Tips for Establishing Strong School-Caregiver Relationships at the Start of the Year

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

Most back-to-school communication is designed to inform families and caregivers. Yet, the strongest classrooms design their first few weeks of communication to not just give information, but to actively hear from and learn from families as well. 

The shift, from informing to listening, can help caregivers to feel more like partners and less like an audience. Family engagement researcher Karen Mapp and her colleagues at Harvard developed the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships, which finds that effective family-school partnerships are linked to stronger student achievement and school improvement, but only when schools treat families and caregivers as equal partners rather than as an audience for updates (Mapp & Bergman, 2019).

Here are some ideas for what that looks like in the first six weeks of school.

Start with a relationship, not a rule.

So often, back-to-school communications lead with logistics such as pickup procedures, supply lists, homework policy. Yet if this information arrives before a caregiver has heard anything personal from the teacher, the relationship may begin to feel more directive than collaborative. 

Take a moment to send at least one message in the first two weeks that has nothing to do with policy. 

• Keep it short. Two or three sentences is enough.

• Make it specific to the child instead of a copy-paste template.

• Send it before you need anything from the family, not alongside a request.

Make the first contact easy to respond to and also meaningful.

Instead of "Welcome to third grade, here is what we will be working on," try asking something that allows caregivers to share their depth of knowledge of their child. The goal of your first exchanges is to open a channel, not only to deliver information. Here are some possible questions you might frame to parents on a digital class communication platform or on a piece of chart paper with post-its shared near the classroom entry or at back to school night: 

• What's one thing your child gets excited to talk about outside of school?

• What does reading time look like outside of school right now?

• What's a nickname, tradition, or mantra or saying your family uses that I should know?

• What’s something you're proud of that your child has said or done lately? 

Offer more than one way to access information.

Research on equitable family-school collaboration has found that when schools treat evening events or English-only communication as the default, families who cannot attend get labeled as hard to reach, rather than the format itself being recognized as the barrier (Ishimaru, 2019).

Not every caregiver can attend a Tuesday evening curriculum night, and not every caregiver is comfortable writing an email in English. Strong partnerships depend on schools building multiple, flexible paths for families and caregivers to engage, rather than assuming one format works for everyone.

Some practical options:

• A short video walkthrough of the classroom for caregivers who cannot attend in person

• Translated versions of key communications, not just the annual handbook. Many districts and schools have resources to support this and it’s worth taking time to connect with those early and often. 

• A text or app-based option alongside email, since not every family checks the same channel

Communicate with  families in their languages, not just in English.

Language access shapes whether a caregiver feels informed or left out. A 2024 study published in Educational Researcher tracked more than 3,500 families and found that Spanish-speaking families were significantly more likely to engage with two-way text messaging than English-speaking families, particularly when other school resources became harder to access (Asher et al., 2024). The same study found that when follow-up communication happened only in English, even translated materials sent home earlier in the year lost much of their value.

Schools and classrooms without a dedicated translation budget can start small. A short, two-way digital exchange in a family's home language such as an informal email or chat message, does more to build trust than a polished but one-way English newsletter.

Be specific about what partnership looks like and ways to volunteer.

Specific invitations give families a clearer picture of how to contribute than a general call for volunteers. Name an actual need, or a few options, rather than an open-ended ask. Some ideas that work well in the first months of school:

• Someone to listen to a small group read aloud for twenty minutes on Thursday mornings

• A caregiver willing to share a story or tradition connected to an upcoming unit

• A family member willing to staple together printable decodable texts for students to read at school

Specific asks are easier to say yes to and easier to follow through on.

Give families clear ways to support learning at home.

Partnership extends beyond time inside the classroom. Many caregivers want to help with reading and writing at home but are not sure where to start, especially early in the year before they know what the class is working on.

Our podcast, Advancing Literacy Beyond the Classroom, is built for exactly this and covers a range of topics from supporting spelling to helping graphic novel fans make the most of their reading. Each episode comes with a one-page printable companion guide that translates the episode into a few concrete things a caregiver can try that week, no teaching background required.

Pointing families to the podcast and its one-pagers in that first month of communication does two things at once. It gives caregivers something concrete to act on, and it reinforces that supporting their child's literacy does not require extensive training. 

Keep the first conference strengths-first.

The first time a caregiver hears from a teacher one-on-one, lead with what the child is doing well. This establishes, from the first real conversation, that you are an educator who already knows and values their child. This will allow you to resolve any concerns that arise later on more collaboratively, thanks to the strong foundation you’ve set. 

Advancing Literacy provides professional development for teachers and schools, including coaching and resources on building strong family and caregiver partnerships. Learn more at advancingliteracy.tc.columbia.edu.