Hello Everyone,
Welcome to July's Nevada Family Engagement Newsletter! As we get ready for the upcoming school year, I hope you find these resources helpful and relevant to your work. The resources gathered this month are mostly related to distance learning and tools to aid in this endeavor. Please forward this newsletter to anyone you feel will benefit from the content by clicking the "Forward to a friend" link at the bottom of this email.
Please feel free to reach out to me if there are additional resources you are looking for that are not covered in this newsletter. My contact information is located at the bottom of the newsletter.
Sincerely,
Alberto Quintero
Education Programs Professional
Family Engagement | Nevada Department of Education
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The Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Webpage for Parents
A high-quality early childhood program is an inclusive environment that offers services at the highest possible levels for all children and families. The Nevada Silver State Stars QRIS is a 5-star system open to center-based childcare, school-based (or district) Pre-K programs, and family childcare programs. Parents can view profiles of child care providers in their area at nvsilverstatestars.org. Profiles include pictures, hours of operation, ages accepted, vacancies, licensing history, and quality indicators.
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Parents can also see steps to choosing care, search for star-rated care, child care inspection reports, and learn about the importance of high-quality care.
Please free to contact Emily Champlin at the Nevada Department Education if you have any questions at echamplin@doe.nv.gov.
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Engaging Parents and Students from Diverse Populations in the Context of Distance Learning
This webinar highlighted lessons from research and practice to help educators engage with students and their families, particularly those among vulnerable populations, to support continued learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Presenters from Washoe County School District (NV) and Alameda Unified School District (CA) discussed their efforts, which ranged from meeting the basic needs of families (such as food and internet access) to providing support in multiple languages and modalities.
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The webinar also addressed how educators can cultivate student motivation in the absence of traditional testing and grading. Strategies focused on developing online learning cultures, gathering and responding to information about student learning and well-being, creating transparency in learning (i.e., making learning goals explicit and sharing challenges), supporting student learner identity, and engaging students in supporting each other’s learning. Watch the full webinar recording.
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Department and Office Updates
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To help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, most Department personnel are working from home. The family engagement office will still operate between the hours of 7:30 am – 4:00 pm (PDT) Monday – Friday. Please note that the family engagement office has full access to email and voicemail and will respond to you as soon as possible. Other offices within the Department may have slightly different operating hours but also still have full access to email and voicemail.
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The Advisory Council for Family Engagement is currently not scheduled to meet until further notice.
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Family Engagement Tools and Resources
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TalkingPoints
TalkingPoints is a non-profit organization solely focused on family engagement for underserved and multilingual families. Communicate with families in 100+ languages. Reach all your students' families in their home languages to build strong partnerships.
TalkingPoints is offering free access to education resources during this global crisis.
Ready4K
The Ready4K family engagement curriculum is based on leading research that shows caregivers support learning when given simple, specific activities that fit easily into their everyday routines.
1. Easy to Implement
You provide 3 pieces of information: caregiver phone number, child name, and child age or grade. We take it from there.
2. Messages Begin Engaging Families
Every week, each enrolled caregiver gets 3 Ready4K messages - a Fact, Tip, and Growth message differentiated for their child.
3. Parents Get a Curriculum in 45-Second Texts
Each message is carefully crafted and sequenced to create a holistic curriculum that integrates SEL and academic learning.
4. Your Program Reaches All Families
Accessibility is paramount, so every message is delivered through the most commonly used format available: text messaging.
 Supporting Children’s Reading at Home – Family Resources for Kindergarten through 3rd Grade
On July 9, the Regional Education Laboratory (REL) Southeast hosted a webinar for parents and caregivers of rising kindergarten through grade 3 students on how to support reading in the home setting. The Supporting Children’s Reading at Home – Family Resources for Kindergarten through 3rd Grade webinar will provide participants with an overview of the components of the Supporting Your Child’s Reading at Home resources and a virtual walk-through of the website containing the resources. Participants will consider how to use the resources with children in the home setting and will be given the opportunity to ask clarifying questions. The recorded webinar will be posted on the Institute of Education Sciences’ YouTube account.
REL Northeast & Island Resources Memo: How Can Educators and Families Support Students’ Mental Health and Social-Emotional Needs?
This memo provides links to several resources on students’ response to stress and how adults can help them cope with the challenges of distance learning and stay-at-home orders.
Engaging Immigrant & English Learner Families in a Virtual World: 10 Lessons Learned
"It’s now been three months since our lives went on hold. In many cities and states, school is out for the summer. In others, it’ll be wrapping up in the next week or two. This is a time for us to reflect on what worked and what didn’t work over the past few months, particularly since we don’t fully know what the fall will look like yet. One thing I think we can agree on is that family engagement was crucial these past few months! Truly, no teacher or district could succeed without engaging their students’ parents.
So when it comes to EL and immigrant family engagement, what lessons have we learned?" Read more...
NAFSCE Membership Fees Waived
To support the family engagement field during this critical time, NAFSCE is opening access to its member resources for all family engagement professionals, parents, advocates, and policymakers now through September 30, 2020. Click here.
A Day at Dollar General
The National Center for Families Learning and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation have teamed up to educate families about money management through "A Day at Dollar General: Learn While Shopping." The online interactive game makes it fun and educational for both children and parents to learn basic budgeting skills.
The easy-to-use game helps families start the conversation about money management and is a great tool for parents and children to learn together about how to make smart choices with money. Through the virtual experience of shopping in a Dollar General store, families will learn how to budget, plan a shopping trip, spend wisely, and manage money.
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Family Engagement Webinars and Articles
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Data + Relationships to Support Transitions to School Webinar
Wednesday, July 22, 2020 | 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. PST / 2:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m. EST
Join Attendance Works to kick off the 2020 Attendance Awareness Campaign. The theme “Present, Engaged, and Supported” recognizes that strong, trusting relationships that create belonging are fundamental to improving student attendance and participation.
This webinar will offer insights about what you can do to prepare for the return to class in the next few months, whether learning takes place at school, virtually, or in some other form. You’ll also learn about Attendance Works' new transition planning materials. They will describe an expanded attendance data framework to identify which students are likely to begin the new school year significantly behind in their academic learning and how plans can include investments in staff health and well-being. Register for the webinar here.
NAFSCE & MAEC's Effective Practices Webinar Series: Trauma-Informed Family and Community Engagement
This webinar highlighted what ACEs are on a personal and community level, the importance of understanding the impacts of ACEs and the science behind adversity. Experts and activists from Fresno, CA's Trauma and Resilience Network shared how their work focuses on engaging and supporting children and families in building resilience and beginning to heal the generational trauma in the community. Recording can be found here. Slides can be found here.
REL Mid-Atlantic Blog: Using Culturally Responsive Practices to Foster Learning During School Closures: Challenges and Opportunities for Equity
This blog discusses how teachers can use distance learning as an opportunity to “dissolve artificial separations between students’ academic experiences and their lived experiences at school, home, and in their community.”
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Alberto Quintero
Education Programs Professional
Family Engagement
Nevada Department of Education
Phone: 702-668-4334
Email (preferred): albertoquintero@doe.nv.gov
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