Policies, Regulations, and Standards

The wisdom of families, providers, and community members is utilized to help identify opportunities within existing federal, state, and local policy across children’s health, early care and education, family support, social services, and early intervention to 1) emphasize family engagement as a priority, 2) promote effective practices, and 3) hold the system accountable for achieving desired child and family outcomes.

Opportunity for Action:

Family-Centered Strategies

1. Change internal policies or cross-system policies and/or encourage others to do so in order to better engage and serve families.
2. Empowering leadership within each agency to support families. Community Partners can encourage and dedicate staff or a team at their agency to become “goal champions” for individual policy changes.
3. Explore agency/organization regulations, whether official or traditional, which might limit family participation in processes and policymaking and work with agencies to modify these to facilitate positive family-agency partnerships.

Family-Led Strategies

1. Agencies invite families to use their voices to advocate for higher quality and equitable access to services.
2. Create Stand-up Preschool/Kindergarten absence taskforce. Collaborate with parents to identify root causes of absences and develop a plan to act upon them.
3. Integrate the Family Voice into all aspects of early childhood care, education and services
   1. Receive feedback about services
   2. Include families in decision making processes

Resources:

Policy Statement on Family Engagement from the Early Years to the Early Grades. (PDF) U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education

Policy Statement and Guidance on Family Engagement from the Early Years to the Early Grades. (PDF) U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education

Supporting Parents: How Six Decades of Parenting Research Can Inform Policy and Best Practice. (PDF) Society for Research in Child Development

Video Resource Playlist

Infrastructure & Funding

Finance decisions, fiscal policies, and infrastructure support coordinated cross-sector early childhood system that provides opportunities to promote family engagement integration at all levels.

Opportunity for Action:

Family-Centered Strategies

1. Offer incentives and rewards to promote continuous improvement for programs, as well as to promote collaboration across children’s health, education, and family support.
2. Provide services and supports and resources to partnering community agencies and organizations, including information from landscape scans, focus groups, surveys and other interactions with families; staff training; access to family members who are available to participate as partners; opportunities for grants/access to funding streams, and more.
3. Develop a reliable source of funding to sustain initiatives focused on B-18 age group started through grants that have proven successful. Establish a funding foundation/trust for birth-age 18 development
4. Leveraging current funding streams to support professional development trainings and outreach efforts

Family-Led Strategies

1. Develop a Family Engagement and Leadership initiative that is adequately funded and supported throughout the county
2. Seek out grants/funding streams that are accessible to family-oriented groups
3. Provide tools parents need for activities such as job applications, paying bills, filling out school forms, assistance research, etc. in closer proximity to where they live. Improve internet connection availability
4. Implement NCCARE360. Update NC211 to maintain accurate information. Ensure greater connections so families receive the services that they need and service providers are better informed by having a database to track progress.
5. Improve affordable access to services for families (e.g. respite care, summer and track out care, and before/after childcare)
6. Ensure childcare slot capacity and cost meet the demands of working families who live in and/or work in this county. Expand capacity for high-quality infant and toddler childcare
7. Better funded transportation options. Tap into and utilize faith-based organizations that may have van or bus capabilities to assist with transportation
8. Create a school-based health center open to children 0-5. Create an assessment of the start-up costs and on-going maintenance costs for creating a school-based health center

Resource:

Section 1116. Parental and Family Engagement of ESSA states that Local Education Agencies (LEAs) must implement programs, activities, and procedures for the involvement of parents in Title I programs in order to receive Title I funds.  These funds must be used to implement parental involvement programs that focus on improving academic outcomes for eligible Title I students.

Video Resource Playlist

Continuous Learning & Quality Improvement

Everyone in the early childhood system, including families, providers, and community partners, is engaged in 1) building safety and trust in using data, 2) agreements on core indicators and appropriate assessment tools, 3) coordinated data systems, and 4) collaborative decision-making processes

Opportunity for Action:

 Family-Centered Strategies

1. Providers and families collaboratively determine how to use data to inform decisions at the program, policy, and system levels.
2. The design and implementation of programs impacting families will switch from a deficit model to a strength-based model.
3. Regularly collect and review data to inform improvements to family engagement and leadership processes.

Workforce & Professional Development

Service providers across sectors have consistent expectations for family engagement and professional development opportunities informed by input from families and frontline workers, as well as data about the strengths and needs of each system’s early childhood providers.

Opportunity for Action:

