Collaborative Partnerships with Families & the Community IL 1907 & IL2097

Family Engagement Plan

You have the description of a fictional school (Kennedy Elementary School) and community (Poplar Grove) and will to develop a family engagement plan for how you will involve the families of your Kindergarten students in their children’s learning in your classroom and school district. The class plan will include the following six sections and will be based upon Epstein’s National Network of Partnership Schools “Keys to Successful Partnerships.”

1. Home-Based Family Engagement Activities

Describe your home learning program for Kindergarten students throughout the school year. This program should include interactive “family homework” that is developmentally appropriate for Kindergarten students. In your plan, tell how you’ll organize a take-home kits or “mobile learning” program for the year and give examples of specific kits you might send home throughout the year.

• Communication

Describe a minimum of three different ways you will communicate with your students’ families throughout the year, beyond your traditional parent–teacher conferences. At least TWO of these strategies must be reciprocal, or two-way communication, and your plan should include a way that your communication will be regular and frequent. Additionally, tell how you would use technology as an alternate form of communication.

• Parents and Guardians as Decision Makers

Describe at least three different ways that you will include families as partners in making decisions about their child’s education. While some opportunities will arise unexpectedly, also think about how you can purposefully plan for families to share the decision-making power with you throughout the year. One of your three examples should be a description of how you would help support families to be decision makers for their child going through the referral and IEP process for specialized services.

• Parent Education

Describe at least three different ways you will help support your students’ families in their parenting skills. Your plan may include ways you’ll communicate parenting information to your students’ families and/or organized programs in which your entire school will participate. One of your three parent education activities should be a Kindergarten Home Visit program. Describe how you’d implement this program, including when visits would be done and strategies you and the other kindergarten teachers would use to have successful home visits.

• Community Resources

Describe how you would use community resources to support your teaching and your students’ learning and development throughout the year. Give examples of resources you’d use from each of the following categories: service agencies, transportation services, government/political agencies, social, cultural, ethnic, or educational agencies, business and commercial enterprises, the media, the natural environment, and people in the community. Tell one idea for a district-level community partnership for your school district.

• School-Based Family Engagement Activities

Describe at least three different ways throughout the school year that you will actively solicit family support, assistance, and/or engagement for your classroom activities. This may include volunteer opportunities, family events, or other school activities for families to attend. Also include your plan for recruiting, training, and retaining volunteers.

Make sure the ideas for each section of your plan fit this community and school district’s families. In particular, your plan should address the socioeconomic and cultural makeup of the community and school district, including the families that have limited English speaking skills. Also make sure your plans are developmentally appropriate for Kindergarten-aged children.  

Use your textbook as a resource for ideas for your assigned section. This Family Engagement Plan is based upon the community, school, and teachers depicted in the case studies at the beginning of each chapter of your textbook as well, and these case studies can also be a resource for you in your plans. 

Family Engagement Plan: School District and Community

Poplar Grove

Poplar Grove is a small Midwestern town, in a rural area with a population of around 16,000 people. It is within commuting distance of a bustling urban area, and many of the adults in Poplar Grove commute into the city for employment. Poplar Grove has a mix of socioeconomic levels, although the people who live here tend to be middle-class or blue-collar workers, as the area is one of the older rural towns and not a destination for new upscale housing developments or businesses. The community is near an interstate and has a few thriving businesses along that corridor, such as fast food franchise restaurants, a locallyowned Mexican restaurant, and two gas stations for travelers. The community does have a regional hospital that employs several of its residents. There is an increasing unemployment problem, with the closure of a major factory, and housing foreclosures are also on the rise. The city recently was awarded a grant to fund a homeless shelter and provide temporary housing for adults and children without a home. There is little demand for a taxi service, but the town does have a shuttle service during the day for senior citizens and low-income residents, funded by a state grant. City leaders have fought to retain that funding in state budget cuts.

The community tends to be conservative in values and many of the residents have lived here all their lives. The town’s local radio station plays country music and broadcasts all the basketball games of the town’s high school. The local newspaper is also supportive of the school district and has regular features such as “Student of the Month” or reports from school board meetings. A number of civic organizations, such as the Poplar Grove Rotary Club, have worked to improve the community through a variety of projects throughout the year. The crime rate is lower compared to the nearby urban area, although the local police have seen an increase in drug-related crimes, in particular methamphetamine use and sales. Poplar Grove is the county seat and the courthouse is located in the town square. Poplar Grove is surrounded by farm land, and the local farmers tend to be hard working, with farms in the same families for generations. Migrant workers come through Poplar Grove during harvest season, many of whom do not speak English as a first language. These children attend the local school while in the area. A state park with a lake is located about 30 miles west of Poplar Grove, and residents enjoy fishing and boating there. However, the community tends to not reap much economic benefit from the lake, other than the businesses on the interstate.

The racial/ethnic makeup of Poplar Grove is becoming increasingly diverse. About 61% of the population is White, and 22% are African American. The Hispanic population is the fastest growing population, and about 16% of the community members are of Hispanic descent, most of whom do not speak English fluently. The area is predominantly Christian based, and the local Catholic Church has been a leader in reaching out to Hispanic families by offering Mass in Spanish. The family structure of Poplar Grove mirrors the rest of the nation, with about 29% of families being two-parent, traditional families, about 31% are single-parent families, 32% are blended families, and the remaining 8% of families are headed by grandparents or other family members. 

Kennedy Elementary School

Kennedy Elementary School is one of four elementary schools in Poplar Grove, serving Pre-K through fourth grade. Due to the strong leadership of the principal, Brenda Fraser, the school has been recognized by the state as a high-quality program. It is a Title I school, meaning that it qualifies for federal funds, due to the low-income children it serves. Approximately 68% of the children receive free or reduced lunches, higher than the state average. The school offers many activities for families, such as a Back to School picnic, the PTO-sponsored Fall Festival, and parenting workshops. The school currently does not offer an after-school program, and there is a concern about the number of latchkey children, since some families cannot afford after-school childcare. The teachers at Kennedy Elementary range in experience from first-year teachers to veteran teachers, and about 37% of the teachers have Masters’ degrees. The university in the nearby city has a satellite campus in Poplar Grove, and many of the teachers have done additional course work through the university’s extension center and online courses.

Note: For more information about the Kennedy Elementary teachers, principal, students, and families, read the case studies that are at the beginning of each chapter in your textbook.

Family Engagement Plan Scoring Guide

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