Student success is fueled by collaborative relationships between school and home

Family engagement is a shared responsibility between schools and families to collaboratively support student learning and development. There are several key stakeholders and beneficiaries in this partnership: school leaders, teachers, families, and students.

When schools successfully engage families, they experience

• Increased student attendance and engagement
• Increased teacher satisfaction and retention
• Improved family sentiment about school

When families are equipped with information about learning, they have

• Increased awareness of grade-level goals and how their child is progressing
• Access to essential information and activities to support their child
• Increased confidence in their ability to engage their child

When schools and families work together, students experience

• Accelerated academic achievement
• Second language learning
• SEL skill development

Build your skills with our family engagement toolkits

Family engagement professionals seeking to implement effective family engagement practices have an invaluable, research-based guide at their disposal: the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnership. 

Our expert team has compiled curated resources to support school and district family engagement coordinators to deliver high-impact strategies that foster trusting and collaborative relationships. 

Select strategies that align with your program goals
Get access to our action planning tools, which includes a guided reflection exercise to better understand the current state in your school or district.  Explore high-impact strategies for engaging families in learning, and consider which strategies are aligned with your programmatic priorities and current capacity. 

Family-school partnerships blossom with consistent communication 
Focus your efforts on sharing the information that families and caregivers want - information about their child's learning. As an essential component of every school's student success strategy, we've compiled practical tips and sample messages that can be used to connect with families and invite them to engage in learning.

Explore best practices for building family-school partnerships

We’ve worked with schools and districts across the country to better understand their experiences implementing high-impact and successful family engagement practices. Our experience has revealed that professionals are seeking out more resources to refine their approach. ​

Insights from the field

Salient topics for school and district leaders

Frequently asked family engagement questions

What is family Engagement?

Our approach to family engagement builds off of the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnership, which highlights how relationships between educators and parents are central to supporting student learning.  Authentic and high-impact family engagement includes a warm invitation for families to collaborate, recognition of the assets and unique insights that families have, and consistent communication that regularly shares learning-focused information.

Parents, GuarDians, Caregivers, Families. What Do we mean by the term 'Family'?

Family Engagement Lab uses the term 'family' as an inclusive description of the many caring adults in a child's life, which might include a parent, grandparent, uncle, friend, or caregiver. You'll see the terms family and caregiver used throughout our materials. 

What is FASTalk?

FASTalk (Families and Schools Talk) is an evidence-based program designed to connect teachers and families around the shared goal of supporting student growth and development. 
FASTalk includes access to both a proprietary communication platform and a robust library of professionally written messages that support grade-level skills and reinforce learning outside of the classroom.

Wondering how you can stay up to date on the latest?

We're constantly reviewing research and reports from the field. We're obsessed with finding the latest best practices and insights from the field. We're committed to sharing those resources with you!

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