https://doi.org/10.1177/1540796919843147 Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities 1–16 © The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1540796919843147 rpsd.sagepub.com Research “What I Want to Do as a Father Is Be There”: Constructions of School Involvement for Fathers of Children with Complex Disabilities Nadya Pancsofar 1 , Jerry G. Petroff 1 , Shridevi Rao 1 , and Alyssa Mangel 1 Abstract Fathers of children with complex disabilities can play an important role in the development and learning of their children; however, very little is known about their school involvement experiences. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 fathers of children with complex disabilities to learn how these fathers perceived their involvement in their children’s education and schooling. Fathers constructed their school involvement with a consideration of their work and co-parenting experiences. Their employment was perceived as a form of indirect involvement in their children’s education, but could also be associated with barriers to more direct school involvement. Fathers also discussed the role of the co-parenting relationship in their school experiences and identified several factors that contributed to a greater involvement of mothers in school settings. Among these were a perceived unique expertise of mothers and school environments that were more welcoming to mothers. They also discussed some potentially negative ramifications of being less involved in school settings, compared with mothers. Keywords fathers, school involvement, home–school collaboration, autism, deafblindness Over the past several decades, there has been an increase in research on father involvement in children’s education and learning (Cabrera & Tamis-LeMonda, 2014; Lamb, 2010). Recent research has moved away from unidimensional characterizations of fathers that focused on father presence or absence to a broader consideration of the many roles fathers play in the developmental and educational experiences of their chil- dren (Lamb, 2010; Pancsofar, Vernon-Feagans, Odom, & The Family Life Project Investigators, 2013). However, this extant literature remains almost exclusively focused on fathers of typically developing chil- dren, while very few studies have considered the school involvement experiences of fathers of children with disabilities, and even fewer studies considering fathers of children with complex disabilities. For the pur- poses of this research, the term complex disability describes a set of developmental challenges that require highly specialized and unique supports. In addition, these individuals may present with an array of health- related challenges especially in the initial stages of human development. This population includes children assigned the label of deafblindness, severe-profound intellectual disabilities, and autism. Research on father involvement in the educational experiences of children with complex disabilities can inform the work of 1 The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, USA Corresponding Author: Nadya Pancsofar, School of Education, The College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Rd., P.O. Box 7718, Ewing, NJ 08628, USA. Email: pancsofa@tcnj.edu 843147RPS XX X 10.1177/1540796919843147Research and Practice for Persons with Severe DisabilitiesPancsofar et al. research-article 2019