At a glance
- Parent engagement: parents and school staff working together to support and improve the learning, development, and health of children and adolescents.
- A good relationship between schools and parents reinforces children’s health and learning.
- Parent engagement in schools is closely linked to better student behavior, higher academic achievement, and other beneficial outcomes.
Overview
Parent engagement in schools is a shared responsibility:
- Schools and other community organizations are committed to reaching out to engage parents in meaningful ways.
- Parents are committed to actively supporting their children’s learning and development.
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Why it's important
Research shows that parent engagement in schools can be beneficial:
- Parent engagement is closely linked to better student behavior, higher academic achievement, and enhanced social skills.
- Parent engagement also makes it more likely that children and adolescents will avoid unhealthy behaviors—such as sexual risk behaviors, substance use.
- Efforts to improve child and adolescent health have typically addressed specific health risk behaviors, such as tobacco use or violence.
Strategy guide
To encourage parent engagement in school health, schools can:
- Connect with parents.
- Engage parents by offering a variety of activities, and frequent options to fully involve parents.
- Sustain parent engagement by addressing the common challenges to getting and keeping parents engaged.
Individual schools and school districts should determine which actions are most feasible and appropriate. This involves weighing the needs of the school and parents, school level (elementary, middle, or high school), and available resources.
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Tip
Staff development
Staff development is critical to helping school staff strengthen their abilities to involve parents.
This program is designed to help school staff:
- Generate enthusiasm and interest in improving parent engagement in school health.
- Understand key aspects of parent engagement. This includes effectively connecting with parents, involving them in school health activities, and addressing challenges along the way.
- Share information with other staff members not attending the program.
- Begin to implement a parent engagement action plan.
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Presentation
This guide provides step-by-step procedures, activities and exercises, handout materials, and resources. In addition, there is a PowerPoint presentation with facilitator narrative and notes. These elements provide the materials needed to implement this staff development program.
Fact sheets
