Welcome! The Office of Family & Community Engagement (FACE) is committed to fostering partnerships among schools, family, and the community. We’re here to support educators in building their capacity as collaborative practitioners – and hope that our Resource Page provides you with useful, high-impact, equity-driven strategies that you can incorporate into your everyday teaching.
An Educator’s Guide to Family & Community Engagement
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Back-to-School Checklist for Educators
Check out this quick guide created just for School District of Philadelphia teachers to learn some simple ways to start the school year off strong with the parents, families, and caring adults of your students.
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NEW: FACE Educator Office Hours!
Do you need a thought partner? Come to our Office Hours! We can help you feel better connected to the community, structure teacher-parent conversations, work through engagement strategies, and more!
**Click Here for First Day Family Engagement Need-to-Knows!**
Welcome to a new academic year at the School District of Philadelphia! The Office of Family & Community Engagement is so excited to support you in fostering meaningful connections with your school community. As we approach the first day, we encourage you to keep the FACE 5 in mind:
- Many students in the District have living situations that transcend the “nuclear family”. They might live with their grandparents, cousins, older siblings, or in a community setting. It’s crucial for teachers to expand their definition of “family” and avoid practices that ostracize these students. Make sure your communications use inclusive language (steer away from “parents”); consider rebranding activities around Mother’s Day. This ensures that everyone feels welcome and seen.
- We strongly recommend that teachers conduct welcome outreach in the beginning of the school year. This starts an ongoing dialogue with families that will build towards a relational partnership and deeper understanding of the school community. Oftentimes, we find that this initial outreach leads to information about a student that we wouldn’t have known otherwise! Generally, we recommend two forms of welcome outreach: phone calls (or texts) and letters of introduction. See our guide for templates and ideas for each, along with examples from the field.
- Whether you’re alone or with other teachers, make time to walk around the neighborhood; this will allow you to really learn about the community (and families) that you serve. Consider walking to the nearest library branch, basketball court, or bus stop. Talk to the people you see. Order a cup of coffee at the corner store. This will give you valuable insight about the daily lives of your families – which can then inform your classroom instruction and communications – while also showing respect for their lived experiences.
- Once the warm temperatures subside and things start hitting a flow in your classroom, don’t forget to maintain contact with your families! Did you know that regular texts and phone calls home are proven to improve student and teacher performance? Think about making yourself an outreach schedule – maybe a handful of calls every Tuesday and Thursday. We also have a section of our guidebook devoted to this topic (including how to structure these conversations).
- Remember that families are your ally, not adversary. Differences in culture and lived experiences can make things feel incongruous sometimes – but at the end of the day, both you and your students’ families want the best for them. Education is a collaborative process. It requires communication, relational thinking, and trust. We must assume the best in our families! During times of uncertainty, remember to lean on us (and your family liaison). We have Office Hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10-11am on Zoom or email ssalaneck@philasd.org with quick questions.
Family Engagement Professional Learning Opportunities
FACE is excited to provide high-quality learning opportunities for staff to enhance and develop their family and community engagement practices. Check out upcoming offerings below and sign up on Powerschool (if eligible) or wherever noted.
October 8 & 22, 2024: 🎸Rocking Your Report Card Conferences (Tune Up Tuesday)
Report Card Conferences are around the corner, and we’re here to ensure you’re prepared! Join us for a jam-packed session that will include strategies for bolstering family attendance and ways to discuss student performance. You’ll learn how to facilitate productive, solutions-oriented conversations that address the needs of educators, students, and families!
November 6, 2024: 🤝 Building a Culture of Family Engagement (#TeachPHL)
Description coming soon!
November 12 & 26, 2024: 🙋 FACE 101-Building Strong Family-School Partnerships (Tune Up Tuesday)
What does a true family-school partnership look like? How can teachers build meaningful relationships with families when everyone is so different from each other? Join us in November to discover the answers to these questions – and how all of this impacts student achievement! We’ll leverage high-impact research and strategies to increase your capacity to truly engage families this school year.
December 10 & 17, 2024: 🏫 Boosting High School Family Engagement (Tune Up Tuesday)
It’s no secret that family engagement becomes tricky once students enter high school. How can teachers balance the growing autonomy of teenagers with dwindling opportunities to interact with families? Join us for a practical session that tackles these issues with evidence-based strategies and creativity. You’ll learn innovative routines for boosting family engagement and fostering a robust family-school partnership in the upper grades.
