Family and Community
Engagement
The
Family and Community Engagement Division (FCE) is part of the Support,
Prevention and Intervention Department and was developed to
create a systemic, research based approach to increase family
engagement in student learning by positively impacting the
instructional core and supporting key goals and objectives of the
"Excellence for All" Strategic Plan.
This
division designs, plans and provides professional development on
family and community engagement researched based practices. These
workshops enhance the school and district staffs’ ability to
engage families from diverse ethnic, cultural, linguistic and
socioeconomic backgrounds (Ensuring Excellence in Every Classroom,
Strengthening Leaders Systems Wide, Building a Infrastructure that
Works Well and Engaging Stakeholders).
The
FCE Division manages the
School Family Partnerships Project which is a component of the
Stakeholder Engagement Initiative in the "Excellence for All" plan.
This initiative recommends we engage our families more frequently,
more meaningfully, more intentionally and more strategically to
increase student learning at school, at home, and in the
community.
“SPS, like
all urban school districts, must be creative and relentless in its
commitment to engage all families. We have a strong, research-based
model for family involvement in the School-Family Partnership Plan,
which we plan to implement district-wide.” Excellence for All
p.39
The
Family and Community Engagement Division is committed
to:
- Coordinate district
wide translation and interpretation services to communicate with
families in a meaningful way and in a format and language they can
easily understand
- Coordinate "Excellence
for All" family and community engagement events for project
management teams
- Conduct annual
evaluations of the content of the School Family Partnerships Plan
to improve the academic achievement of ALL students
- Conduct culturally
relevant professional development for school and central office
staff to increase understanding of families' backgrounds and
increase family engagement.
- Provide direct
cross-cultural and linguistically diverse services to
students/families and school staff to increase student academic
achievement through culturally relevant problem solving. We support
meaningful and substantial cross-cultural communication between
students, families and the following education programs to increase
student performance
- Provide staff support
for the district wide School Family
Partnerships Advisory Committee to the Superintendent
More information
about Family Involvement in Seattle Public Schools
Program Contacts:
Bernardo Ruiz
Program Coordinator
206-252-0693
bjruiz@seattleschools.org
