10 Keys for Communication to Better Improve Parent Involvement

Use these 10 Keys for Communication to help you reach out to more parents.

Remember the ways you reach out to parents can either help build involvement, or it can work against your school council. These tips should help put you on the right path.

Invite parents to get involved. Make sure your school community knows that they are welcome at all school council activities.
Make it easy to volunteer. Be sure to use a bulletin board in school, or get familiar with and use Google Forms as a place where parents can sign up to volunteer for events. Be sure to include a photo to attract volunteers to your event. Most importantly, remember to include contact information on all your correspondences.
Show volunteers you value them. Being appreciative is key. Remember to always thank your volunteers.
Communicate regularly. Send newsletters, e-newsletters and update your school councils social media channels regularly.
Promote school council accomplishments so parents know how the group’s efforts are benefiting the school.
Recognize volunteers. Include the name and photo of each person along with their accomplishments. Use your various communication channels to applaud these volunteers.
Display photos of volunteers and school council participants to show that the school council is fun and inclusive.
Use technology to involve parents. If parents at your school are online, you should be too. Just be sure to keep paper copies of your communications available for those who want or need them.
Translate school council communication for non-English speaking members of your school community. Doing this whenever possible is a great way of making them feel included.
Use person-to-person contact. Recruit others to pass on flyers and school council information. Never miss an opportunity to engage parents, especially those who might view the school council as a clique. Sometimes the simplest method of word-of-mouth works best.

Have some more suggestions to add?

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Find more resources on our website

If you haven’t already done so, we encourage you to surf our website. We have a great list of links to other valuable parent engagement resources on our links page. If you are looking to find more articles like this one, check out the rest of our blog or visit our brochures page. We are constantly trying to add new content for parents to enjoy.