June 2026

Share Your Story & Help Shape the Future of

Family-School Partnerships

We want to learn from you and key moments, practices, or strategies that reflect real family engagement work and lead to successful family-school partnerships.


Why It Matters

We want every child to belong, learn, and thrive, and that happens when teachers and families work closely together. These stories will become a curated collection that belongs to all of us and a living resource that reflects the wisdom, creativity, and commitment of the practitioners who are doing this work every day. These will be shared with teacher preparation programs and professional development providers. Authors from selected submissions will be credited in the publications.

 

Choose the theme that best fits your story.


Topic Areas

We know from our own network's educator survey that partnering with families is one of the hardest — and most important — parts of teaching. To better support teachers in overcoming challenges, we are soliciting stories on 16 topics. The topics are organized based on NAFSCE’s Core Competencies, which align with family engagement themes in the 2024 California Standards for the Teaching Profession:

REFLECTION (CSTP 6) prompts are embedded in each of the 16 story topics

CONNECT (CSTP 1)

Building trust & relationships


  • Welcoming families
  • Reaching families your school struggles to connect with
  • Communicating across languages
  • Addressing cultural differences
  • Designing purposeful communication
  • Addressing miscommunication

COLLABORATE (CSTP 5)

Co-constructing learning



  • Building academic partnerships
  • Sharing data with families
  • Co-creating plans
  • Navigating difficult conversations


Linking to learning

  • Expand on family learning in the home
  • Link learning to family engagement events
  • Weaving family knowledge into lesson planning

LEAD (CSTP 6)

Taking part in lifelong learning


  • Getting administrator or union buy-in for family engagement
  • Getting colleagues on board
  • Supporting educator reflection on family engagement

Ready to Share?


Step 1: Download the Download the Story Guide & Prompts

Use the guide to explore reflection questions and submission prompts.


Step 2: Choose the theme that best fits your story.


Step 3: Choose the submission format that works best for you:

  • Written Submission
  • Video Submission (Record a 3–10 minute video)
  • ​Interview (Schedule a 30-minute interview with Araceli Simeón at asimeon@ca-fen.org)

Acknowledgements


Special thanks to the Family Engagement Practices Committee for reviewing the research on evidence-based family engagement practices, sharing their expertise, and for developing and reviewing this engagement process. 


This work was led by: Teneh Weller from High Expectations, Dr. Ritblatt from delibrainy, Dr. Paredes from West Ed’s Academic Parent-Teacher Teams, Vidya Sundaram from Family Engagement Lab, and Andrea Prejean and Yesenia Ramirez from Parent Teacher Home Visits.


This committee will review the stories submitted by practitioners.

Upcoming Events & More

For more information, please visit our website at www.ca-fen.org

CA-FEN is a project of Charitable Ventures