How are your families and caregivers doing?
We know that many schools are still struggling to engage families and caregivers at the same level they did before the pandemic. Our partners have expressed challenges in family attendance at events, workshops, and meetings. Family and caregiver engagement is crucial now as you prepare for the end of the year and identify priorities for the following school year. It is a critical part of creating a school environment where all students belong. However, families and caregivers probably aren't showing up because the current engagement opportunities do not feel meaningful to them or connect to their priorities for their child(ren). While important, meaningful family and caregiver engagement goes beyond the occasional PTA meeting, parent-teacher conference, or potluck. As you work to increase the meaningful engagement of families and caregivers, here are some tips we have found to be helpful.
Reconsider your power dynamics with families and caregivers. Do you see families as partners or as helpers? Do you believe the role of families is only to support the schools’ priorities or are you a school that also centers families and community goals? Shifting your thinking to seeing families as partners is the first step to identifying hierarchical structures and systemic oppression that may be impeding families from engaging. Once you shift your mindset, you can start to communicate and build relationships and systems with families and caregivers in a more effective, asset-based way.
Create activities and systems that ask students to authentically engage with families and caregivers about school content. Examples would be classroom academic activities that require students to interview caregivers, invite caregivers into the classroom to present or participate, gather information on caregivers’ perspectives on a topic, or attend an content-aligned event or field trip with their caregivers. These activities make learning more relevant for students and provide unique opportunities for caregivers to engage in the content from an asset-based lens.
Conduct empathy interviews to understand what type of engagement, including events, activities, preferred times, and locations, work best for your families. While empathy interviews take longer than surveys, you are more likely to learn more about the root cause for low engagement and you will build better relationships with families. Additionally, you can use what you learn from families and caregivers to identify ways to spend remaining ESSER funding and consider strategies to sustain those priorities over time. It is important that you approach the interview with curiosity and maintain a non-judgemental lens so that families know you are open to their feedback and care about their perspectives. If you aren’t sure where to start, here are some sample questions:
Tell me about a time when you felt welcomed at our school. What made you feel welcomed? When have you not felt welcomed and why?
What opportunities have you had to share your strengths and knowledge with the school community?
What are your child(ren)’s greatest strengths? How are those strengths nurtured and leveraged in the school environment? In what ways could the school do more to nurture your child(ren)’s strengths?
What are your child(ren)’s greatest challenges? How does the school support your child with these challenges? In what ways could the school do more to support your child?
Moving forward, we must be open to an expanded vision of family and caregiver engagement so that it is meaningful and impactful for students. It is crucial that we take the time to think differently about family and caregiver engagement in order to equitably serve our communities. If you want support on connecting family aspirations and assets to your school culture and climate systems, contact us.