Developing Family Involvement Programs

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Developing Family Involvement Programs
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• How do I, the principal, view the role of
  parents in the operation of the school and in
  their childrens education?

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What to do?

• Create a school culture that invites parent
  involvement.
• Talk openly about family partnerships.
• Place expectations on teachers regarding
  partnering with parents.
• Place expectations on parents regarding their
  importance.
• Encourage 100 enrollment in PTO.

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What to do?

• Have a person on staff dedicated to increasing
  family involvement.
• Involve parents in schools decision making.
• Invite parents to curriculum meetings.
• Foster school improvement planning teams.
• Include parents in professional development
  workshops.

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What to do?

• Include funds in the schools budget. (preferably
  a line item)
• Reward students and their families by displaying
  work.
• Rally together as a community.
• Encourage pride and ownership of the indoor and
  outdoor appearance.
• Provide the opportunity for involvement.

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Goals and Success Areas for Family Involvement
Programs

• Parenting
• Communicating
• Volunteering
• Learning at Home
• Decision Making
• Collaboration with Community

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Parenting

• Increased parent inquiries about their childrens
  progress
• Reduced number of discipline problems
• Diminished examples of students not being
  prepared for class, not completing projects,
  homework, etc.
• Fewer instances of being tardy or absent

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Communicating

• Offer unique school functions specifically for
  parent and child development
• Keep an open door policy
• Frequent communications going to families
• Technology-enabled (websites / email)
• Timely communication yields greater attendance at
  parent conferences
• Personal attention at drop-off and pick-up times

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Volunteering

• Increase the number of volunteer opportunities
  throughout the school
• Make volunteer activity substantive
• Provide training and materials for the volunteer
  activity
• Build a relationship with the school volunteers
• Track the volunteer involvement
• Treat volunteers as you treat others on staff

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Learning at Home

• Learn at home activities and materials in
  various subject areas
• Encourage Accelerated Reader programs which
  require parents involvement
• Offer guidance opportunities to overcome
  difficult family situations
• Make technology used at school available for the
  home
• Extended hours for use of the Media Center

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Decision Making

• Opportunities for parents to have substantive
  input
• Increased parent slots on steering committees,
  advisory councils, improvement teams, etc.
• Empower non-participating parents in creative
  ways
• Following through with joint decisions
• Follow-up with feedback

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Collaboration with Community

• Add to the number of community agency linkages
• Increased use of community agencies by school or
  families
• Involve the community in annual events
• Celebrate successes through local media
• Extend the reach beyond our community

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Empowering Parents As Partners