1. Prenatal through Grade 12 Family Engagement Framework
Federal Grant Programs Conference
June 6, 2019

2. MA Family Engagement Coalition
Regional Stakeholder Coalition
State Stakeholder Coalition
State Planning Team

3. MA Family Engagement Coalition – State Planning Team
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Kathy Rodriguez
Donna Traynham
Emily Taylor
Department of Early Education and Care
Gail DeRiggi
Department of Public Health – Bureau of Maternal and Child Health
Suzanne Gottlieb
Roxanne Hoke-Chandler

4. MA Family Engagement Coalition – Regional Coalition
Families
Public Schools
Museums
Home Visitors
Family Engagement Organizations
Libraries
Early Intervention
Family Advocates
Head Start
Regional DCF Offices
Cultural Organizations
Early Education and Care Programs
CFCEs
Health Care Centers/Hospitals
FCC
Parent Leadership Networks
Parent Child Home Programs
Horizons for Homeless
WIC
MIRA
Community Organizations

5. MA Family Engagement Coalition – State Coalition
Education
Health and Human Services
Recruiting
Department of Early Education and Care
Department of Public Health
Department of Housing and Community Development
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Department of Children and Families
Department of Youth Services
Department of Higher Education
Department of Transitional Assistance
Department of Corrections
Children's Trust
Department of Mental health
University of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council
Board of Library Commissioners
Office of Refugees and Immigrants

6. Draft Structure of the Framework – Guiding Principles
Each family is unique and all families represent diverse structures.
Recognize and respect the uniqueness of each family.
Keep families’ voices and perspectives at the center
Plan and do activities with families and not for families.
Each family is distinct in the strengths it possesses, needs it has, and barriers it faces.
Recognize and respect the individuality of each family.
Building a respectful, trusting, and reciprocal relationship is an equal responsibility of families, staff, programs, and systems.
Embrace the philosophy that building positive goal oriented relationships is a two way process between all those involved.
Families are their child’s first and best advocate.
Recognize families as the best champions of their child’s success in all domains of development.
Engage families in all decisions made with regards to their child.
Family engagement must be equitable.
Recognize and address inequities and implicit and explicit bias, within individuals and programs, when engaging with families.

7. Draft Elements and Indicators of the Framework
Building Relationships
Intentionally build and sustain relationship with all families
Build reciprocal and balanced communication with families
Collaborate with families to create and/or promote connections among families
Share Power and Decision Making
Family Well-Being, Development and Learning
Identify collaborative development and learning opportunities among families, schools and community organizations
Engage youth and family in a process of learning and development through peer-to-peer interactions
Develop multi-pronged systems of information exchange among families, schools and community organizations to enhance family and youth learning and development
Employ multiple strategies to connect families with resources to enhance family wellbeing
Creating Pathways for Community Engagement
Identify barriers to community and civic engagement that families face
Partner with families and youth in identifying and planning community engagement activities
Leverage and build family knowledge
Use family driven approaches to community engagement
Provide family leadership opportunities
Provide opportunities for diverse youth leadership and voice
Connect families with resources/services/community agencies
Engage community members/agencies/organizations in ways meaningful to the families
Transitions
Health
Human Services
Education

8. Draft Structure of the Framework – System Building
Creating a Culture of Family Engagement
Equity and Family Engagement
Staffing
Training and Professional Development
Resource Development
Evaluation

9. Changing up Family Engagement in Lawrence Public Schools
Federal Grants Conference
June 6, 2019
Presented by:
Nelson Butten, Director of Community, Family,
and Student Engagement.
Jessica MacLeod, Director of Early Childhood
Education

10. Our Foundational Element
Supporting Child, Youth, and Family Well-Being, Development, and Learning
Create opportunities and pathways for families, schools, and community organizations to collaborate with each other to identify, share, and access supports and resources related to family well-being, development, and learning.

11. Element: Promoting Pathways for Community Engagement
Design Thinking
Element: Promoting Pathways for Community Engagement
Partner with families and youth in identifying and planning community engagement activities
Use Family-driven approaches to community engagement
Provide opportunities for diverse youth leadership and voice

12. Strategic Planning Process Began in 2016-17
Who:
School leaders
Educators
Students
Community partners
Family Engagement team
Technical assistance from Great Schools Partnership and Every Day Democracy
Vision
LPS administrators, educators, parents, students and community members engage in authentic partnerships in service of student success.

13. Partnering with Families and Youth in Identifying and Planning Community Engagement Activities

14. Community, College and Career Readiness
Lawrence PS: Strategic Plan for High-Quality Family Engagement (HQFE - Jan 2018)
Model and communicate the type of authentic partnerships we seek in schools [Launched Family Engagement Partnership Council, 9/17]
Provide time, space and resources for schools to prioritize HQFE [PDs underway; HQFE Fellowship to launch in July; media campaign coming this spring]
Pilot communication and transition activities to provide promising practices for feeder schools [Community Day, Arlington, and Tarbox School workgroups]
Utilize the district’s Family Engagement Team to go deeper with schools to help improve HQFE strategies [Home-School Compacts]
PARENTS
CLASSROOMS
COMMUNITY
LPS STUDENTS
DISTRICT
The district calls out and acts upon its commitment to HQFE as an academic strategy
SCHOOLS
Schools embed HQFE practices in school’s operational and instructional systems
Presidents’ Council
Continuing
New
Community, College and Career Readiness
Survey school administrators and educators capacity and needs for HQFE [Survey conducted in September 2017]

15. Collaborative stakeholder group based on Planning Group
Family Engagement Partnership Council: Providing opportunities for family leadership and for families to connect with other families
Collaborative stakeholder group based on Planning Group
Learning and Leading mission
Develops and staffs workgroups
Fellowship
Current focus: policy work for

16. Engagement Fellowship: Inclusive of all goals for Building Positive Relationships
Five or Six school teams commit to 32-hour intensive
Build capacity
Grow mindset
Evaluate current practices, with lenses:
Authentic partnerships
Shared decision making
Five roles families play
Engage families and students in solutions
Intentionally build and sustain relationships with all families
Build reciprocal and balanced communication with families
Collaborate with families to create and/or promote connections among families
Share power and decision making

17. Lessons to highlight
Providing stipends along with child care is critical in establishing a professional and respectful arena for important work.
Providing opportunities for diverse youth leadership and voice means that the adults have to be very flexible regarding time and location of meetings as well as dedicated to forms of communication that work (texts over Outlook calendar reminders)
Sharing power and decision making takes more time at the onset but increases credibility and buy in.

18. Contact information
Presented by:
Nelson Butten, Director of Community, Family, and Student Engagement.
Jessica MacLeod, Director of Early Childhood Education