Ongoing, strategic Family-School Partnering (FSP) is an essential component of every educational community. FSP is a multi-dimensional process in which schools, families, and communities engage in shared actions to ensure a child’s academic, social, and emotional success. With this text, the authors intend to offer a practical guide that demonstrates how this partnering can be strategically implemented in all levels of schooling. The main focus of the text is how to plan, implement, and evaluate FSP within existing school structures and resources. The authors begin with an overview of the foundational and organizational information necessary for successful FSP, including a review of ecological systems theory. FSP theories and strategies are presented at a universal, targeted, and intensive level, giving the school mental health professional insight into working with students and families who have differing needs. A school-based case example illustrates FSP in action and provides a practical roadmap for implementation. Each chapter contains easily adaptable tools and a list of useful web links to resources which can be used in conjunction with the strategies presented and discussed by the authors. An accompanying CD will also contain all the handouts, forms, and other such resources presented throughout the text.

Family-School-Community Partnering (FSCP) is a multidimensional process in which schools, families, and communities work together to ensure the academic, social, and emotional success of students. In this new edition, the authors evaluate advances to a multitiered model of FSCP that further incorporates community alliances. Section I covers legislative, empirical, and theoretical underpinnings and updates. Practical strategies are discussed to develop, deliver, and evaluate a cohesive system of support to improve student outcomes. Chapter addendums detail the specific approaches and associated resources to advance FSCP from infancy through adulthood. In Section II, current researchers and practitioners consider how to enhance collaborative partnerships with military, migrant/refugee, and rural communities and support gender identity and varied developmental abilities. Four culminating case stories are designed to facilitate ideas for intentional integration of FSCP domains into readers’ ongoing practices. School psychologists, counselors, educators, administrators, and social workers will learn how to strategically implement this partnering in all levels of schooling.

This volume focuses on context considerations in family-school partnership research. The book examines how cultural diversity, including differences in parenting (e.g., race, education, family history) and diverse school variables (e.g., location, population, organization,) can affect family-school partnerships. Its bio ecological perspective pinpoints critical areas that studies need to address for real-world utility, such as parental commitment and developmental considerations. Although the book’s focus is research, chapters present program designs and evaluations along with ideas for community involvement and policy. The authors also explore the changing landscape for home-school partnerships resulting from the impact of technology, which is rapidly becoming a central player in organizing research and bringing interventions to life. Topics covered include: Complexities in field-based partnership research. Family-centered, school-based interventions. A district leadership approach to school, family and community partnerships. Research issues to forward a policy agenda supporting family-school partnerships. Testing statistical moderation in research on home-school partnerships. Integrating current and evolving knowledge toward future directions for research. Contexts of Family-School Partnerships is a valuable resource for researchers, professionals and graduate students in child and school psychology, educational policy and politics, family studies, developmental psychology, sociology of education, sociology and anthropology.

Establishing Family-School Partnerships in School Psychology provides actionable, evidence-based practices toward effective family-school partnerships. Offering scoped and sequenced approaches to embed family-school partnership interventions within a three-tier prevention framework, the book covers mental health screening, cultural responsiveness, technology use, and more. This volume in the Foundations of School Psychology Research and Practice Series makes clear how sustained implementation of family-school partnerships can be achieved within existing educational infrastructures to promote student achievement across developmental periods and schooling levels.

How can colleges and schools support the inclusion of family, school and community engagement curricula in teacher and administrator preparation programs? The contributions in this book try to answer this question, with contributors describing their experiences, their programs, and their support for the goal of enhancing parental involvement and engagement in Schools and Colleges of Education. The authors and researchers, such as Joyce Epstein, who is the foremost researcher on the topic, have the knowledge and expertise in family, school, and community engagement and partnerships from both theory and best practice perspectives. The book is designed to be interactive, and readers are encouraged to engage themselves in the conversation. Readers are invited to e-mail any of the editors to discuss the questions posed. This book was originally published as a special issue of Teaching Education.

This book presents research-based family-school intervention programs that target the specific developmental period of preschool through the early elementary years, focusing on promoting positive child transitions into school. It explores critical intervention issues, including the need to understand mechanisms of efficacy, issues with real-world implementation, and methods for scaling family-school interventions. The volume references developmental research to highlight the importance of family-school partnerships at this critical transition period. Several chapters briefly describe research on proven intervention models that are effective in promoting family-school partnerships as children enter kindergarten and foster positive school outcomes. Each chapter concludes with a review of the most critical next steps in family-school intervention research within the context of the early school years. At the end of the book, several commentary chapters address overall implications for future research and methods for advancing the field, including perspectives on research-informed family-school practices and policies. Not only does the volume highlight interventions that work effectively to engage families with schools, it focuses on identifying critical components and processes that may underlie effective intervention outcomes and offers agendas for future research and intervention diffusion efforts. Key topics of coverage include: Presenting the logic model of the intervention program. Exploring questions concerning critical elements of family-school partnerships that may account for children’s positive outcomes. Discussing the challenges and strategies for scalability and broad diffusion. Family-School Partnerships During the Early School Years is a valuable resource for researchers, professionals and graduate students in child and school psychology, educational policy and politics, family studies, developmental psychology, sociology of education, sociology, and anthropology.

Family Engagement with Schools is unique because it is the only book written especially for social workers and social work students who work in partnership with educators. The text introduces social workers to the new Dual Capacity-Building Framework and the latest resources.