February 11 & 25, 2025: 📈 How to Increase Family Engagement @ School Events (Tune Up Tuesday)
Tired of planning school events only to see empty chairs? Boy, do we have a session for you! Join us in January to discuss evidence-based approaches to planning knockout school events. You’ll learn how to leverage data-driven insights and inclusive strategies to improve attendance outcomes. Along the way, you’ll also hear about creative solutions that have garnered success around the District and country.
March 11 & 25, 2025: 🌐 Building & Sustaining Connection with Diverse Families (Tune Up Tuesday)
In today’s world, educators teach in classrooms rich with cultural and linguistic diversity. How can we cultivate and maintain strong family-teacher partnerships in these landscapes? Join our session to learn how to connect frequently and authentically with multilingual families. You’ll discover strategies for sustaining welcoming and culturally affirming classrooms – and have the opportunity to collaborate with fellow educators to ensure that all families feel seen and heard.
Frequently Asked Family Engagement Questions
What constitutes “family and community engagement”? Why should teachers care about it?
We believe that family and community engagement is based on the premise that caregivers, educators, and community members share responsibility for the academic and socioemotional development of a student. This partnership is fostered through a deliberate process that is relational (built on mutual trust), asset-based (focused on the unique strengths of each person), and grounded in learning outcomes.
It also benefits educators in a lot of ways. Research consistently indicates that family-teacher partnerships result in better classroom management, increased student engagement, and higher test scores overall. Check out our “Further Reading” section for more information!
How can educators build relationships with families and the broader community?
It’s not that different from getting to know your neighbors at home! Generally, we recommend practices that prioritize communication and mutual understanding – the building blocks of any functional relationship. Here’s a few strategies to consider:
Welcome Outreach: The Office of Family & Community Engagement strongly encourages teachers to conduct welcome outreach in the beginning of the academic year. This starts an ongoing dialogue with families that will build towards a relational partnership and deeper understanding of the school community. Oftentimes, we find that this initial outreach leads to information about a student that we wouldn’t have known otherwise!
Generally, we recommend two forms of welcome outreach: phone calls (or texts) and letters of introduction. See our guide for templates and ideas for each, along with examples from the field.
Positive Calls/Texts Home: It doesn’t have to be a whole ordeal. If Sahmeer has a great day in your class, shoot a quick text to his family: “Hey Mom, Sahmeer had a great day in class today. He was answering questions and helping his classmates! Just wanted to let you know.” If you want to build an authentic relationship with your families, it’s so important to tell them when things are going well. It shows that you both want the best for their child and care about their achievements.
Community Walks: Whether you’re alone or with other teachers, make time to walk around the neighborhood; this will allow you to really learn about the community (and families) that you serve. Visit the local community spaces: library branches, basketball courts, parks. Talk to the people you see. Order a cup of coffee at the corner store. This will give you valuable insight about the daily lives of your families – which can then inform your classroom instruction and communications – while also showing respect for their lived experiences.
What if I feel like I don't have anything in common with my school's families and community members?
It can feel daunting to make connections with people who seem different from you. Thankfully, there are practical strategies that teachers can use to find common ground with their school’s families:
Host a Parent Cafe: These provide a comfortable space for adults to engage in guided conversations around questions such as “How do you practice self-care?” or “When is the last time you felt valued?”. Through this dialogue, families and teachers build understanding, empathy, and connection. Read more about Parent Cafes here.
Participate in Community Events: Immerse yourself in your families’ world by attending events in their neighborhood. Whether it’s chess club at the local library or a bake sale at the nearby place of worship, involving yourself in the community will help you connect with its residents – and give you something to talk about!
Many of our families are multilingual, so I’m not sure how to communicate with them. What should I do?
There are translation and interpretation services available to District teachers! Our Bilingual Counseling Assistants (BCAs) speak over twenty-three languages and dialects, serving as key cultural and linguistic bridges in our schools. They can provide simultaneous translation for in-person meetings or translate documents to be sent home. Find your school-based BCA here in mid-August.
If you’d like to speak on the phone with a multilingual caregiver, check out Language Line. This free service will pair you with an interpreter to conduct a three-way call.
I don’t feel safe in my school’s neighborhood. How can I meaningfully connect with our community if I’m hesitant to leave the school building?
We understand the importance of feeling safe in the community and offer two ideas:
Participate in FACE Events: Our Office hosts programming a few times a month that’s open to families, teachers, and other members of the community. Some of them are virtual; this could help you connect with others from the comfort of your home.
Leverage Community Spaces: It might be helpful to find your neighborhood’s “third place” – in other words, a local spot (outside home and work/school) where people spend time. This might be a library branch, gym, place of worship, basketball court, sandwich shop, or corner store. Try spending time there for twenty minutes and introduce yourself to one person; tell them you’re a teacher at the school nearby! Put yourself out there slowly and incrementally.
