Family and Community
Engagement
Welcome
Families are made to feel at home,
comfortable, and a part of the
school community.
In what ways are your school and your
classroom welcoming to families?
Honor
Family members are respected,
validated and affirmed for any
type of involvement or
contribution they make.
How do you honor the various
contributions that families make?
Connect
School staff and families put children at
the center, and connect on education
issues of common interest, designed
to improve educational opportunities
for the children.
How do you connect with families?
Designing School-Wide Systems for Student
Success through Family Involvement
Academic Systems
Behavioral Systems
Tertiary Interventions
• Few families
• Family voice
• High Intensity
Secondary Interventions
• Some families (at-risk)
• High efficiency
• Rapid response
• Planned Interventions
• Some Individualizing
Universal Interventions
• All families
• Preventive, proactive
1-5%
5-10%
80-90%
1-5%
Tertiary Interventions
• Few families
• Family voice
• Intense, durable procedures
5-10%
Secondary Interventions
• Some families (at-risk)
• High efficiency
• Rapid response
• Planned Interventions
• Some Individualizing
80-90%
Universal Interventions
• All families
• Preventive, proactive
• Higher grades, test scores, graduation rates
• Better school attendance
• Increased motivation, self-esteem
• Lower rates of suspension
• Decreased use of drugs and alcohol
• Fewer instances of violent behavior
Henderson & Mapp (2002) – A New Generation of
Evidence
Tiered Model for Families:
Identify the needs of
these parents
To develop
differentiated outreach
To meaningfully
engage with parents
across all Tiers
7
• Tier 1: Universal/Core
• Tier 2: Supplemental/Targeted Group
• Tier 3: Individual/Intensive Support
• Awareness: Families are familiar with PBS
goals and activities at the school.
• Involvement: Families take part in
planning and implementation.
• Extension: Families use PBS strategies to
address behavior at home.
• Provide PBS information
– Open house, registration, brochures
• Survey parents
– Behaviors of concern, needs
• Share PBS principles and strategies
– Video in office, skits at half-time, PTA mtgs
• Provide parent education
– Extending PBS expectations into home
• Saturday workshops with families
– Expectations taught at home
– Positive strategies for homework
– Avoiding power struggles
Community Forums/Focus Groups
Discuss major shared concerns
Brainstorm solutions
Develop action plan to connect school and
community
Extend school expectations into community
Library
After school program (Boys & Girls Club, YMCA)
Swimming pool
Scouting
Community sports
• Tier 1: Universal/Core (what we do
for all families)
• Tier 2: Supplemental/Targeted Group
(what we do to supplement for
some families)
• Tier 3: Individual/Intensive Support
(what we do to engage with those
with the most unique needs)
• Connect families with each other
• Offer families education and training
• Reach families in places/events where
families go (church, community centers,
etc.)
• Recruit family members to serve on
advisory groups
• Create/share a family resource guide to
navigate systems
• Identify the resources/information parents
desire to assist their child
• Identify family strengths and needs
• Build on the strengths
• Repair relationship between youth, family
& school
• Employ a family advocate/liaison to
facilitate
• Personalized, regular contact
• On-going, solution oriented problem
solving
• Persistence – Continuity - Consistency
Behavioral Expectations and Matrix…
each family can align school expectations with family expectations…
Mealtimes
Bathroom
TV Time
Respect Self
Make healthy
Food choices
Maintain privacy
Leave TV behind
at agreed time
Respect Others
Share treats
Flush
Share the clicker
Respect the
Environment
Put dirty dishes
in sink
Pick up wet towels
Pick up after
yourself before
leaving the TV
area
Tiger Pride Family Night
Fam night ad
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Tiger Pride Family Night
• North had 216 families and 720 total
people for our 2nd annual TPFN.
Supporting Tiger Pride
• Students and Parents sign their support
for Tiger Pride
The Tiger at TPFN
Senior Dining
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Video\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
Types of Family Involvement
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Parenting
Communicating
Volunteering
Learning at home
Decision making
Collaboration with community
~Joyce Epstein of Johns Hopkins University
1. Parenting-Help all families
establish home environments to
support children as students.
 Offer interactive parent focus groups with
knowledgeable facilitators
 Create “PBS at Home” classes for parents
 Create behavior support classes for parents and
community
 Provide training in parents’ native language
 Offer family activities on PBS
2. Communication-Design effective forms
of school-to-home and home-to-school
communications about school programs and
children’s progress.
 Back To School Night
 Share results of SW-PBS surveys and
assessments
 SW-PBS bulletin board
 “SW-PBS in Action” video
 Create and distribute calendars and agendas
with SW-PBS motto and matrix
 SW-PBS newsletter
 SW-PBS page on school website
 SW-PBS motto on school letterhead
 SW-PBS shirts, hats, book covers, mugs,
bumper stickers, etc.
