Home-School+Partnership

__ Home-School Partnerships __ First Author: Susie Galford Second Author: Megan Balensiefer

Home-school partnerships are the mutual collaboration, support, and participation of parents and school staff at home or at the school in activities and efforts that directly and positively affect the educational progress of children. Home-school collaboration focuses on encouraging students to not only be learners within the home environment, but also the school. Family-school partnerships provide a context for families and educators to collaboratively identify and prioritize concerns across a continuum of opportunities and intensities. The goals of family-school partnerships include enhancing succes for students and improving experiences and outcomes for children including those that are academic, social, emotional, and behavioral in nature.



Research has shown that in the presence of effective family-school partnerships, //students// have been shown to demonstrate improvement in grades, test scores, attitudes, self-concept, behavior, social skills, greater study habits and homework completion rates, more engagement in classroom learning activities, higher attendance rates, and a reduction in suspension rates and discipline problems.

When family-school partnerships are effective, research has shown that //teachers// become more proficient in professional activities, allocate more time to instruction, become more involved with curriculum, develop more student-oriented rather than task-oriented activities, receive higher ratings on teaching performance evaluations by principals, indicate greater satisfaction with their jobs, and request fewer transfers.

Research has also shown that //parents// benefit from effective family and school partnerships through demonstrating a greater understanding of the work of schools and positive attitudes about school, report increased contact and communication with educators and a desire for more involvement, improve their communication with their children, report improved parent-child relationships, develop effective parenting skills, and become more involved in learning activities at home. [|www.tanweir.net]

Federal Policy mandates schools to engage in partnerships with parents to meet the increasing academic, behavioral, and social needs of children. In 1975, PL 94-142 established the foundation for parental involvement in education through requiring notification of parents when the school proposed or refused to initiate or change educational placement, obtainment of parent consent prior to evaluation and special education placement, parental participation in the development of Individualized Education Plans, and parental rights to challenge special education decisions. IDEA 1997 included more parent participation including establishing regulations for including parents on school-based teams as well as increasing parental responsibility in the special education process. Also, The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 specifically calls for local education agencies to assist school personnel to reach out, communicate, and work with parents as equal partners, implement and coordinate parent programs, and build ties between parents and the school. []

// [|National Association of School Psychologist's Mission Statement on Family-School Collaboration] //



When working through the family and schools partnership approach, the focal point is on the quality of the communication and sustained connection with families and schools. Relationships should be created and maintained to promote the academic, social, and emotional development of youth. In order for school-based mental health professionals, administration, and families to work collaboratively, using a systems-ecoogical orientation that looks at the outcomes of students as a result of the child/family system interacting with the school system might be beneficial. This viewpoint would also include a student-focused philosophy with a strong association with students' academic outcomes and social and emotional competence.

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// "No matter how skilled professionals are, or how loving parents are, each cannot achieve alone what the two parties, working hand-in-hand, can accomplish together." // __Barriers to Involvement and Collaboration__ There are two types of challenges that may be experienced by families and/or educators including psychological and structural. Psychological challenges refers to the attitudes towards the partnership, specifically motivation to interact with either the school or parents.

These challenges may include reluctance to facilitate partnerships and limited values toward the partnership concept. These challenges are further amplified if the involved parties failure to see differences as areas to grow in and fail to use perspective taking when interacting. Also, previous negative interactions between the school and parents may create challenges in the partnership. Structural challenges refer to the organization of the school day. The structural challenges limit the dialogue within the partnerships, specifically if the educators and families have little practice creating communication routines. It is important for both educators and families to understand the various constraints and circumstances experienced by the other party. There may also be differences in primary languages, therefore it is important for schools to develop culturally competent practices including cultural sensitivity, building trust and establising a relationship with the family, addressing diversity issues, implementing a family-centered approach, and enhancing communication. media type="custom" key="8524420" align="left"  Families have their own set of structural challenges including time constraints related to scheduling, parenting or working and limited accessibility to resources like child care and transportation. Additionally, families may experience feelings that are challenges in themselves including believing that the school has doubts that the families are capable of addressing different areas of concern and feeling inadequate themselves. Structurally, schools experience a different type of time constraint based on the amount of students they work with and their different roles within their positions at the school. Also, there is often a lack of training that provides staff with the skills needed to facilitate the partnership. Psychologically, staff members may experience feelings of fear related to inadequacies in services provided, fear of being able to provide additional time and funding to the partnership and fear of potential conflict.

