from a forced migration background in the decision-making processes in the school of their children. Data is informed by head teachers and teachers and their reflections on the efforts to increase parents’ involvement.

Crozier, G. & Davies, J. (2007). Hard to reach parents or hard to reach schools? A discussion of home-school relations, with particular reference to Bangladeshi and Pakistani parents.’ British Educational Research Journal, 33 (3), pp. 295–313. Jasis, P. & D. Marriott.(2010). All for Our Children: Migrant Families and Parent Participation in an Alternative Education Program.” Journal of Latinos and Education, 9(2). Lendrum, A., A. Barlow & N. Humphrey. (2015). Developing positive school–home relationships through structured conversations with parents of learners with special educational needs and disabilities. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 15(2) Leong, A. D., S. C. Berzin and S.S. Hawkins. (2019). Immigrant Parent Involvement in Government Funded Early Childhood Education Programming: An Examination of FACES. Early Childhood Development and Care, 189 (12). Park, S.& S D. Holloway. (2013). No Parent Left Behind: Predicting Parental Involvement in Adolescents’ Education Within a Sociodemographically Diverse Population. The Journal of Educational Research, 106(2). Subasi Singh, S., Pellech, C., Gutschik, A., Proyer, M., & O'Rourke, I. M. (2021). Intersectional Aspects of Education at the Nexus of Disability and Forced Migration: Perspectives of Parents, Educational Experts, and School Authorities in Greater Vienna. Education Sciences, 11(8), [423]. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11080423