Family-Centered Strategies

1. Engage a mindset shift, for both agencies and communities, in which families are viewed as capable and engaged partners. Provide professional development opportunities to front line workers which demonstrates the value of treating families with respect and recognizing them as equal partners in the decision-making process.
2. Encourage early childhood system leaders to improve consistency in training and expectations around family engagement across community partners. Hire a professional development instructor to offer a series of training for community partners on equity, inclusiveness, cultural responsiveness, interpersonal skills, family empowerment, effective communication and knowledge of the well-being needs of the family.
3. Increase workforce development around FE&L with a focus on improving both knowledge and empathy
4. Create a connected early childhood professional community where staff can advance themselves and their profession. Improve connections among early education professionals and create learning opportunities for them.
5. Explore local and other sources (such as Family Support Network and Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center) for staff training regarding family engagement and leadership and offer to plan and organize these for agencies.  Suggest that agencies utilize the Parent Engagement & Leadership Assessment tool.
6. Fully educate and inform everyone who interacts with families and young children on the common definition and understanding of Family Engagement and Leadership
   1. All agencies and organizations that work with families who have young children will incorporate the common definition of Family Engagement and Leadership into their policies and manuals.
   2. Trainings provided by high quality professionals in multi-format delivery systems (webinars, in-person, etc.) with on-going coaching and technical assistance.
7. Families will have a high-quality experience with organizations that are serving them
   1. Agencies will provide welcoming environments where families: do not feel judged, voices are valued, and are included in the decisions made about their care and well-being
   2. Strength-based trainings are mandated for all staff interacting with families; from the receptionist to leadership

Resources:

Relationship-Based Competencies to Support Family Engagement. US Department of Health and Human Services

Institute for the Advancement of Family Support Professionals

Video Resource Playlist

State, Regional & Community Partnerships

Leaders at every level work to remove barriers and support partnerships. Partnerships across multiple sectors and at every level are responsive to and effectively engage all communities, families, and their children. Parents and families provide vital information, advocacy, and support for partnerships among stakeholders

Opportunity for Action:

Family-Centered Strategies

1. Seek out funding, partnerships, and resources that will allow the Local Coalition to continue its work. Continue to build and strengthen Local Coalition activities that gather important information and support a strong and active group.
2. Work closely with local organizations to obtain support and connections to programming and resources
3. Consistently add and nurture agency representation on Local Coalition. Cultivate relationships with agency representatives in all activities, establishing feedback loops that generate 2-way communication.
4. Identify inclusive, connected, responsive, respectful messaging in the community and replicate it.
5. Create a space for interactions between community providers that serve families with young children
6. Create a network including primary care providers and mental health

Family-Led Strategies

1. Break down the stigma of asking for help by sharing stories and serving as examples of how community supports can benefit and strengthen our families and our community. Explore possible partnerships with local support groups, such as those for families of individuals with autism and other special needs.
2. Create a community that is inclusive, connected, responsive and respects families and their cultural individuality.
3. Provide a space for community conversations around cultural responsiveness, equity and protective factors for families.
4. Create a collaborative public awareness campaign around family engagement and leadership
5. Invite families to the table where decisions are made about them. “Nothing about me, without me.”

“Head Start is able to communicate any events going on in the community to their parents via emails, fliers, etc. Because Head Start is a member of GetSet, they are able to be even more aware of local events and services, which likely lead to more collaborations and referrals.” – Transylvania

“Head Start is almost always represented at our meetings with at least one member in attendance.  They have helped us recruit parents and are very involved in all discussions.” – Yadkin

Resources

Directory of organizations that specialize in parent engagement

Supporting Children Through Community-Based Coalitions. (PDF) Early Learning Challenge Technical Assistance

Video Resource Playlist

Family Education & Engagement

Two-way, relationship-based interactions between families and birth-to-five professionals sharing information and working together to build each other’s knowledge and skills. Organizational leaders model efforts to recognize families as decision-makers, trusted peers, leaders, and advocates for their children, themselves, and their communities.

Opportunity for Action:

Family-Centered Strategies

1. Promote NCCARE 360 to families and community and encourage agencies to enroll. Consistently update the list of local family-focused programs and help other families access that information by linking to other agencies’ websites.
2. Offer community resource fairs at all elementary schools
3. Provide materials at community meetings in the parent’s native language.
4. Increase the number of hard-to-reach families participating in community events and resources. Develop “Information Dissemination Paths” for each community that can be leveraged by all organizations with early childhood events and programs.
5. Engage agencies and communities in a mindset shift in which families are viewed as capable and engaged partners.
6. Promote welcoming environments that encourage positive relationships with families. Provide private, comfortable areas for nursing moms in all agencies and non-profits serving families. Create a family friendly, trauma-informed, resiliency-focused environment
7. Family events are offered periodically to encourage parents and agency personnel to interact with families in an informal way, to promote a sense of community among participants.
   .

Family-Led Strategies

1. Connect families to community resources and peers. Explore the possibility of offering Circle of Parents or Kaleidoscope Play & Learn® groups to encourage peer interaction, a sense of community, and family leadership development.
2. Provide opportunities for families, who have questions about their child or need assistance navigating the early childhood system, to have one-on-one or small group consultations with professionals
3. Survey and evaluate barriers to families’ receiving services they want or need (transportation, hours of services, languages used, etc.)
4. Encourage family stories so that mutual respect and understanding develop
5. Provide training for families on advocating and effectively communicating with their child’s teachers and community partners. Provide training for teachers to learn new ways to communicate with parents
6. Seek opportunities for professionals and family members to attend trainings on topics such as cultural responsiveness, trauma, resiliency, equity, and advocacy
7. Provide opportunities for families to form peer-to-peer groups

“RCS Head Start is a model organization for family education and engagement, so they are who we go to for expertise and how we measure other organizations when it comes to FE&L. They completed our Landscape survey, helped with recruitment of local coalition members, and took the lead on getting families to participate in completing our family surveys.” – Randolph County

Video Resource Playlist