Parent involvement in an early education center is one of the most challenging aspects of stakeholders' involvement in school activities. The involvement becomes difficult due to the diverse nature of the families that send their children to school. The first activity that would effectively involve the parents and guardians in the school activities is the building of the bridge between the school and the parents (Wang & Sheikh ‐ Khalil, 2014). The communication between the school, precisely the teachers, and the parents has to be a smooth one to ensure that the parents are motivated to be involved in the school affairs that regard their children. The teachers have to ensure that the first contact they have with the parents is a positive one that keeps them motivated to be engrossed in the school activities that involve their children. The teachers can also communicate with the parents in a straightforward and easy language for the parents to understand and increase their willingness to be involved in the educational affairs for their children who are in the school (Wang & Sheikh ‐ Khalil, 2014). The bridge can also be built by having a clear and concise collection of information that the parents or guardians can read regarding the classrooms and their children as well. The other idea is to accommodate the work schedules of the parents in building a bridge to connect them, to the school affairs.
The other activity to involve the parents and guardians in the school affairs is to come up with a welcoming strategy (Wang & Sheikh ‐ Khalil, 2014). The first impressions while dealing with the parents at the educational center matter. Therefore, the school has to create a climate that supports and encourages parents' involvement with their kids' affairs. The teachers can provide the patients with a detailed list of what is required concerning the mastery skills that they teach the children at every grade level (Wang & Sheikh ‐ Khalil, 2014). The inclusion of the elements of what is taught is necessary to have the patients following up on the academic performance of their children at the educational center. The school could also send home printouts that target the psychological involvement of the parents in the school affairs and more so regarding the academic performance and the other parameters of the school's performance (Wang & Sheikh ‐ Khalil, 2014). The other activity that could lead to active parent involvement in the school affairs is to focus on the school activities by accommodating the feelings and the abilities of the patients. The teachers can do so by encouraging volunteering among the patients. The parents could volunteer to fund or be involved in the various activities that are supposed to increase the participation in school affairs (Wang & Sheikh ‐ Khalil, 2014). The activities could be as simple as preparing cookies, having lemonade stands and even car wash. The inclusivity of the parents leads to the displaying of their talents and abilities, which is likely to make their children increase their academic performance in the end (Wang & Sheikh ‐ Khalil, 2014). The school could also include the parents in the various capacities of decision making for the matters that are likely to affect the learning activities of their children. The inclusivity of the parents in the decision-making processes opens communication and increases understanding between the school and the parents (Wang & Sheikh ‐ Khalil, 2014).
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Goals and Objectives for the Program
The first goal in the parent involvement plan is to open the lines of communication between the school and the parents (Castro et al., 2015). Opening the lines of communication improves the performance of the school on the overall due to the increased involvement. The open lines of the communication also give the parents the impression of being welcome to the school and that increases their willingness to keep checking in with the school to gauge their children's performance, how far the school activities have gone, and what the parents can do to chip in and help to better the schools activities. Such activities certainly increase the parent involvement in the school. The other goal of the parent involvement is to increase the academic performance of the educational center in the overall (Castro et al., 2015). The parents have a role to play in ensuring that they are involved in the activities that their children undertake in and out of the school. For instance, the parents can be acquainted with the homework policy of the educational center and they can follow up on it with their children as they get back home from school. Such an action by the parents would increase their active involvement and make the performance of the early education center improve at the end (Castro et al., 2015).
The other goal of the parent involvement plan in the early education center is to increase the activeness of the teachers in ensuring that the parents are actively involved in the affairs of their children (Castro et al., 2015). As the school takes a leap towards the improvement of the patient involvement, it is inevitable that the teachers acquire the necessary skills that would help them to handle the parents as they communicate to or visit the school in a bid to increase their inclusivity in the activities of their children (Castro et al., 2015). The increase in the skills and experience of the teachers in the same also translates to their increase in knowledge that directly benefits the children that have come seeking early education at the institution. The other goal surrounding parent involvement at the early education center is to increase the collaboration among the stakeholders of the school in the betterment of the educational standards (Castro et al., 2015). For instance, the early education center targets the inclusivity of the parents, the administration, the teachers, and the pupils. Such collaboration enables the ease in the spotting of the problems that any of the stakeholders in the school may be facing. It then becomes easy to deal with the issues that arise (Castro et al., 2015).
