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National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth Who Are Neglected, Delinquent, or At-Risk
SPOTLIGHT: STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE FAMILIES
By guest authors Trina W. Osher and Barbara Huff
Challenges
The evidence is in. The impact of parents and families on student outcomes and school performance is now well documented [1]. Reaping these benefits for children who are at risk or adjudicated as neglected or delinquent and placed outside their home, school, and community is an ongoing challenge. Involving families in the education of these students can be further complicated by institutional restrictions or court orders.
Relationships Are Key
The key to family involvement is establishing communication and building relationships with the student’s parents and family members. Some family members are easy to connect with. Some families and are harder to reach and engage.
Establishing communication with a student’s family may require creativity and persistence on the part of the education program staff. Don’t assume the family is not interested just because you don’t initially get a response to your first communication efforts. Use more than one strategy to reach out to a family—send a message in the mail, make a phone call, and also try to meet the family in person the next time they visit their child at the facility. Keep trying if there is no response to the first attempt. Seek out further information—from their child perhaps—about the best way to be in touch with a family who is not responding. Does the family read and write in English? Do they use e-mail? Do they live in a place where mailboxes are not secure? Is there a time of day that is best for making a phone call? Can they make long-distance calls from their home phone, or do they have to call you back collect? Are they allowed to receive calls at work, and do they feel safe doing so? Is there someone the family trusts with whom you can leave a message when you need the family to get in touch with you? Would they prefer a face-to-face meeting if they live nearby, or can they meet you at a convenient place in the community?
Choosing Strategies
One family involvement strategy alone is not likely to be effective for the families of every student. Strategies for family involvement can be organized into three levels using the familiar public health pyramid. Universal strategies, activities that are designed for all families, are in the bottom layer. Selective strategies, things that focus on the needs of families who require extra encouragement to get involved, are in the middle layer. Intensive strategies, individually designed for families who are much harder to reach and need substantial support to participate, are at the top (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Strategy Pyramid
Universal strategies that encourage family involvement focus on creating a welcoming, culturally responsive environment and establishing lines of communication that help build trusting relationships.
A family knows their child best, and the family can be a great resource for education planning even if they are not able to come to the school. Acknowledging their expertise and welcoming their contributions pave the way for a better relationship. For example, request a family’s help with obtaining educational records from previous schools, share results of educational assessments with family, and seek family input for educational planning—by phone if necessary. Involve family in making recommendations about supports needed to continue educational services when their child returns to the community. Always provide a qualified translator if the family’s preferred language is not English. Some additional examples are:
- As soon as their child is enrolled, give every family an orientation to the school, the education program in general, and their child’s specific educational opportunities (not just a copy of the student handbook). The person providing this orientation should speak the family’s language and include a tour of the campus or classrooms if facility regulations allow. Families who live too far from the facility to come in person can be given an orientation by video or DVD with a followup phone call to answer questions.
- Establish a communication system so teachers can frequently update a family on their child’s educational progress and respond to any questions the family might have. A brief phone call, e-mail, or even a written note every week or two maintains a family’s interest in their child’s education. Staff need to find out which type of communication works best for each family. Give each family a list of their child’s teachers’ names, contact information, and when they are available to talk or meet.
- Sponsor social activities, such as a family supper, picnic, or cultural festival. These can encourage families who live within reach of the facility to visit the school and are an opportunity for school staff to tell families about the education program. Informal events can give teachers and family members a chance to get to know each other and build relationships. If the facility is far from a community where several families live, social events can be held in that community with some of the school staff traveling to the community to participate.
Selective strategies in the middle layer of the pyramid focus on two different objectives. One objective is to reach families who are interested in being involved in their child’s education but lack the means or need additional encouragement or support to participate. A second objective offers families who are already engaged in their child’s education opportunities to become more involved in the overall education program.
Providing transportation and weekend housing for families who live a great distance away are obvious strategies for achieving the first objective. Some additional examples are the following:
- Peer-to-peer support groups can boost family involvement by connecting a family with others who share a common experience and who probably have similar concerns about their children being away from home. A peer support group could be held on the same day families visit their children, or it could be organized in families' home towns.
- Offering parents and family members education and training opportunities that address some of their own needs—learning English or how to use a computer, or how to write a resume or search for a job—brings families to the education program and increases their comfort level with being in school and talking with teachers.
- School staff can be available on visiting day to reach out to families who visit their children. Occasionally opening the school on a visiting day with each teacher giving a short description of what their class has been doing lately reduces the effort a family has to make to meet school staff and get involved in their child’s education.
- Most educational institutions and programs have advisory groups, workgroups, and taskforces that could benefit from the insights of family members of current students or recent graduates. Families who have been involved in their children’s education and are already familiar with the institution’s education program(s) are ideal candidates for these positions. Partnering group members with a new family to mentor them through the first few meetings and orient them to the group’s history, mission, and operating procedures brings a family up to speed quickly and increases the likelihood that they will stay engaged.
Intensive Strategies focus on meeting individual needs and more substantial challenges that keep the few families at the top of the pyramid from getting involved.
- If a family does not participate because their relationship with their child has been weakened, damaged, or even destroyed, individualized counseling services designed to reconstruct that relationship are a necessary first step. This step may need to start with visiting the family at home to better understand their perspective and feelings before gradually bringing them together with their child to work on resolving issues. Talking about their child’s academic accomplishments may help a family be receptive to education staff outreach since this approach focuses on strengths and avoids blame and shame.
- Family members who do not respond to general outreach efforts may respond to a peer who has some experience with the institution. Hire family members to be family liaisons (or contract with a family-run organization for this service) to establish a solid link between a hard-to-reach family and their child. A family liaison focuses on the family. He or she makes a concerted effort to meet the family on their terms (often in their own home), and to learn about their strengths and challenges. Liaisons can talk with a family about their dreams for their child and discover their capacity to support and supervise their child through a successful transition. Family liaisons involve a family in all aspects of their child’s education and continue working with the family once their child returns to the community.
As you develop programming to encourage family involvement, focus on each family’s strengths and challenges. Understanding a family’s strengths and weaknesses will help you choose the most effective strategies to engage a family in their child’s education program—and beyond. Whether universal, selective, or intensive strategies are needed to engage a family, fostering communication and building a trusting relationship are essential for success.
[1] Furger, R. (2006). Secret Weapon Discovered! Scientists Say Parents Partnering with Teachers Can Change the Future of Education. Retrieved July 25, 2006, from http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=Art_1476&issue=mar_06#
A current link to this article can be found at http://www.edutopia.org/secret-weapon-discovered
Published August 2006