Family Engagement Newsletter
October 2023
Families and schools working together, because our students are worth it!
Welcome to the 2023-24 School Year!
We hope you had a fun, relaxing summer break and are ready to GO!!!
What an exciting time of year and a great opportunity for a fresh start, a fresh attitude, and fresh new faces eager for you to teach and inspire them.
Back-to-School Strategies
This tool, created and provided by Flamboyan Foundation, a nonprofit organization that champions REAL family engagement, gives insight into building intentional, thoughtful relationships at the beginning of the year, ensuring students have what they need for success.
Hit the Ground Running!
Beginning a new year is exciting, but it can be a little anxiety-provoking to staff, families, and students. It can be especially difficult for those in special education, in a new building, school, or district, or beginning their teaching career. Be prepared, be enthusiastic, and let it be contagious. Use strategies to start building partnerships with families and your community from the first day of school.
Here are a few easy ways to let others feel 'you've got this' -- because you DO!
Have a Welcoming Attitude
Don't wait for back-to-school night to reach out and welcome those you will work with this year--new faculty and staff, new families, and new students. Of all the educators--teachers, coaches, mentors, etc.--in your life, who influenced you the most? What made them stand out? Can you emulate what made them so approachable?
Get to Know Your Students
Any worthwhile relationship begins with getting to know each other. Learn your students' cultures, nicknames, interests, talents, home language, and other valuable tidbits to get to know them, beyond their academics. Share a little about yourself. Find commonalities--did they see any good movies or read any books over the summer? What's their favorite sports team?
Learn About Your Students' Families
These are your partners for the year, your guides to their children, your co-educators. Get to know their lifestyle, work commitments, communication preferences. What really works well for their children? What went well last year, and what would they like to see happen differently? What experience and talents do family members have that can contribute to your classroom's success? Start a recipe swap or resource board to help families connect with you and each other.
Understand Your Students' IEPs and 504 Plans
Your life will be easier if you know what your students with disabilities need and what is legally required of you. For example, what supports do they need? What are their goals? How will you measure their progress? Keep confidential records and notations with input for their upcoming IEP reviews. (Know the date of their annual team meetings.) Regularly review progress and successes with their families, colleagues that teach them, paraprofessionals and related service providers. Support them how you would want an educator to treat your own loved one.
Take and Give Time for Wellness and Reframing
Everyone talks about "self-care," but do you plan for it? Allow yourself the deserved time to find your inner calm, whatever that looks like for you, and schedule it each day. If you feel yourself needing a break, regroup and reframe--and allow the same for your students! Not much will get accomplished if you feel tense, frustrated, or out of sorts, and you know not much learning will ensue if your students feel the same. Try to instill some relaxation and fun into your lessons and watch for great results!
Decades of research have taught us that when families are actively engaged in their children's education, students achieve better grades, higher test scores, and increased graduation rates. This hot-off-the-press document explores how schools can reframe the IEP process and take active steps to include families as educational partners.
Need Assistance? Contact PaTTAN!
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 are offered:
- Systemic Customized Supports
- Critical Customized Supports
- Emergent Short-Term Customized Supports
- 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! Please email us at familyengagementconnect@pattankop.net
Upcoming Fall Professional Development Opportunities
PaPBS Network and MTSS Implementers' Forum 2023 - SAVE THE DATES!
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.)
HELIX Conference - November 15-17 - SAVE THE DATES!
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!"
Here's what your colleagues said about HELIX 2022:
"...best conference I have attended in a long time..."
"...refreshing and...helps shape effective practices."
"...new learning which helps me become a better practitioner."
School Teams Share Family Engagement Success Stories
Four PA Enhancing Family Engagement (EFE) teams successfully completed their 18-month training series on May 17, 2023. Each group discussed their experiences and newly honed skills as a result of their professional development and collaboration. Members of the teams were presented with a Certificate of Completion, and each school or district received a customized banner to display their commitment to enhancing and maintaining strong school-family-community partnerships. Congratulations for a job well done! 🏆
Greater Latrobe School District
McKean Elementary School
HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy
McGuffey School District
...focused highly on improving communication between school and home, including revamping its district website to be more user friendly, based on survey data from families, faculty, and the community.
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!
You've Got This!
The mission of the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) is to support the efforts and initiatives of the Bureau of Special Education, and to build the capacity of local educational agencies to serve students who receive special education services.