Feature 1.11 - Student/Family/ Community Involvement

Essential Learning

Read Family-School Collaboration in Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports: Creating a School Atmosphere to Promote Collaboration to gain a common understanding of the role of familiy collaboration in PBIS
Have the PBIS Leadership Team complete the PBIS: Tier I Family Engagement Rubric from Ohio State University
- Or use the Family & Community Engagement in MTSS Innovation Configuration Self Assessment tool from FL PBIS
Have the PBIS Leadership Team complete the Family Engagement Goal Setting Activity to develop goals for the action plan
Create a data collection process to survey families and/or community members on Tier 1 practices
- Family Engagement Survey resources from Vermont PBIS

Additional Resources

Read Aligning and Integrating Family Engagement in Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to learn concepts and strategies for Families and Schools
Read Epstein’s Types of Parent Engagement and School-wide PBIS to learn sample practices, challenges, redefinitions, and expected results for six types of engagement
Read Ten PBIS Tips for Partnering with Families for specific strategies to engage parents in PBIS
- Read 11 Easy Tips to Really Engage with Families for additional strategies
- Read 20 Tips for Developing Positive Relationships With Parents for additional strategies
- Read 5 Tips to Promote the PBIS Schools to Home Connection for additional strategies
Presentation matrerials: Engaging Families in Schools using School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports from Oregon University
Webinar: Family and Community Engagement
Webinar: Universal – Family Engagement
Webinar: Using PBIS at Home to Improve Family Life

Task: Document that students, families, and community members have provided feedback on Tier 1 practices annually

Criteria for successful completion of the task

Annually collect feedback from students, families, and/or community members on Tier 1 practices
Analyze feedback and apply analysis to annual review of Tier 1 practices
Include Family and Community engagement as a part of the PBIS action plan

Overview

“There are many reasons for developing school, family, and community partnerships. Partnerships can improve school programs and school climate, provide family services and support, increase parents’ skills and leadership, connect families with others in the school and in the community, and help teachers with their work.

However, the main reason to create such partnerships is to help all youngsters succeed in school and in later life. When parents, teachers, students, and others view one another as partners in education, a caring community forms around students and begins its work."

Joyce Epstein, 2018

Engaging and collaborating with parents is one of the most important elements for a student's academic success. However, it can also be one of the most difficult for schools to achieve. The same is true of PBIS. Often the solution is to have parents be a part of the PBIS Leadership team, and while this is good practice, it is also important that all parents be aware of a school's PBIS practices.

Similar to staff, communication is key to increasing engagement with parents. Some schools include PBIS into their school newletters or even have newletters divoted to PBIS. Explanation of Tier 1 practices, aknowledgement of students and their positive behaviors, and even behavioral data is shared on a regular basis to increase an awareness and understanding of PBIS. Others utilize social media, parent training events, or provide a behavior matrix for home expectations as a means of communication.

Feedback from parents can also provide important data on the success of PBIS implementation, as well as help identify areas for improvement on future action plans. Parents should be surveyed on Tier 1 practices annually. This is often done during spring parent teachers conferences. Family Engagement Survey resources from Vermont PBIS are included on this page, but the PBIS Leadership team should design a survey that will provide the feedback that that will best support the staffs evaluation of PBIS practices and future action plans.

Communication and connection to the school's community can also support PBIS implementation. Some schools even design specific behavior expectations for businesses near the school. Others engage the community by sharing the schools PBIS practices and requesting donations for the school's acknowledgement system. Just like engaging parents, but engaging the community a school extends PBIS beyond its campus and school day and increases the effectiveness of Tier 1 practices.