1. Preparing and Supporting Emerging Family Leaders

2. Today’s Presenters/Facilitators
Darla Gundler
Federation for Children with Special Needs/ Early Childhood Personnel Center (ECPC)
Julia Martin Eile
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Special Education Programs
Stephanie Moss
Parent to Parent of Georgia/
Region 3 Parent Technical Assistance Center
Amy Nicholas
Early Childhood Technical
Assistance (ECTA) Center/ Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy)

3. Session Outcomes Participants will be able to:
Describe the role of family leaders in high-quality IDEA early childhood systems.
Articulate the challenges that early intervention and preschool special education systems face with recruiting and retaining family leaders.
Identify strategies, practices, and approaches for effectively preparing family leaders to engage in programmatic and policy decision-making.
Locate resources that can be used to support family leadership development.

4. Getting Set-up with Poll Everywhere
Mobile Phone: Text ECPCTA to Tablet or Laptop: Go to PollEv.com/ecpcta
These photos by Unknown Author are licensed under CCBY-NC-SA

5. Who’s in the room?

6. What’s the first word that comes to mind when you hear the term “family leadership?”

7. Beliefs about Leadership
Leaders are not born – they rise out of a person’s passion for how they want the world to be.
Leadership isn’t a gift – it’s accessible to anyone who wants it.
Leadership isn’t a calling – it’s a matter of listening to a question and trying to come up with an answer.
A leader is anyone who has a very big and compelling story of how it could all turn out.
Source: Serving on Groups That Make Decisions

8. What We Know about Family Leadership
When families are engaged as leaders, they can:
Place concerns on policy and program agendas that were not previously acknowledged;
Suggest and act on new ways to solve problems;
Draw on their own political and organizational networks to influence change; and
Bring to bear supportive resources (Fine, 1993).
Family leadership efforts are most effective when they are broadly supported by program staff (Dyrness, 2011; Ishimaru, 2014).
For family members to effectively engage in leadership and advocacy activities, they must be met with trust and respect by professionals and other family leaders (Turnbull, Turnbull, Erwin, Soodak, & Shogren, 2015).

9. Definition of Family Engagement
Family engagement refers to the systematic inclusion of families in activities and programs that promote children’s development, learning, and wellness, including in the planning, development, and evaluation of such activities, programs, and systems.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services/Dept. of Education’s Policy Statement on Family Engagement in the Early Grades

10. Frameworks and Policies that Emphasize the Importance of Family Engagement

11. A System Framework for Building High-Quality Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education Programs
Family engagement cuts across all components of high-quality systems.
Good outcomes for children with disabilities and their families
Result
Implementation of
Effective Practices
Data
System
Quality
Standards
Accountability & Quality Improvement
Personnel / Workforce
Finance
Governance
Building
High-Quality
Systems
Available at: ectacenter.org/sysframe

12. Federal Legislation Head Start Act
Child Care Development Block grant (CCDBG )
Maternal, Infant and Child Health Home Visiting Program
Public Health, Title V
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

13. Find your parent center at:
U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Parent Training & Information Centers
Work with families of infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities, birth to 26
Help parents participate effectively in their children’s education and development
Partner with professionals and policymakers to improve outcomes for all children with disabilities
Collaborate with early childhood TA centers
Find your parent center at:

14. U.S. Department of Education’s Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships Partnering with families in multiple roles: Supporters Encouragers Monitors Advocates Decision Makers Collaborators

15. U. S. Dept. of Health & Human Services/Dept
U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services/Dept. of Education Policy Statement on Family Engagement in the Early Grades Provides recommendations to early childhood systems and programs

16. Connecting Family Engagement Practices and Family Leadership

17. DEC Recommended Practices: Family Practices
10 family engagement practices
F10: Practitioners inform families about leadership and advocacy skill-building opportunities and encourage those who are interested to participate.
Available at:

18. DEC Recommended Practices Ambassadors

19. Professional Values and Commitments
Programs with strong family engagement have certain values and commitments in common that, in turn, promote family leadership (Geller, McAlister, & Tung, 2015):
Build upon family members’ strengths and assets
Value and support family members’ ideas and opinions
Incorporate family voices into decision-making and implementation of new initiatives/reforms
Provide multiple ways of soliciting family input
Provide continuous feedback to families, with honest and open sharing of thoughts, ideas, and information
Additional references: Martinez-Cosio, 2010; Ishimaru 2014; Warren & Mapp, 2011

20. Supporting Families in Leadership Roles

21. Takeaways Develop authentic partnerships
But what does that mean?
How does that happen?
Identify programmatic activities in which families can participate and articulate a clear, intentional clear purpose for their involvement
Use a variety of methods to inform families of opportunities to become involved
Close the loop about decisions

