Family Engagement
A Framework for Student, Family, and Community SuccessTraining

Family Engagement is a shared effort of families, schools, and community leaders to advance programs, practices, and policies that empower every parent/legal guardian to make their child’s potential a reality.

Our Advocacy Wish List & Vision
- Our Vision: To build trusting relational partnerships with our schools (teachers, staff, administrators) to support our students with the best educational experience we can envision at IUSD. You can’t have one without the other.
- Our Wish List for IUSD:
- Providing staff/administrators readily available access to professional interpreters and translators when needed
- Holding schools accountable for actually using interpreting and translation services provided. U.S. Department of Justice’s view of translation/interpreting for parents, read more . CA Ed Code 48985
- Updating the communication platform as well as setting clear policies, expectations of all stakeholders, and using best practices in content and delivery
- Including more disaggregated data in the LCAP metrics for family engagement –telling of truer story about our marginalized or under represented family groups
- Improving School Site Council practices with training for all participants (shared data, goals, accountability, transparency, etc.)
- Training for staff/administrators on family engagement practices and using the Dual-Capacity Framework as an equity tool. Special emphasis and work needs to be done at the middle school level where old paradigms of parent/guardian involvement dropping off still exist today even though a significant amount of data shows this may be where even more engagement needs to happen since our children’s brains are again developing very rapidly at this stage of their life
Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships

- Dual Capacity for Family Engagement – Educators’ and Families’ path to true family engagement only works when both understand and agree upon the goals and capacity outcomes
Engage in Your Child's Success!
Middle School Engagement Requires More, NOT Less
Male Engagement
Family Engagement Resources
- National PTA School of Excellence – Registration extended to November 15th!
- NEW! IUSD Virtual Parent Center
- IUSD Family Engagement
- NEW! How to Communicate with IUSD When You Have A Question or Issue
- California School Dashboard
- IUSD Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP)
- PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships (Assessment Guide)
- California State PTA’s School Smarts Parent Engagement Program
- California Department of Education Parent Portal
- WestEd Family Engagement Framework
- EdSource’s The Power of Parents
- EducationWeek Spotlight – DEI
- Orange County Department of Education Family and Community Engagement
- Ed100.org – Things you never knew about public education in CA
- Gifted Education – Parent Resources
- Special Ed Handbook – Coming Soon!
- Educator Family Engagement Toolkit – A must-do for educators who have no Family Engagement Training
- Learn from your Families: Making PTA Surveys – Top 10 Rules
Parenting Resources
- Grown & Flown – High School Family Support & Great Tips/Articles for sanity!
- Incredible Conversation Podcasts
2021-22 Year in Review
- National Parental Involvement Day is held on November 18, 2021
- IUCPTA partners with IUSD for a Family Engagement Webinar for the Chinese Community hosted by the South Coast Chinese Cultural Center
>view slides - Cool Block Program – CoolBlock.org (see video below). If interested in becoming a Cool Block Leader of a team, complete this form and if they ask who referred you, tell them IUCPTA Family Engagement.
- Strides Towards Social Justice at IUSD Webinar
Implementation of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Practices Throughout IUSD
Wednesday, April 7th, 2021 7-8PM
>Recording - The SPOTLIGHT Monthly Newsletter – Each month look for tips on engaging your families and reading about success stories and happenings at a featured school. View Archives and/or Subscribe here.
- Our Current Book List
>Beyond the Bake Sale – Henderson, Mapp, Johnson, and Davies
>Middle School Matters by Phyllis L. Fagell
Always looking for new ideas on ways to make Family Engagement more equitable, accessible, and effective. Please share your thoughts & suggestions with us!
IUSD Parent/Guardian Workshops
Each month, IUSD Family Engagement offers very informative and timely workshops/webinars in various languages for IUSD families. Take advantage of the newcomer sessions to help welcome new families to the school district.