Embedded Files
GHC Family Engagement Wheel
Integration of Parents in Children's Education
Parents is valued as partners in their child's growth and development. All program models incorporate parents and guardians in all aspects of early learning. GHC utilizes parents as volunteers within our facilities, including classroom volunteering, special programs, monthly parent meetings, and the parent policy council. GHC recruits parents at enrollment and communicates the expectation of a robust home and school connection.
All HS and EHS services are structured to recognize parents' roles as children's lifelong educators and to encourage them to engage in their child's education. The program's settings are open to parents during all program hours, and parents always have access to their child's classroom. Teachers regularly communicate with parents to ensure they are well informed about their child's routines, activities, and behavior. All communications respect the family's beliefs, values, and culture. Parents can learn about and provide feedback on selected curricula and instructional materials used in the program and volunteer in the class and during group activities and outings. Teachers and home visitors inform parents about the purposes and results of screenings and assessments and discuss their child's progress during parent conferences and home visits. The parent conference aims to enhance the knowledge and understanding of both staff and parents of the child's education and developmental progress and activities in the program. Conferences are held as needed, but no less than three times per year after outcome checkpoints, and are offered at times convenient for parents. Sufficient time is allotted for parent input, questions, and planning for their children’s developmental goals to allow children's parent participation. Parents are provided with information on how they can help their children meet their goals, and staff asks families about their observations of their children at home to gain a richer developmental picture of each child.
In addition, home visits are a vital component in developing trusting, respectful relationships with families better to address their needs and their children’s development. Our comprehensive family partnerships engage our families from intake, and individualized services continue throughout a family's enrollment. Our team of Family Support Specialist identify family strengths and needs and connects them with community resources and internal services as applicable. The overarching goal of our parent partnerships is to facilitate activities for parents that promote the child's learning and development. GHC has created the Gad’s Dads Program this year to include more male involvement in our programs. We hope to involve male figures in the classrooms for reading circles, craft activities, and meetings centered around male role models. Each interaction with parents has been designed to recognize any barriers to participation and constraints placed on working families, such as resources, transportation issues, and access to resources that address social determinants of health, such as food insecurity, housing instability, and other social factors.
Home Visiting Standards for Transitioning Children
For new or transitioning children, the initial home visit is completed before the child's first day of attendance. Returning children from the same program option must have an initial home visit within 30 days of the child's first day of attendance. Visits will be done IN PERSON, not over the telephone. Visits are scheduled by phone or in person with each family. If a situation precludes visiting the family in their home, every effort will be made to ensure that a meeting still occurs. This may be at a mutually agreed upon location (library, restaurant, etc.) or at the center, as long as confidentiality can be upheld at all times. Teachers or Home Visitors have an Initial Home Visit packet which includes all the paperwork and information to be covered. All required enrollment paperwork not completed at the Initial Home Visit, Screening Day, or Open House MUST be completed on the child's first day of enrollment.
Center-based Option
At the second Home Visit, the discussion includes a review of information from the Initial Home Visit and the fall Family Conference in combination with an analysis of developmental progress utilizing winter assessment data. This should focus on the child's progress from the time of enrollment; individual child goals will be updated with the family's input. The Transition Process started at the first Family Conference in the fall.
The duration of all home visits must be a minimum of 90 minutes. When possible, the best practice is for teachers and Family advocates to participate in all home visits so that family members can meet and establish a positive relationship with each of them.
Home-based Option: The Home Visitor will provide a minimum of 46 home visits per year per family. See Head Start Attendance Policy and Procedure for more information. Home Visits take place weekly @ 90 minutes each, except prenatal. All home visits focus on promoting high-quality early learning experiences in the home and growth toward goals described in the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework- ages birth to five, using such goals and the curriculum to plan home visit activities.
Prenatal home visits: will be scheduled based on the needs of the pregnant mother.