The last objective of the involvement plan is to mentor the students to become responsible in their future careers and parenthood (Hitt & Tucker, 2016). By being involved in the school affairs, the parents and guardians actively are an excellent example to their kids concerning the values of responsibility. Such children are likely to shun ignorance in education and be actively involved in their studies, which guarantee them of becoming useful members of tomorrow's society (Hitt & Tucker, 2016). The goals of the parent involvement plan at the early educational center are expected to be the cornerstone of the initiation of the efforts that contribute to the academic performance in the children, which is inclusive of the parents, the administration, the teachers and the students as centrally placed in the collaboration (Hitt & Tucker, 2016).
Types of Parent/Family Involvement to Develop Specific Activities for Involving Families and for Providing Services to Them
The first type of parent involvement is communication (Muller, 2018). Communication is an essential tool when it comes to involving the families in the school affairs and especially those that regard their children. The school will design an effective home-to-school and school-to-home communication platforms that will report on the progress of the students (Muller, 2018). For instance, the school will plan conferences and meetings with the parents at least once individually and once as a whole to follow up on the performance of their children at the school. The communication will be made in a language that students understand (Muller, 2018). The communication from the school will be timely, and often to ensure that the students are followed up effectively to boost their academic performance (Muller, 2018).
The second type of family involvement is conventional parenting (Muller, 2018). The school will endeavor to help all the families to establish conducive home environments to favor the support of the children in and out of school (Muller, 2018). To facilitate the establishment of conditions at home that favor the children development and academic performance, the school will require suggestions and voluntary practices from both the teachers and the parents (Muller, 2018). The expected result will be the improvement of the performance of the children in the classrooms and society. The challenge expected will be the lack of adequacy in the information whereby the school may find itself informing the families who need the information rather than the complete family body at once.
The third type of parent involvement that the school will target is the volunteering (Muller, 2018). The school will be involved in the active recruitment of the parents so that they can offer their help and support to boost the performance of the school's activities. The school will take advantage of this type of family involvement in the school by designing the programs that necessitate the input of the parents by making them contribute positively to their enrichment and thus boosting involvement (Muller, 2018). The volunteers will be widely recruited by the school to involve more families at a time.
The fourth type of parent involvement in school affairs is teaching at home (Muller, 2018). The school will provide the information and the various ideas that the parents can make use of to ensure that their students are involved in the learning at home strategies. The parents will be expected to help the students with the homework and ensure that they complete all the activities that are supposed to be effected by the parents (Muller, 2018). On the other hand, the teachers at the early education center will ensure that the communication is made to the parents so that they can know what exactly is expected of them concerning learning at home.
The fifth type of parent involvement in the early educational center's activities is the decision making (Muller, 2018). The school will provide avenues for the parents to be involved in the decision-making procedures before the various school projects are implemented by the management (Muller, 2018). As such, the parent involvement is expected to rise since the parents will have an active role in the running of the school and will be required to chip with their suggestions from time to time (Muller, 2018). The school will come with the various parental organizations in the school such as the parent-teacher association (PTA), the advisory councils and the committees that encourage the increased academic and extra-curricular activities performance at the educational institution.
The last type of family involvement in the education institutions affair is the collaboration with the community (Muller, 2018). The school will come up with a program to identify and integrate the services and the resources emanating from the community to fortify the school's plans, the practices of the parents and guardians, and the development of the students learning(Muller, 2018). The involvement of the community will be a smart move for the school since the challenges that affect the parent involvement will be dealt with and the measures to prevent them from reoccurring will be put in place as well. The school will provide the community with information on its progress to facilitate the same.
