Parental involvement in their children's education programs is increasingly being encouraged and expected. Due to the flow of immigrants into U.S., the demographic nature of U.S. schools is changing with an increase in the number of children from diverse cultural groups served in special education. Among these cultural groups are immigrant students from Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The families of these students who come with educational expectations for their children may not be very familiar with the U.S. school system. Since federal mandates require parental involvement during the assessment, decision-making, and educational processes, the field of special education is faced with both the challenge and the opportunity of designing formal service delivery systems for parents with different expectations, and assumptions. Yet, very little research exists in the area of Immigrant parents from SSA and their involvement in IEP meetings. This study is in response to this void in the research. Full parental participation and involvement in the IEP development and implementation of effective special education services are vital, so it is important for parents to understand current classroom practices and the IEP process. Using a multiple case study design with an autoethnographic component, I explored the experiences and understandings of SSA immigrant parents' roles in the planning and decision making related of their children's IEPs. Each case study involved three individual semi-structured in depth interviews, and an analysis of parent-provided documentary evidence. Analyses show that parents believed that their roles resulted from educators' practices that coerced them into conceding to the educators' decisions rather than encouraging parental input and collaboration. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]