Engaging Families (Head Start Heals- Frequently Asked Questions) National Center on Early Childhood Health and Wellness

Description:

Q. How can teachers and family support staff engage parents around children’s learning and development during COVID-19?

When creating family engagement plans and strategies to support children’s learning and development under non-traditional circumstances, schools should make sure families have everything they need for their children to learn. Communicating with families around what type of support they need and how they would like to receive this support is important.

The only way to prevent COVID-19 from deepening inequality for an entire generation of children is to equip families to support learning at home. This is especially important in the pivotal early grades, in which children’s learning requires frequent adult facilitation. Adults must work with children and through them, otherwise the achievement gap will grow with every passing day of school closures. Be mindful of caregivers’ language and literacy skills. Create videos to model activities and provide instructions in caregivers’ home language, whenever possible, to support their understanding of activities and their implementation.

Strategies and additional resources are provided.