22. Providing Roles for Family Leaders
Some family members may not see themselves as leaders. A personal invitation let’s them know that you recognize leadership traits in them.
Ask family members to take on a specific role that is compatible with what you know about their individual experiences, expertise, or skills.
Provide opportunities to:
Attend and present at conferences
Serve on committees or task forces
Participate in staff and family development
Plan special events

23. Family Leadership Development: Training Topics
Foundations of leadership
Advocacy skills
Personal relationship building strategies
Functioning in a team
Communication skills
Resource:

24. Additional Training Topics
Understanding and working with people from different cultures and backgrounds
Understanding and using data
IDEA requirements
Cycle of continuous improvement
Developing organizational constitution, bylaws, policies, and procedures
Resource:

25. Example of a Family Leadership Development Program
Pennsylvania’s C2P2EI (Competence and Confidence Partners in Policymaking for Families of Children in Early Intervention)
A free training program for families of children who receive Infant-Toddler or Preschool Early Intervention Services
Provides participants with up-to-date information, leadership development training, resources and skills
Participants learn about local, state and national issues that affect children with disabilities
Funded by Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL)/Departments of Education and Human Services and offered by Institute on Disabilities at Temple University

26. Resources for Supporting Family Leadership Development

27. Measuring Family/Stakeholder Engagement
Helps program staff gauge how well they are doing with engaging families as members of stakeholder groups
Available at:

28. Guidelines for Exploring Interagency Opportunities
Helps family members make decisions about what type of advisory group would be the best fit for them
Available at:

29. Parent Leadership Individual Effectiveness Plan
Supports family members with planning to serve on a Special Education Advisory Council
Available at:
handouts/PHP-c154IEPParent.pdf

30. Online Toolkit: Building Stakeholder Knowledge About Data
Provides stakeholders (including family stakeholders) with an orientation to IDEA data and other data-related topics to help them meaningfully participate in conversations about important programmatic issues and decisions Available at:

31. Serving on Groups: Online Module & Book
Assists family members in developing skills essential for active and meaningful participation in decision-making groups
Available at:

32. Webinar Series: Engaging Families & Creating Trusting Partnerships
Four-part webinar series with Ann and Rud Turnbull aimed at supporting early intervention and early childhood special education systems leaders with building capacity in personnel and families to develop trusting partnership Available at:

33. 10 Great Things You Will Find on the “CPIR Hub” at parentcenterhub.org
Resources Galore
Buzz from the Hub
Daily Facebook and Twitter Posts
Private Workspaces for Parent Centers
Survey Item Bank
Materials from Other Parent Centers
Webinars & Webpages on Priority Topics
Central Event Calendars
Who Knows What?

34. How likely are you to return home and use at least one of the resources shared today?

35. References
Dyrness, A. (2011). Mothers united: An immigrant struggle for socially-just education. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Fine, M. (1993). Parent Involvement: Reflections on parents, power, and urban schools. Teachers College Record, 94(4), 682–709.
Geller, J., McAlister, S., & Rosann, T. (2015). The Family Leadership Self-Assessment Rubric: An indicator tool for school districts and lessons from Central Falls, Rhode Island. Providence, RI: Brown University, Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
Ishimaru, A. (2014). When new relationships meet old narratives: The Journey towards improving parent- school relations in a district–community organizing collaboration. Teachers College Record, 116(2), 1-49.
Martinez-Cosio, M. (2010). Parents’ roles in mediating and buffering the implementation of an urban school reform. Education and Urban Society, 42(3), 283–306.
Turnbull, A.P., Turnbull, H.R., Erwin, E., Soodak, L., & Shogren, K. (2015). Families, professionals, and exceptionality: Positive outcomes through partnerships and trust (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Merrill/Prentice Hall.
Warren, M., & Mapp, K. (2011). A match on dry grass: Community organizing as a catalyst for school reform. New York: Oxford University Press.

36. Find Us Online
ECTA Center: DaSy Center: ECPC: Parent to Parent of Georgia:

37. Resources
The ECTA Center is a program of the FPG Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, funded through cooperative agreement number H326P from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Project Officer, Julia Martin Eile.
The DaSy Center is a program of SRI International, funded through cooperative agreement number H373Z from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Project Officers, Meredith Miceli and Richelle Davis.
The Early Childhood Personnel Center is a project of the A.J. Pappanikou Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at the University of Connecticut Health, funded through cooperative agreement number H325B from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Project Officer, Dawn Ellis
Parent to Parent of Georgia is the Region 3 Parent Technical Assistance Center funded through grant number H328R from the Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education. Project Officer, David Emenheiser.

38. Thank You
The contents of this presentation were developed under grants from the U.S. Department of Education (#s H326P170001, H373Z120002, H325B120004, H328R130008). However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officers: Julia Martin Eile, Meredith Miceli, Richelle Davis, Dawn Ellis, and David Emenheiser.