The DEC Recommended Practices on Family resources on the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center website highlight effective family-centered components, along with practices for family capacity-building and family-professional collaboration. They include a Family Engagement Practices Checklist. Want more? Here are additional resources to support your work.
This 2016 joint policy statement from the US Departments of Education and Health and Human Services reflects the position that strong family engagement is central to promoting children's healthy development, school readiness, and academic achievement. The policy statement reviews the research base, legal requirements, and best practices that support effective family engagement in children's learning, development, and wellness. It also identifies effective family engagement practices, provides recommendations, and highlights resources. 
Involvement or Engagement?
This article by Larry Ferlazzo discusses family involvement (“doing to”) and the family engagement (“doing with”) strategies that can make a big difference in student achievement, particularly with marginalized families and communities. 
DEC Recommended Practices Module 5: Family
If you haven’t discovered the DEC Recommended Practice modules, now’s the time. Module 5 addresses practices to support children’s learning and development through quality adult-child and child-child interactions. Completion of this module will enable users to explain what family-centered practices are, describe how to build the capacity of families, and build trusting partnerships with families. More modules and resources are available at https://rpm.fpg.unc.edu/
Tuning In: Parents of Young Children Tell Us What They Think, Know, and Need
In 2015, ZERO TO THREE surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,200 diverse families with children birth to five years. The results include findings on issues such as parenting challenges, setting age appropriate limits and expectations, and what parents understand about early development. An important finding is that family members almost always feel judged by professionals vis-à-vis their capability to support the development of their young children. An overview/key insights document is available, in addition to the full report.
CONNECT Module 4: Family-Professional Partnerships 
This module presents effective practices for developing family-professional partnerships in a process of developing rapport, forming shared decisions, and partnering with the family to address challenges. Information on research findings and related policies, handouts, videos, and practices are provided in English and Spanish.
Engaging Culturally Diverse Families
The Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center has compiled a set of resources that includes articles, checklists, websites, and more. The examples are relevant for a variety of settings serving young children, including Head Start and medical facilities.
Resources within Reason is a free, bi-monthly, one-way listserv provided by the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC). All resources are evidence-based, readily available and free. Resources within Reason may be freely shared or reproduced.  Past issues are available here. http://www.dec-sped.org/resources-within-reason

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