Supporting Black Families Raising Autistic Children through an Online Psychoeducational Training

Virtual family engagement offers possibilities for addressing service disparities and building family-professional partnerships. This presentation highlights the virtual delivery of a psychoeducational intervention for empowering Black families raising autistic children. Attendees will learn strategies for virtual engagement, building cultural rapport online, and maintaining remote partnerships to strengthen family-school collaboration.Participants will be able to: 1. Summarize specific barriers to autism service access experienced by Black families raising autistic children and explain how these barriers contribute to documented service disparities. 2. Apply knowledge of virtual implementation to consider how other family-centered engagement opportunities might be adapted to reach underserved populations or remote communities. 3. Identify at least three evidence-based practices for facilitating culturally responsive family participation in virtual formats, with specific attention to enhancing participation, accessibility, and retention.