OUR MISSION
To facilitate statewide leadership, guidance, and support in the area of youth development, family and community engagement in order to build the capacity of educators and parents to establish effective home-school partnerships to improve student outcomes.
Partner with California Department of Education, County Offices of Education, Local Education Agencies, students, families and other Statewide Agencies to coordinate resources, supports and professional development opportunities that support needs of students, families and practitioners at the local level. Provide support and guidance related to family engagement best practices, frameworks, and trending research/data. Coordinate opportunities to collect voices from the field including, students, parents, practitioners, and external interest holders to advocate for the needs of students
The CA Family and Community Engagement Initiative connects statewide family engagement partners across California. Partners identify existing opportunities to coordinate and lift up work that is already going on in the field. Our team collaborates with statewide family engagement partners to develop content, highlight best practices and share bright spots for webinars, videos, newsletters and other guidance documents.
Collaboration and partnership are vital components needed to strengthen capacity-building and sustainability efforts for schools and families across the state. A parent advisory and a youth advisory council were established to identify projects or policy areas important to youth and families. Staff meet with the councils to provide policy updates and seek feedback on educational issues. Members participate in webinars, convenings, work groups and other CDEF related events to elevate family and youth voices. Topical areas include advancing language justice and implementation of the ELL roadmap, ongoing support for mental health resources and funding, improving school climate and safety, access to nutritious school meals, disproportionate suspensions/expulsions of black and brown students, equity and social justice education.
An additional program element is the family engagement advisory network, composed of family engagement interest holders, to provide feedback and input into the development of resources, supports and policies that highlight promising practices in family engagement including communication and outreach strategies.
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Our CDE Foundation team supports with three program goals:
- Awareness – increase awareness of family engagement resources and best practices to empower Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and County Offices of Education (COEs) to engage in positive home/school partnerships that support student outcomes
- Advocacy – using an equity lens, advocate for culturally response family engagement policies and practices at the local, county and state level
- Access – use an equity-based approach to expand access to evidence-based family engagement resources, supports and promising practices for and from LEAs, COEs, and Statewide Family Engagement Partner organizations.
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Family engagement is an important predictor of student academic success and social-emotional wellbeing. Family engagement advances equity by creating meaningful opportunities for families to serve as true partners in their child’s education, to collaborate with educators, and to establish a positive relationship based on mutual trust and respect.
In 2020, Superintendent Thurmond established the first Family Engagement Unit at the Department of Education with the support of philanthropic investments from Heising-Simons and Sobrato Foundations. The Unit’s mission was to create a family engagement office within CDE to facilitate statewide leadership, guidance, and support in the area of family engagement and youth development in order to build the capacity of educators and parents to establish effective home-school partnerships to improve student outcomes. Activities have included, but are not limited to, partnering with CDE staff, external interest holders, COE’s, LEA’s, students and families to coordinate resources, supports and professional development opportunities that support needs of students, families and practitioners at the local level; providing support and guidance related to family engagement best practices, frameworks, and trending research/data; and coordinating opportunities to collect voices from the field including, students, parents, practitioners, and external stakeholders to advocate for the needs of students.
The Family Engagement staff focused its efforts on building relationships with interest holders including County Offices of Education, Local Education Agencies, and Family Engagement Statewide Organizations over the last two years. In addition, Parent Advisory Council and Youth Advisory Councils were established to support efforts in collecting voices from youth and families in diverse communities throughout California. The Councilmembers represent various race, ethnicities, socio-economic levels, educational backgrounds, geographical areas and have various lived experiences with education. These Councils have been instrumental in providing input on a variety of policy-related issues including, but not limited to, chronic absenteeism, mental health, declining enrollment, and student engagement/school climate.
In the 2022-2023 school year, key initiatives were outlined for transforming California schools by Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond. Included in these initiatives are Community Schools, Expanded Learning Programs, Mental Health Supports, Universal Prekindergarten and Literacy. Family Engagement is interwoven into all of these initiatives and are interdependent on engaging, listening to, and partnering with families to improve student outcomes.
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