Family Engagement

Families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds face unique circumstances which may make it difficult for them to effectively engage in their child’s education. This session will focus on the resources and tools that PACER staff developed, with MN school district partners, under our SPDG grant, to help promote meaningful parent engagement with these families. We will highlight the resources available on our webpage for school professionals and parents.

SEDL’s Working Systemically approach is a process for school improvement—and, ultimately, increased student achievement—that focuses on key components and competencies at all levels of the local educational system.

The Center for Parent Information and Resources maintains a list of the OSEP-funded Parent Training and Information Centers and Community Parent Resources Centers serving families of children with disabilities in every state and U.S. territory.

The Collaborative Action Team process is a set of concepts, activities, and resources that individuals, school districts and other organizations can use to develop a partnership between home, school, community, and students at the local level. These teams identify pressing issues in the school community and take action to address those issues with the purpose of promoting student success.

Weiss, H. B., Lopez, M. E., & Caspe, M. (2018). Joining Together to Create a Bold Vision for Next Generation Family Engagement: Engaging Families to Transform Education. Global Family Research Project.

The Idaho State Department of Education and the Idaho Commission for Libraries shared their partnership story, including sharing about an exciting training they developed for school and public library staff.

Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools is a strategy to promote social inclusion, providing students, educators and families with the tools, skills and dispositions to create schools of acceptance and positive school climate. Evidence and evaluation shows that SOUCS  is a contributing factor to student success, and positive academic and social emotional outcomes. This session will explore how the impact can extend to family wellbeing.

A Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) offers an alternative approach to family engagement. A tiered approach to family engagement helps teachers and administrators adapt to the contexts, needs, and preferences of every family in the school so that ALL families are engaged in their children’s education.

This self-assessment tool is designed to provide regional support systems for family engagement with a means of reflecting on their work for supporting family and community engagement and to set priorities for strengthening and expanding this work in the future.

The Parent-Teacher Partnership Model brings together a small group of family members and school staff a few times per year to discuss such topics as respect, communication, equality, and supporting student learning using a set of 8 suggested modules. Families and schools implement this model for an opportunity for honest and open, two-way communication towards school improvement and family well-being. Parents and teachers co-facilitate meetings, to model to the group that families are equal partners.