__Effective Communication Between School and Families__  A framework that can be utilized to promote conditions that are needed for a quality relationship between families and practitioners is the four A's. The four A's include Approach, Attitudes, Atmosphere, and Actions. Approach includes the framework for interacting with families. Attitudes involve the perceptions of the partnership and the value of educators and parents. Atmosphere is the climate where family-school interactions take place. Actions are what occurs due to Approach, Attitudes, and Atmosphere. Guidelines that can be used to help ensure that communication with families is effective include the following suggestions: media type="youtube" key="si6eS3TZb2k" height="294" width="361" align="center"
 * Maintain a positive, honest orientation in all communication.
 * Develop a regular, reliable home-school communication system that increases the potential for two-way communication.
 * Focus communication and dialogue on children's engagement with schooling and learning.
 * Ensure that parents have the information they need to support their children's schooling and learning.
 * Recognize that trusting relationships take time.
 * Underscore the importance of both in-school time and out-of-school time for children's engagement at school and with learning.

// [|A Student Perspective] //
 __** Early Intervention **__ Many of the behavioral problems that young children exhibit are established through their earliest interactions with their parents. A critical component of a proactive, prevention oriented plan to promote positive child outcomes includes providing early childhood programs, collaborations, and resources to families, schools, and children. Parents and teachers must work together to optimize learning environments and prepare children for school success. The goal of early intervention is to prevent or reduce the effects of academic, social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties for children who are at risk due to physical, mental, or environmental conditions.  media type="custom" key="8471420" width="250" height="250" align="left" Incredible Years Training Series is an empirically validated intervention that instructs parents in the use of positive discipline stategies, effective parenting skills, strategies for coping with stress, and ways to strengthen children's social skills. It also instructs teachers in the use of positive behavior management, discipline strategies, and social competence strategies. Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically validated intervention for children with disruptive behavior disorders. It is used to strengthen child-directed interaction such as parent praise, reflection, and enthusiasm toward the child. It also strengthens parent-direct interaction such as effective commands. This intervention is designed to restructure parent-child interaction patterns to facilitate a more positive relationship. media type="custom" key="8547438" align="right"

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 __ **Promoting Home-School Partnerships Through an RtI Model** __ Through the use of a Response to Intervention (RtI) Model, schools and families can work together to provide services to meet the needs of every child. In order to provide mental health services effectively and efficiently, students are able to receive assistance at the universal, selected, and indicated levels. A multi-tiered approach enables families and educators to provide services based on a student's responsiveness to previous preventions, interventions, and supports. The RtI Model is also able to provide various levels of family-school supports based on a student's identified need and responsiveness to previous efforts.

**Universal Level**  At the Universal Level, family-school collaboration is provided to support all students and families.
 * Providing mental health information
 * Open conferencing
 * School-wide parent meetings (PTA or PTO)
 * Parent Nights
 * Parent/Teacher Conferences
 * School-wide Volunteering
 * Good-news contacts
 * Educator office hours
 * Weekly newsletters
 * Mental health screening
 * [|School-Home Links Reading Kit]
 * District-wide policy
 * [|Aware Parenting Program]
 * Parent Tutoring
 * [|Parents Encourage Pupils]
 * [|Reciprocal Peer Tutoring and Parent Involvement]

S elected Level
The Selected Level provides family-school collaboration to support identified students and families unresponsiveness to previous universal efforts.
 * Parent workshops
 * Service coordination teams
 * Classroom Volunteering
 * Parent-teacher consultation about risk behaviors
 * More personalized invitations to school events
 * [|First Steps to Success]

Indicated Level
At the Indicated Level, family-school collaboration is provided to students and families unresponsiveness to previous targeted efforts. > > [|أندرويد]
 * Parent training and education
 * Family counseling
 * Home visits
 * Case management
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