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Manor Independent School District

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Family Engagement Plan

The Manor ISD’s Early Childhood vision is to provide access to a safe and accessible, high-quality early childhood education that includes a developmentally appropriate curriculum. We ensure that our program supports all children's health, nutrition, and social well-being, in an environment that respects and supports diversity that prepares our youngest learners for kindergarten. We will work to accomplish this by getting to know each child’s individual needs, creating a safe and supportive environment for them to learn and by partnering with each family. 

 Manor ISD Early Childhood program (EC) believes in developing partnerships with families based on mutual respect. Our mission for our MISD EC program is that we will be engaged in a loving, safe environment that supports independence, imagination, natural learning, and influences curiosity through play. By exposing our children to a variety of real-world experiences, problem-solving opportunities, and exposure to diverse cultures we can meet the needs of all our youngest learners as they enter Kindergarten. 

We will embrace the individuality of each child and we welcome the uniqueness of each child’s family into our educational community.

Our belief is that family engagement is a partnership and is the mutual responsibility of families, schools, and communities to build relationships that support student learning and achievement, family well-being, and the continuous learning and development of children, families, and educators.

We want family engagement to be fully integrated in the child’s educational experience, supporting the whole child. We want to continuously build partnerships between educators and families with a family engagement plan that will ensure that every student is supported and challenged to achieve the highest levels of knowledge, skills, and character. 

1. The district will facilitate Family-to-Family Support. 

Manor ISD Early Childhood program creates a safe and respectful environment where families can learn from each other and are provided opportunities for continuous participation in events designed for families. 

Strategies Include: 

  • Each campus has a designated Parent Liaison that parents have access to for help and guidance throughout the year. The parent liaison is the parent connector to each campus.
  • Each campus will also begin the year by distributing a survey designed to gather feedback from families on their preferences and priorities. This input directly informs our programming and workshops that we plan and offer.
  • Manor ISD CDC has parents feel out a “Getting to know your family” at enrollment. This information is shared with their child’s teacher to help them learn more about the child’s family.
  • EC (Early Childhood) families and Manor ISD CDC families are invited to attend campus “Meet the Teacher” events visiting their child’s classroom,meeting the teacher, being allowed to tour the campus and meet the campus principal or CDC Coordinator and receive information about how they can support and partner with the campus and their child’s teacher.

 

2. The district will continuously establish a network of community resources. 

In Manor ISD, our EC program builds strategic partnerships by leveraging community resources; establishing and maintaining partnerships with businesses, faith-based organizations, and community agencies. We identify support from various agencies, including mental and physical health providers; partnering with local community-based organizations to create a family-friendly transition plan for students arriving from early childhood settings; providing and facilitating referrals to family support or educational groups based on family interests and needs; communicating short- and long-term program goals to all stakeholders. 

Strategies Include: 
  • Our district has a Whole Child Department that’s  mission is to enhance the well-being of our families by implementing an integrated and collaborative approach to address barriers and identify areas of support that encourage learning and growth in a safe and nurturing environment, the entire community can benefit from the resources that the Whole Child offers.
  • Manor ISD PK campuses display community resources on their individual online websites as well. 
  • Manor ISD CDC  posts community resources or community activities for their parents on their parent board.

 

3. The district is encouraged to increase family participation in decision-making. 

Manor ISD increases family participation in decision-making by developing and supporting families in cultivating the expectation that information must flow in both directions to reflect two-way communication; developing strategies for assessing progress; and using appropriate tools such as surveys to gather family feedback on the family engagement plan. 

Strategies Include: 
  • MISD PK campuses send out a parent survey at the beginning of the year in order to get to know the parents, see what their interests are in possibly participating in campus activities and times and days they are available. 
  • MISD PK Teachers work with  families to create short and long-term goals of school success during Parent-Teacher Conferences two times a year while discussing their child’s CLI Circle assessments. 
  • MISD PK campuses each have a PTA (Parent Teacher Association) where parents can join and then the parents in this group raise funds for campus activities and events and they get to decide how the money is spent. 
  • MISD CDC sends out an end of the year survey each year to their parents to help improve their program.
  • MISD PK programs will work with their campuses and provide transition activities helping  PK children and families transition from PK to Kindergarten.