3. Volunteering-Recruit and organize
parent help and support.
• Create a volunteer book that describes the
SW-PBS program and behavior expectations
for parents.
• Have parent available to read to students as
SW-PBS incentive.
• Have parents help children design
SW-PBS posters.
4. Learning at Home-Provide information
and ideas to families about how to help students at
home with homework and other curriculum-related
activities.
 Have web topic and activities available each
week/month.
 Purchase resources that parents can check out that
support the SW-PBS initiative.
 Have children explain and give examples of how
PBS works with their family as a homework
assignment.
 Have SW-PBS video available for checkout with
follow-up activities.
5. Decision Making-Include parents in
school decisions, developing parent leaders and
representatives.
 Recruit multiple family members for SW-PBS team who
are not employees or educators.
 Alternate meeting times: morning, afternoon and
evening.
 Pair new parents with veteran parents.
 Offer “short term” participation on SW-PBS team, with
option to renew.
 Plan the care of children during meeting.
 Involve parents in selection of incentives and
celebrations.
6. Collaborating with CommunityIdentify and integrate resources and services from
the community to strengthen school programs,
family practices, and student learning and
development.
 Acknowledge employers’ donation of parent time
in newsletter, on web site.
 Invite community members with resources for
parents to facilitate parent groups or teach
parenting topics based on parent survey.
 Make presentations to the school board,
community groups, etc.
 Invite community and parents to
SW-PBS celebrations.
 Create implementation video that shows SW-PBS
in action to show at local library, town hall
meetings, etc.
 Ask businesses to hand out SW-PBS recognition
cards when seeing students displaying
expectations. Students return card to school and
receive recognition.
 Ask local police to hand out SW-PBS recognition
cards when seeing students displaying
expectations. Students return card to school and
receive recognition.
Ideas…
1.
Develop a survey for families about behavioral needs or
behavioral expectations in the school.
2. Develop a survey for families to determine what they know
or want/need to know about PBIS. (See sample survey)
3. Develop information for families about PBIS at your school.
4. Help plan and implement school wide celebrations.
5. Evaluate your school to determine if it is family friendly.
6. Write a piece for your school newsletter about PBIS.
7. Help plan a PBIS family night at your school.
8. Contact community businesses to share information about
PBIS in the schools.
9. Talk with teachers and staff about what they think parents
need to know about PBIS and ways families can support
PBS in their school.
10. Create a home PBIS contract with families.
More to do….
11. Send regular notes home about PBIS developed by parents for parents.
12. Send home thank you notes for supporting PBIS in schools. (These can be
sent to parents and/or staff and teachers.)
13. Hold a PBIS day at your school that is planned and coordinated by parents.
14. Recruit parents to develop displays around the school related to PBIS. (e.g.
PBIS student of the week, month etc).
15. Set up a PBIS table during parent-teacher conferences.
16. Create PBIS parent resources. (These could include things such as
behavior management “Tip of the Month” or “Five Ways a Day” to reinforce
good behavior in the home).
17. Develop a PBIS Family Calendar.
18. Family/parent rep. recognizes students, staff, and teachers for reinforcing
behavioral expectations. (At team meetings individuals can be identified
who are exhibiting the behaviors that support PBIS in your school)
19. Skits at half-time of sporting events about PBIS.
Business Investment
Business support can provide the impetus for parental involvement and political support by bestowing
schools with recognition in many ways. Here are a few ideas utilized by some current Sw-PBIS schools:
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Celebration night at a local restaurant for all students who received 35 gotchas in a month.
Students bring in gotcha tickets and family receives one entree free. (A gotcha is a ticket for
caught being good.)
Grocery store chooses one student per week from gotcha drawing to serve as an apprentice on
Saturday at the grocery store.
Car oil change company gives out letters for the school to send out to exemplar students giving
the parents 15% off their next oil change.
Art fair night hosted by local restaurants who serve samples of their food to visitors. The
highlighted artists are students who earned a certain number of gotchas in a given period.
Discount cards donated by restaurants, book stores, discount stores, grocery stores, etc. earned
for receiving a predetermined number of gotchas.
Teacher supply store, discount store, and book store discounts or gift certificates for educator
motivation prizes for giving out the most gotcha tickets.
How can schools procure business support? Invite business owners to visit the schools, visit the Rotary
Club and talk about success stories in the schools, invite businesses to the Sw-PBIS stakeholder group,
and when visiting the business mention the program and ask for support.
Media Coverage
Positive media coverage can assist political, parental, business and community support. A press release
template is available in Microsoft Word and can be used to notify newspapers, television, and radio
stations for coverage of Sw-PBIS events. Make media coverage a responsibility of one of the PBIS
leadership team members. Local media stations have fax lines available for press releases.