Guidepost # 5: Family Involvement And Supports

Parent and Community involvement does not occur overnight. I feel that schools must make parent and community involvement a priority, valuing and accepting each other’s differences. Schools, families and communities must work together to support all students in a learning environment to ensure every student is a successful learner. Positive family and school involvement fosters a partnership among my school encouraging students to reach their highest potential academically and in life. Parent and community involvement does not mean stay-at-home mothers coming to school to help as needed, or a businessman stopping by to see events occurring on campus. The role of school, family and community involvement is a partnership incorporating goal-oriented activities for all grade levels linked to academic success and student growth.

Nurses interact with families in a variety of community-based and clinical settings. The family nursing process is the same, regardless of the setting or whether the focus is on the family as a whole or on an individual in that family (Crisp & Taylor 2005). In the case of a 3 year old girl just diagnosed with leukaemia, it is important for a nurse to critically analyse the situation and address any immediate concerns. The nurse must address any professional issues that may arise and any potential impacts of hospitalisation that may affect the child and the family. Also provide support and education to reassure and comfort them. The primary concern for paediatric nurses is the welfare of the child and the family (Crisp & Taylor 2005).

Families are involved in their children’s learning through many different means. Parents are greeted by the kindergarten teachers at morning drop off and at the end of the day for dismissal and if any information needs to be disclosed or discussed the teachers and parents will take that opportunity to communicate with each other. Communication to families is also done through letters that go home whenever there is important information that needs to be shared. This works successfully for the parents who have nannies or relatives drop off and pick up their children. In this case, when face to face contact is not being made with

Youth and their families benefit from engaging in transition assessments as early as the middle school in part due

Family is a primary agent because parents are the only adults the children are in contact with the most throughout most of their lives. Also in some cases, the family’s wealth determines the child’s job opportunities and child’s career choice. (Barkan 2012, p. 121)

The most direct and meaningful impact on children’s education and advancement of social competence comes from parents and families. Students work harder, excel more, show attitudes and behavior that is positive, and feel at ease in new settings. Educators must connect to families so that they may develop relationships that employ them as active partners in their children’s learning

Both parents are employed, but the main financial support comes from the father that has a full-time job (approximately $25,000 annually); the mother has a part-time job. The parents take their children to school. None of the grandparents have worked since they arrived from Cuba.

The Friedman Family Assessment is a tool used to assess the “family as a whole, as part of the whole of society, and as an interaction system” (Lancaster & Stanhope, 2008, p. 569). The Friedman Family Assessment has certain assumptions for the families that are assessed with this tool. These assumptions include the families are “a social system with functional requirements, a small group possessing certain generic features common to all small groups, as a social system accomplishes functions that serve the individual and society, and individuals act in accordance with a set of internalized norms and values that are learned primarily in the family through socialization” (Lancaster & Stanhope, 2008, p. 569). The

Identify components of the family and their patters of communication and role expectations (EHS, 2012).

Families are seen as a sociological unit that play a significant role in a person's development into adulthood. Miller (2014:2) suggests

Your school or center asked you to be a liaison between parents, teachers, and staff.

We trust that the family is one of the foundations of human progress. Our scholarly approach considers important approaches to develop our comprehension so as to get ready understudies as individuals from families themselves as well as proactive specialists of progress to discover approaches to fortify and esteem the family.

An entire community based on parents, teachers and students is what builds up a strong net school community and with support and togetherness it can break the barriers in parent- teacher communication. The school, parents, and teachers all play a big role in how our children will succeed. It is important that the schools continue to provide resources for the family, progress on their children academics and it is important that the families take a proactive measure and keep up to date with what is going on in their children’s

O’Donnel and Kirkner (2014) employed a two-year, mix-method study on 144 Latino Spanish-speaking parents who participated in YMCA Family Involvement Project (FIP). The parents participated in different workshops: in-home education strategies, parenting education, family literacy, and community leadership. After one year of FIP, results revealed an increase in family involvement and parent-teacher communication; additionally, their children improved in social skills and work habits. After two years of FIP, students’ English Language Arts scores improved. Therefore, the study indicates family involvement correlates with a student’s academic achievement (O’Donnel & Kirkner, 2014). Likewise, Shim’s (2013) qualitative study demonstrates parent-teacher

Families are influenced by a multitude of controllable and uncontrollable factors. The level of parental involvement within a household is a highly influential factor that varies depending on the family unit. Parent involvement can include aspects like financial and moral support, dependability, and consistency. The economic status of a family influences the level of academic achievement and the nutritional value of daily meals due to varying amounts of parental involvement within a household. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how parental involvement in a family can pose positive and negative effects on the unit based upon economic status.