California Safe and Supportive Schools

Family Engagement: Authentically Integrating Essential Competencies

Family School Partnerships

Family Engagement: Authentically Integrating Essential Competencies

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Improving family engagement is key to school transformations that address the whole child, the whole family, and the whole community. When parents and teachers work together to form partnerships where diversity is identified and cultural values and beliefs are recognized, all students thrive. 

This brief presents evidence-based key insights for family-facing practitioners to support and cultivate high-quality, equitable family engagement through culturally responsive practices. It asks: What are some ways educators can build partnerships with families that invite knowledge-sharing and collaboration? How might families and school-based educators learn from each other? What actions can be taken together?  

Family Engagement: Authentically Integrating Essential Competencies, provides family-facing practitioners with a unifying set of tools, strategies, and dispositions that help them to engage in deep, reflective conversations with each other and the families they serve.  

Family Guide to Supporting Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being

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Project Cal-Well, a cross-agency mental health initiative led by the California Department of Education, produced this easy-to-use guide with input from families, educators, mental health professionals, and youth. The guide helps parents and other adult family members and caregivers navigate supporting the overall well-being and mental health of school-aged children, including tips for what can be difficult conversations. It offers information about the social and emotional development of young people and explains warning signs that may signal mental health challenges. It equips caregivers with targeted strategies, tools, and resources that help them advocate for their family, address each child’s specific needs, and access professional help.

Key topics and tips include:

  • example conversation starters to help open lines of communication with children and teens;
  • enjoyable ways to connect, develop wellness routines, and create well-being practices as a family;
  • information addressing mental health myths, including the specific needs and increased challenges facing young people who identify as LGBTQ+;
  • information on how to recognize signs that a child is bullying or being bullied;
  • tools to create a family media plan that sets boundaries around technology and gives children the skills to be online safely using age-appropriate platforms; and
  • tips for partnering with schools to access mental health and family wellness resources and supports.

Share this guide with families in your district! We recommend providing this guide alongside referrals to local resources to support your community. The Family Guide to Supporting Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being can be shared with this one-page handout containing a QR code for a digital copy of the guide and online resources.  

Spanish-language version of the guide coming in early 2024!

Making Data Meaningful in Educator-to-Family Communication

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Schools collect vast amounts of data about students—the sources range from attendance records, classroom activities, and standardized assessment scores to homework completion, behavior, and local school climate surveys. School leaders and educators are becoming increasingly skilled in sharing and using data to make important decisions about programs, interventions, resources, and policies.

This document describes strategies for sharing data and engaging in data-driven discussions with families to improve student and school outcomes. It includes tips for considering how to invite families into data conversations, effectively engaging with families around student and school data, and determining which data to share with families. A vignette from Azusa Unified School District in California illustrates how collaborating with families to make data-informed decisions can build trust and draw on community assets to improve school outcomes.

Co-Designing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy with Tribal Partners

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Culturally responsive and sustaining curricula that are by and about historically marginalized ethnic or racial groups are a powerful tool to engage students of color while combating deficit narratives found in mainstream curricula. School leaders can work with local community members in developing learning materials and sharing decision-making to improve school climate while affirming the value of all school community members. In this audiocast, you’ll hear about how Shasta County Office of Education has worked with local tribal members to form an American Indian Advisory group that co-creates lesson plans that celebrate and honor the history, culture, and continuing contributions of Native Americans.

Featured Speakers:

  • Judy Flores, Superintendent of Schools
  • Kelly Rizzi, Director of School & District Support
  • Cindy Hogue, Wintu of Northern California Tribal Member and American Indian Advisory Cultural Consultant, Happy Valley School District 8th Grade Teacher

View the transcript for this audiocast.

Download the Shasta County Office of Education brief.