Empowering your staff to connect with parents should only be the first step in your district’s goals for deeper family engagement.
The parents, themselves, also need some guidance, particularly when they have children with disabilities or English learners, said Carmen Sanchez, a program specialist in the US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs.
“You have to build a family’s capacity to engage with schools as much as you build the capacity of educators to engage with families,” Sanchez said Wednesday during her session on family engagement at the National ESEA Conference.
Parents need some training on how they can participate in their child’s education, such as by playing a leading role in monitoring their child’s Individualized Education Plan or joining parent-teacher organizations.
“When we talk about family engagement, we’re talking the parents are there from the beginning,” added Beth Yeh, team leader of the department’s Statewide Family Engagement Center program. “We figure out what families need and then districts move forward from there.”
Extensive research has shown family encouragement and engagement are some of the best predictors of student success in school. Home visits by teachers, for instance, reduce the chances students will have disciplinary issues and can lead to a slight increase in attendance.
Other key steps to building relationships with parents include sharing data with families about students’ skill levels, modeling high-impact teaching practices such as hands-on math activities, listening to families’ ideas about their children’s interests and challenges, and incorporating content from families’ cultures into classroom lessons.
At the same time, ED’s Statewide Family Engagement Centers, which have opened in more than a dozen states, are providing grants to districts and community organizations to develop family engagement policies and activities. The grants are targeted toward low-income families and can focus on adult literacy and financial literacy, Yeh says. The centers are also sharing strategies for family engagement:
- Kentucky Family and School Partnership Guide
- Free, self-paced training for families and educators from Ohio
- South Dakota’s Toolkit for Family Engagement
The department’s Office of English Language Acquisition also offers family engagement resources and strategies, including the webinar “Engaging English Learner Communities and Families through Distance Learning.” The Office also provides an EL Family Tool Kit.
ED’s more than 100 Parent Training and Information Centers and Community Parent Resource Centers can assist districts in providing training for parents in understanding their children’s disabilities and educational needs. The centers also help parents understand their IDEA rights and how to resolve conflicts with schools, Sanchez said.
These centers also offer workshops to guide parents in getting more involved in schools. Participation in parent training sessions has skyrocketed since they’ve been offered online, Sanchez said.
It’s vital to communicate thoughtfully and truthfully so educators better understand each family’s struggles, and parents better understand the challenges schools are facing. “Many families of kids with disabilities and families of English learners, they hear a lot about what’s not working, and they can lose sight of the strengths their children bring,” Sanchez said.