Staff members must make monthly contact with families. These visits must address the need for appropriate support for emotional well-being, nurturing and responsive caregiving, and father engagement during pregnancy and early childhood. Visits provide enrolled pregnant women, fathers, and partners or other relevant family members the prenatal and postpartum information, education, and services that address, as appropriate, fetal development, the importance of nutrition, the risks of alcohol, drugs, and smoking, labor and delivery, postpartum recovery, parental depression, infant care, and safe sleep practices, and the benefits of breastfeeding. Post-partum visits are required within two weeks from delivery by a health staff member (See 1302 Subpart H).
Home visits will be scheduled by the classroom teacher or Family Support Specialist before each center-based child's beginning and end of the school year.
Home visits will be conducted in the family homes and documented with appropriate forms. Documentation will be kept in the student files maintained by the teacher and the Family Service Worker.
Other home visits may be scheduled throughout the year as necessary. Initial home visits will be used to gain additional information about the child and family and to share information about the Head Start program, such as the curriculum, student assessment, and program policies and procedures.
The last conference will be used to discuss the child's growth and development.
The teacher will discuss any concerns the family may have regarding the next transition for the child and will offer suggestions or assist the family with contacting needed services.
All home visits that are canceled either by the parent, the home visitor, or due to inclement weather, will be rescheduled.
Staff will make every effort possible to make up the visit.
Documentation of all scheduled and completed visits will be maintained, and the appropriate staff will document the reason for any cancellation or schedule change.
Parent Teacher Conferences
Classroom teachers are responsible for scheduling parent-teacher conferences at least twice a year at a time that is mutually convenient for staff and parents.
The child’s family report is reviewed during the conference, and the family receives a copy of their child's outcomes from TSG.
Teachers must document all Parent Teachers Conferences on the appropriate GHC Form.
If a child has a documented disability or an SEL support plan, the Mental Health Clinician and education coordinator must be present.
School Conferences are rescheduled as needed to meet the needs/requests of the family.
Documentation will be kept in the student files maintained by the teacher.
A home visit may be scheduled by the teacher to hold a conference with the parent if necessary. Documentation of the conferences will be kept in the Education File.
Children will be assessed using the Teaching Strategies GOLD online system. Quarterly checkpoints for assessment will be determined by the beginning of each program year. Teachers plan experiences that will give them opportunities to observe and record the children’s skills. Observations and work samples will be collected documenting child progress on a regular basis by teaching staff, with all updates to be completed by quarterly checkpoints.
Teaching staff uses a variety of methods to document supporting observations notes for each child including:
Observations, checklists, monthly child portfolio work (e.g., artwork, writing samples), pictures, video clips, and “on the spot” entries.
All children will receive a minimum of one recorded observation in every learning objective each quarter. Based on recorded documentation, teaching staff completes finalized checkpoints quarterly in accordance with program checkpoint dates.
The Assessment information is shared with parents at home visits and/or parent/teacher conferences using the Parent Teacher Conference Form generated from TSG. Families and staff use Parent Teacher Conferences to set learning goals and identify the next steps for school and home (Individualized Curriculum). The assessment information is printed in Spanish, as needed. The signed copy is placed in the child Education Folder and is used for individualized lesson planning.
Family Engagement in Curriculum,
All planning in our program is based on the concept of developmentally appropriate and researched-based practice. Since parents are the primary educators of their children, we provide opportunities for them to have input into curriculum planning.
Guidance: Parent Groups: A Classroom Teacher will attend the Parent Group meeting when possible and present curriculum concepts and ideas to the group for parents to discuss monthly. Parents are asked to contribute ideas or activities to support school readiness goals. All teachers will generate a Family & Program Communication form for their classroom to be presented at the Parent Group meeting. The Parent Group members will then record written suggestions with parent signatures on the provided form. The Family Advocate will file the form in the Parent Group binder for that site and post it in the corresponding classroom next to the curriculum lesson plan. All suggestions will be considered for inclusion in the weekly lesson plan. Parents will be given information on how their suggestions were utilized when possible.
