INCLUSION ÓAAIDD 2017, Vol. 5, No. 4, 234–247 DOI: 10.1352/2326-6988-5.4.234 Reconceptualizing Family-Professional Partnership for Inclusive Schools: A Call to Action Shana J. Haines, Grace L. Francis, Tracy Gershwin Mueller, Chun-Yu Chiu, Meghan M. Burke, Kathleen Kyzar, Katharine G. Shepherd, Natalie Holdren, Heather M. Aldersey, and Ann P. Turnbull Abstract Despite the documented link between the presence of family-professional partnership and successful inclusion in schools, these trusting relationships are more of an exception than a reality. We demonstrate the need for a framework to organize research, policy, and practice on family-professional partnership; describe a contemporary framework, the Sunshine Model, that relies on a tiered and multidimensional approach to ensure family-professional partnership with all families; and illustrate how this framework can guide research, policy, and practice in family-professional partnership in inclusive schools. Key Words: family; professional; partnership; framework; inclusion Family-professional partnership is integral to the effective functioning of our educational system, especially when students with disabilities are educated in inclusive school settings. Families of students in inclusive schools whose children have disabilities work with a wide range of service providers, and these families need to understand the overall alignment of the services and supports in order to navigate them (Kervick, 2017). Although partnership between families and profes- sionals helps ensure that each child receives a free and appropriate education to facilitate positive student outcomes (Newman, 2005), these partner- ships are often not realized (Blackwell & Rosetti, 2014; Haines, Summers, Turnbull, & Turnbull, 2015; Mandic, Rudd, Hehir, & Acevedo-Garcia, 2012). In this article, we discuss the benefits of family-professional partnership, education policy aimed at fostering such partnership, barriers to the formation of strong family-professional partner- ship, and contemporary frameworks attempting to address these barriers. We then introduce a multidimensional tiered system of support to comprehensively guide inclusive family-profession- al partnership practice, research, and policy. It is important to note our reasons for choosing the terminology we use throughout this article. Although terms like ‘‘involvement’’ and ‘‘engagement’’ are commonly used when describing interactions between families and professionals, we intentionally use the term ‘‘family-professional partnership’’ to stress the importance of reciprocal relationships to which families and professionals both contribute and from which they both benefit. In addition, we deliberately use the term ‘‘family-professional partnership’’ to emphasize that partnership in- volves family members beyond parents only. Nevertheless, policy and research often refer to parents rather than family in regard to partner- ship. Thus, we encourage our readers to consider all relevant family members by blood or marriage (e.g., siblings, extended family members), as well as ‘‘chosen family,’’ when thinking of partnering with families and to consider authentic partner- ships to be those that are reciprocal and benefit both families and professionals. Family-Professional Partnership: Benefits, Policies, Barriers, and Current Frameworks Research demonstrates that strong family-profes- sional partnership benefits all educational stake- 234 Reconceptualizing FPP