When my school plans events, families never show up.
It is definitely frustrating when event turn-out is lower than we expect – but addressing this issue through an equity lens can help us identify the root of the problem. Consider these questions with your planning team:
- How did you take families’ work schedules and time commitments into account? If many of your families work a 9-5, having an event at 4:00PM will be challenging. There are a few schools in the District that plan things in the early morning (prior to morning entry) or later in the evening. We recommend asking your families about their time commitments in the beginning of the school year – perhaps in a survey.
- If this event is during a common meal time, are you providing food? This can be a strong attendance incentive. Ask your school leader about paying for catering with Title 1 funds.
- What measures have you taken to ensure language accessibility? Did you advertise the event in multiple languages? Have you arranged for a translator or (if your school has one) spoken with a Bilingual Counseling Assistant?
- How are families traveling to this event? What transportation barriers might exist? Ask your Family Liaison about getting pre-paid Septa key cards from our Office.
- Can families bring their small children to this event? If so, do they know this? Not everyone will assume that their toddlers are welcome.
- Did families ask for this event? Sometimes, a school activity might seem great from an educator’s perspective but is unappealing from our families’ point of view. It’s important to ask them about their needs and interests. This is key to building relational family-school partnerships.
Overall, we find that the best-attended school events are ones that involve families in the decision-making process; it is the easiest way to ensure that your planning is responsive and equitable. Consider speaking with your School Advisory Council (SAC), sending out a survey, or just texting your families for some quick feedback.
What are the laws and policies surrounding family and community engagement?
There are certainly legal components to this work!
- Section 1116 of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires Local Education Agencies (LEAs) receiving Title 1 funds to provide opportunities for “meaningful” family engagement throughout the year.
- ESSA includes the “Right to Know” federal law, as well. This focuses on communication between families and schools. It ensures that families have access to pertinent information about their student’s education: instructional content, progress reporting, teacher qualifications, and more!
- When it comes to components specific to the School District of Philadelphia, SDP Policy 918 defines family engagement and describes the District’s pathway for adhering to Section 1116 of ESSA. It supports the implementation of Family Liaisons, Bilingual Counseling Assistants, and School Advisory Councils – in addition to school-wide and District-wide family engagement events (like Family Math Night or a FACE workshop).
- Also, Priority Area 2 of Accelerate Philly calls on schools to strengthen their partnerships with families and the community. This is echoed in Guardrail 3 of the Board of Education’s Goals and Guardrails and Domain 4C in the Danielson Framework for teacher evaluation.
Family Outreach Templates for Educators
Celebrating Family Engagement Around the District
"Baldi in Blanc": Baldi Middle School (Northeast Philly)
Principal: Bianca Gillis
School Event: This August, Baldi welcomed families to the first of many community engagement events! “Baldi in Blanc” was a night for families to engage with, and have dinner with, one another, our community partners, school administration, and staff. Together, we enjoyed dinner, dancing, music, games, and more! We provided the tables, chairs, face painting, and entertainment for families. The families were responsible for bringing their own cuisine. Additionally, our 21st Century Program partners were there meeting families and signing students up for this year’s after school programs.
Who was involved in the planning? Principal Gillis planned the event with support from Assistant Principal Mixon and Assistant Principal Henderson. We had help with setting up from a host of school supporters from our district, Michelle Thornton, Friends of Baldi, and our Greenberg Family.
What did you consider during the planning process? Experiencing the Joy @ BALDI is always the first thought when planning an event, along with figuring out what we can do to connect with our families and show them that they are valued. What activities can we provide that are interactive and fun for students — and what is the most cost effective way to accomplish that?
How did you pay for this event? It looked pricey at first, but to make it cost effective, we fundraised and used student activities funds. We provided the tables, chairs, face painting, and entertainment for students/families. The families were responsible for bringing their own cuisine.
Further Reading on Family & Community Engagement
Newsletters & Podcasts
This is the official newsletter from the FACE Office. Before considering another publication, please subscribe to this one to stay up to date with our opportunities for families and staff.
The City of Philadelphia’s Office of Children and Families has a monthly newsletter featuring community events and city-supported services for residents. We highly recommend it.
The Harvard Graduate School of Education podcast keeps the focus simple, with conversations about what makes a difference for learners, educators, parents, and communities.
National PTA’s podcast features engaging conversations that offer real-life advice and ideas on how to support children’s learning and development—all in parent-friendly language.
Family Resources & Supports
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