3 Ways Schools Can Prioritize Parental Engagement This Year

Although parental engagement remains high on the priority list for K-12 leaders, 50% of educators expect parental involvement to be a major issue this academic year.

With youth mental health declining, absenteeism increasing, and digital risks evolving rapidly, K-12 leaders know that building strong school-family partnerships is crucial. Yet many districts struggle to translate their goals for parental involvement from an improvement plan into practical steps.

This is partially due to growing conversations around parental rights legislation, which can be concerning to educators when heavily focused on parents' influence on school curriculum and district decisions. However, parental engagement extends far beyond shaping curriculum.

Engaging parents in a healthy way is about helping them better understand their children’s needs and how schools operate. Ultimately, this promotes collaboration between schools and families.

Healthy, effective parental engagement benefits all parties — parents, schools, and students. Below, we cover three practical steps K-12 leaders can take to build stronger, healthier partnerships.

Benefits of parental engagement with schools

Three proven benefits of building strong parental engagement include:

• Academic achievement
• Wellbeing and social skills
• Online safety

Academic achievement

Decades of research has shown that when parents are involved in the development of their children’s reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, children perform better in school.

Parents who attend meetings with teachers and show up at their child’s school are also more likely to build a network of connections with staff and other caregivers. 

Student wellbeing and social skills

When parents are involved with their child’s school in healthy ways, students feel safer and more connected to their school and teachers. Additionally, they benefit from feeling a greater sense of continuity between their home and school life. 

Online safety

With many students taking school-issued devices home, there's often an increase in risky online behaviors after school hours. Ensuring families are educated and engaged around online safety is one of the most effective ways to help children have safe and healthy digital experiences.

3 parental engagement strategies 

To help school districts focus on what can be done, here are three manageable strategies you can focus on this year.

1) Plan consistent parent communications

Keeping parent communication consistent will help families feel connected and included. Regular updates also help build long-term trust through transparency. 

Here are five tips for communicating with parents:

1. Avoid only communicating about negative issues related to a student’s academic performance or behavior.
2. Incorporate positive, inspirational, and proactive themes in your newsletters and other forms of communication.
3. Promote two-way communication to encourage feedback and collaboration.
4. Highlight what students are learning and doing.
5. Share information about what your district is doing to help keep students safe in schools and online.

2) Offer parental control apps and tools

The majority of a student’s academic life takes place online. Yet one of the biggest struggles for parents is their lack of familiarity with the technology their children use in and out of the classroom. 

Schools are well-positioned to help parents gain insight into the technology their children use on a daily basis — and how they use it.

You can build stronger partnerships with families by offering them tools to manage their children’s devices at home. Parental control apps like Qustodio allow parents to:

• Block inappropriate apps, games, and websites
• Monitor online activity and get a real-time view of browsing history
• Set time limits to encourage healthy, balanced online habits
• Pause the internet and schedule screen-free routines
• Receive detailed daily and weekly digital activity reports

When integrated with the school's web filter, Qustodio also allows districts to give parents the ability to see what their children are doing on school-issued devices and manage internet access outside of school hours. 

3) Educate your parent community

Even if the parents in your school community are eager to get involved, they may not know where to start. Many parents express uncertainty and a lack of confidence in how to discuss online safety and healthy technology use with their children and schools.

There are many ways your district can educate parents throughout the academic year:

• Offer access to educational seminars, webinars, and parent workshops
• Provide parents with ample opportunities ask questions and network with other parents
• Create a newsletter to highlight important topics related to online safety and share practical advice on fostering healthy tech habits at home

Finding the right ways to involve parents and families in students’ lives will be a key focus for school districts across the country this school year.

By taking practical action steps toward consistent communication, tools that help parents manage their child’s online experiences, and high-quality parent education, district leaders can build stronger, healthier engagement with families.