We are pleased to offer a new guide, Trusting Relationships First: A Toolkit for Healing and Recovery, for educators and schools to use as they welcome students and families back to in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year.

To fully heal and recover from the unprecedented, concurrent events of a global pandemic and racial injustice, we must focus on efforts that are not only responsive to student, family, and educator needs but are purposefully designed to ameliorate educational inequities. At the center of these efforts should be building relationships of trust, particularly between families and educators.

This is the responsibility of every school staff member. To maximize the success of your efforts, invite a broader team to review this toolkit together, participate in shared reflection, and collaboratively develop a comprehensive and responsive family engagement plan that allows you to heal the traumas experienced by your school community and accelerate learning. We encourage you to include families in this reflection and planning process to not only uplift their voices but create share ownership in the recovery and rebuilding process.

The toolkit is designed to lead users through a deep reflection process and organize their efforts in the coming school year to create the conditions essential to effective home-school partnerships. The toolkit is framed by three, interlocking components – Building Educator Capacity and Resilience, Building Trust with Families, and Creating a School-Wide Culture that Prioritizes High-Impact Family Engagement. Each component includes a set of guiding questions, recommended activities and resources, and clear connections to Parent Teacher Home Visits.

This toolkit was predicated on the belief that – if we adopt an inclusive, asset-based mindset and invest appropriate time and resources to support high-impact family engagement strategies such as Parent Teacher Home Visits – we will begin to realize the promise of public education to equitably prepare every child to meet their fullest potential during the era of COVID-19 recovery and beyond.

Begin the year with an eye toward building trust and meetings family and educator needs! Check out Trusting Relationships First: A Toolkit for Healing and Recovery today!

Rachel Brice is Program Director at Parent Teacher Home Visits.