Family Engagement: Reset and Restart

Audience and Purpose

The information on this webpage is provided with school and district leaders in mind as they plan for the best ways to engage families in the reset and restart of education for the 2020-2021 school year. Family engagement is a key strategy to enhancing student engagement and achievement, especially when learning remotely. By ensuring families are receiving consistent communication, necessary supports for at-home learning and connections to key community partners, schools and districts can best support families’ unique needs during the reopening of schools.

This guide identifies three areas of family engagement that are critical to student success:

1. Communication;
2. Supporting learning at home; and
3. Engaging strategic community partners.

Included in these three areas are specific family engagement resources and strategies, as well as best practices already happening in Ohio’s schools and districts.

Family Engagement for Restart and Reopen

Remote learning during the coronavirus-related (COVID-19) ordered school-building closure last spring created new opportunities for families to increase participation in their students’ education. In many cases, teacher-family partnerships became stronger because of more frequent engagement between teachers and parents, guardians and caregivers. As districts and schools move into the 2020-2021 school year, schools and districts should consider ways to sustain this and leverage it for the benefit of students.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic did not create the equity gaps that exist in education, it is continuing to reveal and exacerbate the already existing social and educational inequities. Further, this global crisis highlights the need for leaders to develop and strengthen connections between education and other social systems, including health care, housing and workforce development.

All families want to support their children’s learning, but not all families may have the same resources or opportunities to be involved in remote learning in a consistent manner. Families and students will enter the new school year with different needs. Some parents and guardians may want to keep their students out of school because of concerns for illness or because of a student’s or other family member’s pre-existing health conditions. Some families are returning to work, while some are continuing to work from home. These circumstances will impact a student’s ability to learn at home.

Schools, districts, teachers, families and community partners should build strong partnerships with the common goal of supporting all students. Through targeted family engagement strategies, teachers, school staff and leaders can ensure each child and every family have the resources necessary for equitable participation in educational services.
 
 

Communication

Effective communication with families and the community at large will be essential to a successful reopening experience. Each school and district should plan how all health, safety and logistical practices will be clearly communicated to students, families and community partners.
Schools and districts should communicate with families and guardians regularly to keep them informed about reopening-related activities. Student expectations and routines while in the school building should be shared with parents and caregivers. Communications with families should include expectations around student health and safety guidelines and updated procedures regarding parent visits, pickup, drop off, signing students out of school early and other specific aspects of the daily educational experience.
Schools, districts and teachers also should use targeted communication to reach students and families who may require additional support and outreach during restart and reopening. Best practices for effective communication with families include:

• Two-way communication. The sender and receiver are equals in two-way communication. Both engage in active listening, sharing their thoughts and questions. Families can more actively participate when educators use two-way communication. A few examples of two-way communication include parent-teacher conferences, phone calls, virtual meetings and committee meetings.
• Multiple methods of communication. School and district leaders may benefit from taking inventory of the ways staff are communicating with families, whether through social media, all-calls, email, apps, newsletters or other formats. Leaders and educators can identify the communication mechanisms that work best to reach vulnerable youth and their families and/or students with limited access to internet connectivity. Schools and districts should consider surveying families about their preferences of communication mode and align outreach activities to the data received. Teachers and staff should be encouraged to communicate with individual students and families in ways that are most effective for each. If a family is confronting a barrier to a certain communication method, work with that family to find an alternative.
• Keep communication consistent. Effective communication is consistent, ongoing and intentional. Regular check-ins between educators and families or administrators and families build trust and makes necessary conversations more comfortable. As schools reopen, it will be important for families to know how and when they can reach the school and their children’s teachers, as well as when the school will be regularly communicating important information back to them. For example, a school can notify families to expect weekly emails from the school or, during remote learning days, daily check-ins with a teacher. Schools and districts also can help teachers to communicate clearly with families about how they can best be reached and during what times of day are appropriate to do so.
• Encourage teachers and staff. For students and families who may be hard to reach during reset and restart, relationships are key. They build trust between schools and families and lead to more effective communication over time. Teachers, school staff, coaches and mentors can play a vital role in reaching out to families and knowing how to best stay in touch as they are the individuals who students see most often.

 

 

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Supporting Learning at Home

Remote learning will continue to play a role in the education experience of Ohio’s students and will be an important contributor to sustaining educational opportunities. Remote learning should be considered an option for students and staff for the entire school year, as many families will have high-risk health concerns or may not feel comfortable with in-person instruction until a vaccine is available. The Ohio Department of Education has released a Remote Learning Guide for the 2020-2021 school year, which can be found here.

As schools and districts engage families in remote learning, it is important that parents and guardians have a clearly defined role in at-home learning and they understand expectations around how to support their children. Schools should consider how they will ensure students remain active, engaged and participating in remote learning at home. Some considerations for supporting students and families with remote learning include:

• Using a Unified Platform: When schools adopt one unified platform to implement remote learning, it is easier for families to actively participate in their children’s educational experiences. Moving all remote learning to one platform (for example, Google Classroom) can streamline the technology with which families and students must be familiar in order for successful and timely completion of assignments. It also can make it easier for staff to check in with students and families regarding progress.
• Monitor Attendance and Work Completion: Follow the school or district’s remote learning plan to identify students who may be having challenges logging on to online remote learning platforms. If attendance or work completion is inconsistent, follow protocol to engage the student and family, and identify specific strategies or a plan to get the student back on track.
• Needs Survey: Consider surveying families about what their needs are regarding remote learning and use that data to drive decisions about the supports the school and district is providing.
  • Columbus City Schools and Hillard City Schools designed surveys for families to voice their needs around social-emotional and academic learning supports and used the data to match families with additional resources.
• Provide Resources: Empower teachers to provide resources to families to support learning at home.
  • Sample Remote Learning Schedule for a Student with Complex Learning Needs
  • Home Visiting Resource Guide for Teachers and Staff 

 

 

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Engaging with Community Partners

Partnerships is a core principle of Each Child, Our Future, Ohio’s five-year strategic plan for education, and is critical in moving forward in the 2020-2021 school year. Everyone, not just those in schools, shares the responsibility for preparing children for successful futures.

A collaborative effort of both education and community organizations is needed to ensure the effective delivery of appropriate instruction, while meeting the needs of the whole child, for each student.

Partners can include after-school child care and program providers, libraries, faith-based organizations, Boys and Girls Clubs, scouting organizations, philanthropies, chambers of commerce and business groups, health providers, social service organizations, local governmental agencies and many more. Connecting families with community partners can provide additional support and outreach. Particularly when planning for remote learning or a hybrid in-person schedule, collaborating with child care programming within the school or community will be critical in supporting families as they go to work and look for safe places for their children.  

• Consider the ways the school or district can connect families with local organizations that support housing, food, internet connectivity, child care and other necessities.
• Create a space on the district website or social media platforms for families to read about the community partners in the area and how they can be connected to services.
• Use the community supports that may be accessible within the school setting. Some examples include partnerships with mental and behavioral health care providers and vulnerable youth school district liaisons.

 

 

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Conclusion

Family engagement will be a key strategy to supporting all students and families and especially important for sustaining relationships and providing resources to vulnerable youth. By planning for how to communicate with families, help them connect with additional community resources, and support learning at home, schools and districts can work to reach all students. Below are additional resources to find effective, high-quality family engagement tools.

Additional Resources

Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center at The Ohio State University
Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities 
Teaching Tolerance – Family Engagement Resources
Edutopia – Family Engagement Toolkit 

Last Modified: 8/26/2021 1:03:39 PM

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