 

4. The district will equip families with tools to enhance and extend learning. 

EC teachers in Manor ISD recognize the families of our students as the child’s first teacher. Inorder to equip families with tools we provide families with information and/or training on creating a home learning environment connected to formal learning opportunities; equip families with resources and skills to support their children through the transition to school and offering opportunities for families and children to visit the school in advance of the school year; provide complementary and complimentary home learning activities for families to engage in at home with children through information presented in newsletters, online technology, social media, parent/family-teacher conferences, or other school- or center-related events.

Strategies Include: 
  • During registration School Ready Parent Guide from E3 Alliance is given to parents of all EC students as strategies to build learning into the family’s daily routine (English and Spanish available) 
  • PreK Registration information is available to families starting in the Spring of each year. During the Spring each campus holds open enrollment where families can come to campus and receive help on registering. During open enrollment, families will receive information about transportation, school meals, health & immunization, language assessment, the prekindergarten program and ways to get involved. 
  • PreK registration continues throughout the school year; campuses give tours of school at registration. 
  • MISD Elementary open houses are held a few weeks after school begins to allow parents to visit their child’s classroom and campus.
  • MISD PK campuses  websites include recommended learning links for parents.
  • Daily communication between EC teachers and families includes in-person communication; weekly or monthly newsletters; daily and weekly folders that are sent home, phone calls, emails, and social media posts. 
  • MISD PK campuses  use the Talking Points platform or Seesaw to communicate with families and share learning from school to home.
  • MISD CDC uses the ProCare App to communicate with families and share daily caregiving activities to families enrolled. 

 

5. The district develops staff skills in evidence-based practices that support families in meeting their children’s learning benchmarks. 

The Manor ISD Early Childhood Department believes in always continuing to learn and grow. We provide essential professional development for educators in understanding communication and engagement with families, including training on communicating with families in crisis; and developing staff skills to support and use culturally diverse, culturally relevant, and culturally responsive family engagement strategies. 

Strategies Include: 
  • PK and CDC both provide parent-teacher conferences at least twice a year to communicate long-term goals of school success and family engagement in addition to short-term goals of academic, physical, social and emotional development. 
  • The Early Childhood Director and district staff provide professional learning to EC teachers through the Manor ISD yearly district Professional Learning. 
  • Training opportunities during staff ½ day development days are also offered for continued support.
  • Region 13 training include: ECSE Bootcamp, CIRCLE Preschool Foundations, and the Early Childhood Summer Conference. 

 

6. The district evaluates the family engagement plan efforts and uses evaluations for continuous improvement. 

A part of Manor ISD’s continuous improvement philosophy includes self-assessment for program improvement.Our Whole Child Department develops data collection systems to monitor family engagement; uses data to ensure alignment between family engagement activities and district/school teaching and learning goals and to promote continuous family engagement; employs an evaluation plan to guide action.

Strategies Include: 
  • The EC Department uses the Texas Education Agency High Quality PreKindergarten Program Self-Assessment to evaluate its family engagement practices. 
  • The Early Childhood Director and EC teachers collect data on family engagement events and practices to analyze for continuous improvement. 
  • Manor ISD PK campuses do a yearly survey to parents to ensure they are offering activities and information that their families are concerned about.
  • Additionally, parent liaisons conduct post-workshop surveys through. These surveys help us assess whether families are building or enhancing their skills in the four C’s: Capabilities, Connections, Cognition, and Confidence. (Also from dual capacity framework) We also send out an end-of-year survey to gather comprehensive feedback on family engagement initiatives at each campus that campuses and district leaders use to stay informed and make necessary changes to the program.
  • Manor ISD CDC sends out an end of the year survey in May and then shares the results with families when they return in August.
Principal Point of Contact: 

Contact Stacy Jo Signaigo, the Director of Early Childhood for more information.