How to Involve Fathers, Language-Minority Families, and Families of Children with Disabilities
The first step in involving the parents and guardians of children with disabilities is to feel them wanted (Wehman et al., 2015). The institution will not tolerate whatever form of injustices and discrimination that relate to disabled children. The mandate from the school's administration will ensure that the teachers treat such children with equality as they treat the others (Wehman et al., 2015). The disabled children that require extra care to the school's premises will be accorded such according to the level of their requirements. Therefore, the school will expect the parents of children with disabilities to be more involved in the school's affairs (Wehman et al., 2015).
The second step in involving the parents and guardians of children with disabilities is to communicate with them openly (Wehman et al., 2015). The open communication is expected to get the parents to be in line with the schools family involvement program and at the same time have a contribution to the running of the school so that their children will have increased opportunities to perform better in their academics (Wehman et al., 2015).
The third step in involving the parents of the children living with disabilities is to discuss with them the level of care that they need accorded to their children at the educational center (Wehman et al., 2015). Such a discussion will involve the input of every parent involved and their inclusivity in decision making will be highlighted by having some of their suggestions incorporated to better the involvement of the families (Wehman et al., 2015).
The fourth step in the involvement of the parents whose children have various disabilities is to create a rapport with the parents to ensure that the academic needs and gaps of the children are addressed(Wehman et al., 2015). For instance, their span of concentration may not be long enough like that of the other children. The parents have to ensure they work alongside the teachers to deal with such an issue such as by reducing the length of their lessons (Wehman et al., 2015).
The fifth step is collaborating with the community (Wehman et al., 2015). The society has a direct effect on the performance of the school and its wellbeing. The school will work together with the society to collect its views on children living with disability and how to support them (Wehman et al., 2015). As such, the children at the school who live with disabilities will have protection from the school, home, and the community at large (Wehman et al., 2015).
Timeline for the Plan
| Activity | Time taken |
| Deliberation of a family involvement plan | ½ month |
| Formulation of objectives | ½ month |
| Involvement of parents whose children live with disabilities | 2 months |
| Involvement of the other parents | 2 months |
| Involvement of the whole parent body | 1 month |
| Interaction of the parents with the teachers | 1 month |
| Communication of the family involvement plan to the teachers | 1 month |
| Communication of the plan to the parents | 2 months |
| Involvement of the community member regarding children living with disabilities | 1 month |
| Involvement of the community concerning the students’ performance | 1 month |
|
12 months |
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References
Castro, M., Expósito-Casas, E., López-Martín, E., Lizasoain, L., Navarro-Asencio, E., &
Gaviria, J. L. (2015). Parental involvement on student academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review , 14 , 33-46.
Hitt, D. H., & Tucker, P. D. (2016). Systematic review of key leader practices found to influence
Student achievement: A unified framework. Review of Educational Research , 86 (2), 531-569.
Muller, C. (2018). Parent involvement and academic achievement: An analysis of family
Resources available to the child. In Parents, their children, and schools (pp. 77-114). Routledge.
Wang, M. T., & Sheikh ‐ Khalil, S. (2014). Does parental involvement matter for student
Achievement and mental health in high school?. Child development , 85 (2), 610-625.
Wehman, P., Sima, A. P., Ketchum, J., West, M. D., Chan, F., & Luecking, R. (2015). Predictors
Of successful transition from school to employment for youth with disabilities. Journal of occupational rehabilitation , 25 (2), 323-334.
Appendices
| Activity | Responsibility |
| Deliberation of a family involvement plan | Management and teachers |
| Formulation of objectives | Management and teachers |
| Involvement of parents whose children live with disabilities | Teachers |
| Involvement of the other parents | Teachers |
| Involvement of the whole parent body | Teachers |
| Interaction of the parents with the teachers | Parents and teachers |
| Communication of the family involvement plan to the teachers | Management |
| Communication of the plan to the parents | Teachers |
| Involvement of the community ember regarding children living with disabilities | Management, teachers and parents |
| Involvement of the community concerning the students’ performance | Management, teachers and parents |
