They are supposed to implement the Headstart and DCPS prek requirements and run events for the prek families. Some of it is super old school and agree with PP, that it really doesn't work for working parents. Also agree with PP about hiring folks who are pretty incompetent.

Our PTA and ECE coordinate very well since most of the PTA was ECE families this year anyway.

We have a new coordinator this year so we will see how it goes.

Ours had a few interesting events last year. But the people that work in Family Engagement Department can be pretty clueless. They brought Popsicles to a play date at a local park but no cooler so they were basically all melted by the time they got there. They also scheduled a lot of committee meetings for parents during the day. When I mentioned its hard for working parents to make the event I was told the person who runs it has her own kids to watch in the evenings so meetings had to be during the day. Well that might make it challenging to engage a majority of the families at our school since most kids have working parents. They also didn't coordinate with the school or PTA and would sometimes schedule events the same day as another major event. Seems like a good idea in general but needs better organization.

I'm all for the home visits but it seems like they also employ a lot of twenty-somethings who are pretty clueless and can't put together a one-paragraph email without several grammatical errors. Our guy has his own title spelled wrong in his email signature.

They are implementing the Flamboyan grant to improve the ways schools engage with families -- e.g. the 'new' approach to parent teacher conferences and the home visits for teachers to meet families before school starts.

I'm sure people will disagree whether it's useful or not.

https://dcps.dc.gov/node/994252

Can anyone tell me what the ECE Family Engagement team actually does? I just got a email about a school playdate tomorrow, during naptime, nowhere near the school. Another time they were at our school trying to raffle off tickets to that night's baseball game, even though the rain had already started. Wtf? Can anyone explain anything of value that they contribute?