I recently had the opportunity to participate in Washoe County School District’s Parent Teacher Home Visits Conference. Each year WCSD hosts this conference to celebrate exceptional home-visiting educators, highlight the positive impact of PTHV’s home visit model, and expand the program within the district.  

This year’s conference included an address to all educators in attendance by Superintendent Joseph Ernst, a powerful parent testimonial, and an awards ceremony honoring 52 educators who conducted 20 or more home visits in the 2025-2026 school year.  

In addition, WCSD PTHV Facilitator Kelly Nagel and I co-presented a session titled “Growing PTHV in WCSD.” In this session, we invited participants to explore why Parent Teacher Home Visits is so valuable and how we can all play a role in helping the network grow. We also created space for participants to provide input on new support resources for administrators and newly trained staff. 

All the participants had many years of implementing the PTHV model, which allowed us to move beyond introductory conversations about PTHV, and focus on their expertise and advice for newly trained educators and administration. Kelly collected their recommendations as part of the district’s effort to create meaningful tools and resources that can support educators and administrators as they begin their PTHV journey. 

The conference itself reflected WCSD’s deep commitment to family engagement. It was a wonderful experience and a powerful reminder of what is possible when districts commit to relationship-centered family engagement. WCSD is one of our longest standing partners, and we’re very proud of their work. I’m excited to see how this district’s family engagement efforts continue to grow.