Home Visits: The home visit is when the classroom teacher comes to the home to discuss the child and share information regarding the child's developmental progress and any areas of concern that may impact curriculum planning. Weekly Lesson Plans: Weekly Lesson Plans are posted in the classroom for parents to view. Developmentally appropriate parent suggestions are incorporated into the weekly plan when possible. During weekly planning time, teachers discuss the individual strengths and needs of children and the entire classroom's needs. Teachers use multiple sources of information about each child, including, but not limited to, observations, assessment data, and parent input, to plan for and to document curriculum concepts, goals, and objectives for individualization purposes.
Family Conferences: In the fall and spring, the classroom teachers invite Head Start parents to attend a scheduled family conference. At this time, the teacher provides the family with a progress report: the Teaching Strategies Conference Form and the Teaching Strategies Development & Learning report explicitly document their child's areas of strength and expected next steps in their development & learning. The conference includes a discussion of the curriculum in the classroom. Early Head Start Home Visiting option: Each family enrolled in the Early Head Start Home Visiting option receives a visit from a Home Visitor once a week. During this visit, the parent indicates needs and interests and works with the Home Visitor to develop the individualized curriculum plan for the next week. The home visitor and family discuss learning experiences provided in the home between each visit, address concerns, and inform strategies to promote family engagement toward school readiness goals.
Approaches to Family Engagement & Take-Home Activities
Parent Engagement & Take-Home Activities
Strong family engagement and collaboration is an integral parts of building a successful and high-quality early childhood practice. For this reason, it is crucial to establish positive partnerships with children’s families and to include families in the classroom setting. Providing families with extended classroom lessons works to continue learning for children while actively supporting families' involvement in the child's individual learning. GHC requires that teachers send home monthly family engagement activities and document any and all efforts and activities sent home. Family engagement activities are monitored through the family engagement activity. All activities sent home must be developmentally appropriate and take into consideration the child's induvial learning ability and the family/parent's ability aswell.
There are a number of ways to encourage and support family participation in your regular preschool routine, such as:
Inviting family members to share special talents (e.g., play an instrument, lead a cooking activity, sing, make a craft).
Giving family members jobs in the preschool routine (classroom helper, guest reader, party planner, activity-preparation helper).
Inviting family members to visit your classroom at any time.
Asking family members to contribute materials for activities (empty food containers for use in center activities, used clothing items for use in the dramatic play area).
Inviting family members to join a classroom field trip.
Inviting family members to be guest speakers about certain topics (e.g., a firefighter talking to children about the job).
Inviting family members to share aspects of their culture.
Asking family members to help put together a class photo album.
Asking family members to share input about classroom field trips.
Ask family members for extra helping hands with cleaning and rearranging your classroom.
Encouraging families to share suggestions or concerns with you.
Take-Home Activities & Food Experiences
Take-Home Activities & Food Experiences
To the left is an example of a teacher and family take-home activity planned by classroom teachers to engage families in a food experience
Teacher Send Home Activity-Form[10866].docxTeacher-Family Engagement Send-Home Activity
Teacher-Family Engagement Send-Home Activity
Teachers and education staff should use the form to the left to plan and document take-home activities.
Program Governance & Family Engagement
Parents should be provided engagement opportunities that include decision-making and accountability. At the center level, parents are involved in center/program-based policy committees. This committee operates at the center /program level. Parent Policy Committee is separate from Parent Policy Council. However, the two must engage with one another when relaying information regarding the program. The Policy Committee is responsible for reviewing and approving the following items:
Parent activities that support the involvement of parents in supporting program operations, including policies to ensure that the HS/EHS/CCP services are responsive to community and parent needs. The parent activity fund should be used to cover planned parent activities, Policy Committee activities, CPPC out-of-area travel, and child care reimbursement policy.
GHC has written policies governing the use of the parent activity fund, including policies and procedures concerning parent travel to local and out-of-town conferences and educational events.
Parent activities should be planned annually during late summer or early fall. Center-based programs and home visiting programs must submit parent activity calendars and budgets to the agency’s Monitoring Team in October/November with their approved HS/EHS/CCP contract documents.
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