Equal Partnerships with Families?

We often hear programs and schools say they want to form an equal partnership with parents, however is this really true? As service providers, do we really want parents as equal partners in the education of students? “Equal partner” is a very demanding term. It means that family engagement can not be an “add-on” – something nice to do when all the “real work” is done. Rather, it must be part of our core mission.

If we want to truly make families equal partners, we must move past the events-focused mentality. Some programs think that family engagement is having an open house twice a year. Those that can make it will be engaged. Conversely, if a caregiver can not come to the program, there are few ways for him/her engage. This dynamic does not fit the reality of many of our families. Instead, programs should focus first on the context of their families to derive their engagement strategies. This is very challenging, however, the benefits to our students are worth it. To me, the process of effective family engagement looks like this:
1. Adopt family engagement and support as a critical success factor of your program.
2. Through focus groups, surveys, and/or other means, hear from families ways in which they want to be involved in your program, their needs, and assets.
3. Develop a family engagement and support strategy with multiple levels of engagement – ways to engage at home, in the program, and in the community-at-large.
4. Clearly articulate to staff and families roles, responsibilities, and expectations of both the parents and the program.
5. Ensure that staff receive training and resources enabling them to support and effectively communicate with families.
6. Create a mechanism for continuous information sharing and family input.
7. Repeat steps regularly – family engagement is mostly a process of relationship-building

What do you think about family engagement? How is it working in your program/school?