Family Engagement Newsletter

We want to thank everyone for viewing and sharing September's back-to-school edition. Viewership was nearly 1700--our largest to date!

Please keep sharing the signup link and send suggested topics, strategies, or possible articles to be included in future editions. Help improve PA students' success by fostering collaborative partnerships among their educators, families, and communities.

Have you heard of Pennsylvania's amazing work around students' leading their IEPs? Check out this Student-Led IEP (S-LIEP) Resource Hub for great resources and easy-to-use strategies and tools you can use today to help you implement this critical approach to empowering students with self-advocacy and leadership skills. Here are a few examples of what you'll discover on The Hub:

• Answers to questions like, How can I be part of this process? and What's in it for schools and other IEP team member group, e.g., students and families?

• Family Engagement in S-LIEPs

• Option to request customized Professional Development or Technical Assistance from PaTTAN about the S-LIEP process and benefits

****************************************************************************

You can also access a presentation on Student-Led IEPs and how to implement them from a session at the 2022 HELIX Conference. See PPT slides here.

Students do better in school and in life when their families are engaged.

Flamboyan Foundation's 2022 publication, Family Engagement Matters, provides evidence that family engagement contributes to a range of positive student outcomes, as well as provides important benefits to the inner functioning of schools. Read this summary of research studies to learn how family engagement matters.

And see more great resources on the Flamboyan Foundation's site.

This fact sheet, Supporting Students’ Social, Emotional, Behavioral, and Academic Well-Being and Success: Strategies for Schools to Enhance Relationships with Families, is one of four developed to ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn in environments that are safe, inclusive, supportive, and fair. Please view the supporting fact sheets here.

USDOE, Office of Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center Collaborative. (2023).

The PA Bureau of Special Education and PaTTAN consultants, along with IU partners, will provide LEAs direct support, at a local level, in various areas of need, including family engagement. Types of support offered: Systemic, Critical, Emergent Short-Term, and Professional Development Customized Supports

Visit PaTTAN's - Customized Professional Development and Technical Assistance and Watch this short video to learn more

Our PaTTAN Family Engagement Team is available to assist you through your family engagement request process! familyengagementconnect@pattankop.net

Thank you to our four 2022-23 PA Enhancing Family Engagement (EFE) teams graciously shared some tips and takeaways they gleaned from their 18-month PaTTAN training series. These Educator-to-Educator Tips for Building Authentic Family Engagement were featured in BSE's The Essential Bulletin for Educators, together with some considerations provided by PaTTAN Family Engagement consultants.

Considerations:

a. Cultural Events

b. Community Experts who could share their knowledge

c. Families’ areas of need

Considerations:

a. Invite families to participate in virtual meetings

b. Offering varied times for meetings to fit families’ busy schedule

c. Holding meetings in community rooms throughout your school community (e.g., local businesses or churches)

Considerations:

a. Create a brief survey polling families about their preferences, suggestions, and needs

b. PaTTAN's Family Engagement Needs Assessment can be utilized to examine your family engagement practices, procedures, and programs, and can be modified to meet your specific needs

Considerations:

a. Call families just to check in or to congratulate their child on academic, social, or behavioral success. Putting those "pennies in the bank" can help to build positive relationships when tough situations arise.

b. Make sure parents know that you're rooting for their successes, too!

Have you checked out the Pennsylvania Department of Education's ​Family and Community Engagement Program (FACE) website? Look at all the great supports it offers! (Click on each box to link to a topic.)

This year's Implementers' Forum will be held November 1-3, 2023, at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center. Is your site implementing PBIS in PA? Consider submitting a video--we want to showcase your practice in action! (See PaTTAN site for details.)

NEW LOCATION! Join us this Fall for HELIX: High Expectations for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities, in historic downtown Lancaster, PA! This year, our hybrid conference will take place at the Lancaster County Convention Center. See why hundreds of educators, administrators, family members, related service providers, and experts in the field participate in this extraordinary event each year, touted as "a wonderful experience and opportunity to...revitalize ourselves for the rest of the year!"

Registration opens soon!

TEAM STIPENDS & FAMILY SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

PaTTAN is offering a stipend for conference expenses for any school team that includes a general and special education teacher. This opportunity is in addition to family scholarships!

If you found this family and community engagement newsletter to be helpful, please share it with colleagues and families in your school, district, IU, or agency. Thank you!