Hello Everyone,
Happy New Year and welcome to January's Nevada Family Engagement Newsletter! I hope you enjoy this month's content. There are a lot of great resources I wanted to share with all of you.
P.S. 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
albertoquintero@doe.nv.gov
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Spring Virtual Literacy Summit
Saturday, February 6, 2021 | 8:00 am - 3:30 pm
This is the second Read by Grade 3 Virtual Literacy Summit for educators. NDE will be partnering with their NWEA colleagues to coordinate and facilitate the event. A second inspiring keynote panel will be assembled to set the stage for another exciting day. Participants will once again be offered a menu of sessions from national and state experts. New video showcases will be submitted to share the work of local Read by Grade 3 programs. Be sure to register soon since the first summit filled up so quickly!
*Participants will receive NDE credit for formal training hours*
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Student Support App (Available in other languages)
The Nevada 211 Youth App is a free and easy way to find resources near you. Use your location or zip code to find services like food pantry locations, support groups, crisis hotlines, activities, health care, and much more. Plus, it's completely confidential. You can also find help 24/7 by dialing 2-1-1; texting 898-211 OR visiting www.nevada211.org.
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Other Student Support Apps (Available in other languages)
- SafeVoice: Allows students, parents, and community members to submit secure & anonymous safety concerns to the statewide SafeVoice strategic prevention model
- MY3: Stay connected to your network when you are in a time of crisis with MY3. With MY3, you define your network, and your plan to stay safe. With MY3 you can be prepared to help yourself and reach out to others when you are feeling suicidal.
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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 (preferred) 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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Engaging Parents & Families to Support the Recovery of Districts & Schools
In this brief, researchers quickly get to practical strategies for supporting families in a diversity of settings to achieve student learning. If you're looking for ideas for addressing the lack of engagement in your online learning program, take a look at these insights.
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Parent Flyers with Tips for Learning During COVID-19
Many parents and caregivers don’t fully understand the connection between absenteeism and academic achievement. Attendance Works has updated its Parent Flyers with tips for learning during COVID-19 (in English & Spanish).
How Are Student Support Providers Adapting Their Services?
Access REL's entire series on how student support providers are adapting services in light of school building closures and social distancing:
Reimagining Homelessness Assistance for Families
A gripping pandemic, an economy in free fall, and a long-overdue public awakening to structural racism: three interrelated seismic events that have pundits calling for the “re-thinking” or “re-imagining” of nearly every public system, from health care to education to law enforcement. At this moment of national reckoning with myriad inequities, and the potential for massive increases in homelessness, it is time to reimagine the homelessness assistance response for families. This policy brief, authored by SHC’s Executive Director and recently published in the final edition of the Journal of Children and Poverty, draws from research, policy analyses, and testimonies of parents, service providers, and educators to make the case for a reimagined homelessness response that is child-centered and oriented toward long-term goals of economic independence, health, and wellness. Read the Brief Here.
Family and Caregiver Activities to Support Young English Learners at Home
Available in English and Spanish, these nine activities offer simple, fun ideas for how parents, grandparents, and caregivers can help children develop their language skills at home. The Educator's Guide provides tips and strategies for teachers to help families and caregivers make the most out of the activities.
Office for Civil Rights Releases How to File a Complaint Resource
The Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently released a technical assistance video, How to File a Complaint, to help parents, families, students, and stakeholders better understand how they can file a complaint with OCR. This video was released through OCR’s Outreach, Prevention, Education, and Non-discrimination (OPEN) Center as part of a dedicated commitment to providing technical assistance. This resource provides clear and concise direction on how an individual may bring incidents of potential discrimination to the attention of OCR and includes information on deadlines, ways to provide the required information to OCR, and potential outcomes of complaint investigations.
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U.S. Department of Education Releases Spanish Version of the Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide
The Department’s Office of Educational Technology recently released a Spanish version of the Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide, a resource to help parents and guardians understand how digital tools can provide tailored learning opportunities, engage students with course materials, encourage creative expression, and enrich the educational experience. The Spanish version allows the guides’ resources, tips, and information about best practices to reach more families. The Department released the English version of the Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide on Oct. 23.
