Family Outreach
Families and caregivers are important stakeholders who need to be kept informed of school reopening decisions and adjustments to academics, operations, athletics, and other school functions. Being transparent is crucial in establishing trust with families and caregivers.
Key Recommendations
Develop clear, transparent, and streamlined messages for families, staff, and the community. Train staff on these messages.
Use a variety of communication methods to engage with students, families, and staff. Determine and use consistent modes of communication (mail, email, text, virtual meetings) and employ a predictable and set cadence of communication.
Establish who will be involved in communication and messaging. Identify a point person to answer COVID-19 and school reopening questions.
Provide a regular method for families to send questions, ask questions, and share concerns; offer multiple options to accommodate schedules.
Communicate in families’ preferred/home languages.
Develop a survey, accessible in mobile and web formats, for families to collect data on readiness for return.
Send the survey to families as soon as you are able, to allow you time to react to and incorporate the results into your plan.
Integrate the survey into your communication plan, including messages about the purpose of the survey and how it will support the plan to reopen.
Consider conducting surveys periodically to keep channels of communication open with families.
Identify barriers to reaching all families and develop methods to increase engagement.
Reflection Points for Teams
What will our communication principles be? How will we share them transparently?
What are the multiple modes of communication (mail, email, text, virtual meetings) and frequency of communication we will aim for?
Who will be involved in communication and messaging? Who are the decision-makers and point people?
How will we address issues of equity for families and students without access to primary channels or with whom we lost contact at the end of the 2019-20 school year?
Consider options for allowing respondents to update their responses or re-survey as community cases or other factors change.
Ideas
Consider a dashboard or standard display on the school website so parents can check it as needed.
Set a consistent cadence for messaging, using multiple channels such as social media (i.e., morning announcements on Facebook Live or Zoom), email, mail, phone, and text messaging. The schedule could include:
Weekly communications (i.e., latest data, changes or updates to public health guidelines, changes or updates to education plans, a positive spotlight)
Weekly video conference meeting with superintendents and principals
Virtual office hours for staff to debrief and share ideas
Create a list of your existing communications tools and “audit” them to assess capability for scheduling messages that will reach all of your community members.
Proactively ask families for their preferred method of communication, time of day for virtual meetings, etc.
Starting Point Tools
The following resources offer starting points for school leaders to implement strong communication practices. These comprise of practitioner toolkits, videos, documents, surveys, apps, and more to provide actionable next steps.
(We will continue to update these as we continue to learn about additional tools)
Communicating About Reopening Measures with Families
This practitioner toolkit offers strategies for school leaders to understand family concerns and needs, define clear messages, and use effective communication tools and tactics to engage parents and caregivers.
Communications School Communities Deserve: Principles and Practice for the COVID-19 Era and Beyond
Source: Equity by Design, Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School
Family Engagement Choice Board for Reopening (Video)
Source: Highlander Institute
TNTP/Transcend Education Sample Pre-Reopening Surveys
Family survey (you can copy and modify)
Student survey (you can copy and modify)
Staff survey (you can copy and modify)
Platforms & Applications
The following platforms helps teachers and schools leaders communicate with parents and families through push-out notifications, two-way messaging with phone number privacy, and built-in translation services to communicate with caregivers in their native language.
Links to download each app on the App Store are provided below. All apps are free.
