School-Family Partnership Strategies to Enhance Children’s Social, Emotional, and Academic Growth

This brief provides educators with strategies and examples to build and nurture successful school-family partnerships and create an engaging and supportive climate for learning in school and at home.

TAGS family partnerships SEL partnerships parent leadership research brief culturally responsive community relations family and community engagement

Partners in Education: A Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships

A framework for creating the right conditions for engagement and designing scaffolded family engagement initiatives that build capacity for both educators and families to partner to support students. Includes 3 school and district case studies.

TAGS family partnerships community partnerships parent leadership research brief culturally responsive community relations family and community engagement

Partnerships by Design: Cultivating Effective and Meaningful School-Family-Community Partnerships

This tool from Northwest REL includes forms, worksheets, and activities to assess the current state of family and community collaboration, create a vision for partnership, and set up an action plan.

TAGS family partnerships community partnerships anti-bias toolkit parent leadership culturally responsive family and community engagement

Integrating Social, Emotional, and Academic Development (SEAD): An Action Guide for School Leadership Teams

The guide provides practical advice, curated resources, and action steps for school leaders to improve the student experience, calling out specific equity implications in every section to give these issues priority in planning.

TAGS Adult SEL equity culturally responsive culture and climate

District SEL Best Practices: Cultivating Shared Leadership for Schoolwide SEL

A district SEL leader from Austin, TX describes their leadership structure and approach to supporting SEL implementation through district SEL specialists who provide coaching and training for cohorts of school-based SEL leaders who in turn work with an SEL steering committee that is representative of the broader school community. This model has been shown to significantly improve implementation.

TAGS implementation support SEL coaching for staff implementation plan

Interview Questions for Superintendent Candidates and other District Leadership

Sample interview questions for superintendent candidates to understand their experience, vision, depth of knowledge, and prioritization of SEL.

TAGS hiring practices staff onboarding human and financial resource alignment integrate with district priorities

Washoe County SEL Needs Assessment Report

This baseline report shared by Washoe County includes findings and recommendations from a districtwide program inventory, counselor focus groups, student SEL skills assessments, school climate surveys, and behavior-related data.

TAGS human and financial resource alignment counselors parent leadership student leadership assessment evidence-based programs data dashboards conducting local SEL research PK-12 implementation monitoring implementation evaluation MTSS student discipline youth voice

Austin Independent School District SEL Newsletter

Samples of a bilingual newsletter distributed by the SEL department in Austin, including a school spotlight, featured SEL strategy, and family resources.

TAGS parenting reading lists - parents spanish language resources model SEL schools communications community relations family and community engagement

Strategies for Establishing School-Family Partnerships

This tool from CASEL's Guide to Schoolwide SEL outlines the components of a meaningful partnership that involves family members in their child's social and emotional development and in schoolwide decision making about SEL, and proposes strategies for bridging constraints and communication gaps.

TAGS family partnerships SEL partnerships parent leadership family and community engagement

Serie de Diálogo de SEL para Padres y Cuidadores

10 sesiones de diálogo para involucrar a las familias en conversaciones sobre el crecimiento social y emocional de sus familias y compartir perspectivas y comentarios con los líderes escolares. Este conjunto de materiales incluye un libro de trabajo para los participantes, encuestas y diapositivas del presentador (todo en inglés y español) y materiales para apoyar la coordinación de la serie; todos son de acceso gratuito después del registro.

TAGS SEL partnerships toolkit spanish language resources parent leadership culturally responsive family and community engagement