KIDS COUNT Policy Reports
Using data from United States Census surveys, the KIDS COUNT report examines how households with children are managing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report suggests strategies for meeting both the immediate needs of families with children and needs beyond the pandemic. The report includes state data and recommendations.
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Family Engagement Webinars and Trainings
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U. S. Department of Education Webinar: Learning in a Pandemic
Watch this webinar to learn about initial findings on students’ reading and math achievement and growth during the pandemic. To learn more from NWEA's research, review data on student reading and math during Covid, this Covid impact visualization, and this teacher toolkit. CREDO's studies related to learning loss can be found here.
Nevada Digital Learning Collaborative Family Webinar (In Spanish)
Brenda Hernandez will be providing a webinar (click on link for the flyer) for families about ways to support their student(s) in online and hybrid learning in Spanish.
How to Help LGBTQ Youth Thrive
National PTA’s Center for Family Engagement hosts a podcast for parents by parents entitled Notes from the BackPack. The podcast has launched a new season featuring parents and experts who offer advice and strategies to help children succeed in and beyond school. Listen to the current topic Apoyando a los niños pequeños durante COVID-19, How to Help LGBTQ Youth Thrive and other episodes on their website.
SEL & Self-Care for Kids, Families, and YOU
Watch this December 8, 2020 webinar on SEL for Kids, Grown-Ups, and YOU. All of the resources shared are available here, as well as sample messages you can share with your families.
REL: Race Equity Mindsets, Social and Emotional Well-Being, and Outcomes for Students
This three-part webinar series, hosted by REL West, the Region 15 Comprehensive Center, and the National Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety, is designed to support the social and emotional needs of educators and students during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Family Engagement Articles
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New Poll Finds Parents Want Better Distance Learning Now, Online Options Even After COVID, More Family Engagement
A polling paradox: Parents love their kids’ schools but want them to use this time to improve. A National Parents survey finds a strong appetite for better, continued distance learning. Click here to read more.
What Educators Are Learning During the Pandemic
Many school leaders and teachers are focusing on whole child education, an idea that seems likely to grow in prominence in the future. In 2020, educators have faced pandemic-driven...Click here to read more.
Where Families Are Feeling Pandemic Impacts the Worst
Recent Census data show families nationwide suffering job loss, food insecurity, and a lack of technology crucial for remote education. Click here to read more.
Supporting Students at a Distance: How are School Psychologists Shifting Their Practice?
When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered school buildings in the spring, school psychologists, along with many other student services providers, quickly shifted their practices to work in an almost entirely virtual environment. During the early weeks of the pandemic, REL West staff spoke with school psychologists in two rural school districts to learn about how they adapted their services in the absence of in-person interactions. They checked back in with them this fall when the school year began.
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It's Time To Redefine Family and Community Engagement
By: Dahab Hagos-Fewell
My parents emigrated to Canada in 1983. Six months pregnant with me, my parents, who are from a northeast African country on the Red Sea coast called Eritrea, boarded a plane to Canada so their children would have access to high-quality education. Our parents were so dedicated to...Click here to read more.
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Youth and Family TREE Funding Opportunity
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is accepting applications for its Enhancement and Expansion of Treatment and Recovery Services for Adolescents, Transitional Aged Youth, and Their Families (Youth and Family TREE) funding opportunity with intentions to grant 17 awards, totaling $9,524,682, for programs to enhance and expand comprehensive treatment, early intervention, and recovery support services for adolescents, transitional aged youth, and their families/primary caregivers with substance use disorders and/or co-occurring substance use and mental disorders. Application deadline: Feb. 8, 2021.
Ready4k Equity Grant
Ready4K is an evidence-based family engagement curriculum delivered via text messages that builds on several years of research that includes multiple randomized controlled trials and several on-going evaluations with researchers from Stanford, Brown, Notre Dame, and Texas A&M.Awards for School Districts and Heads Starts that serve 80%+ economically disadvantaged students will receive the following awards:
  
Learn more here or contact Kirk Maxfield at kirk.maxfield@parentpowered.com
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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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