Partnering with Families: Strengthening Family, Caregiver and School Relationships

• Nov 03, 2026

Partnering with Families: Strengthening Family, Caregiver and School Relationships

Why Family Engagement Matters

Building relationships with families creates greater consistency between home and school life and helps caregivers feel welcomed and connected to the school alongside their child. Family engagement goes beyond just participating in school activities. It turns the caregiver into a partner with the school community, where everyone’s priority is supporting the children in their care.

Two Types of Family Engagement

At Momentous Institute, we are intentional about two kinds of engagement to build a strong lasting relationship with our families – within and between family engagement.

Within family engagement refers to how we work with each family to help strengthen their role in their child’s development. Research shows that this type of engagement enhances a child’s success in school.

Between family engagement is about how all the families in our school are connected to each other. Families are part of a strong support system that grows each year their children are enrolled in our school. Connections among families help to strengthen parents and students’ sense of belonging in the school community, which in turn helps students to be more engaged in learning at school.

At Momentous School, we strive to make sure our school is a warm, welcoming space for families. We help bring families together to form their own supportive community, which influences their involvement in the larger school community, too.

Watch our Family Engagement video to learn more ways to partner with the families at your school.

Within family engagement is supported through several strategies, including home visits, workshops and events.

What are Home Visits?

Traditionally, most interactions between schools and families happen at school. But one strategy to build relationships with families is to go to them. At Momentous School, we do this through home visits. Before students begin the school year, Momentous School teachers conduct home visits. The visits typically include a quick get-to-know-you game, as well as sharing the details of a project that students and their families complete together. The project, which changes each year, emphasizes the family’s bond, culture and influences. Teachers share their completed project with the families so that they have an example to follow as well as an opportunity to learn more about the teacher. The completed projects are displayed when students bring them in the first days of school. During home visits, teachers also take photos with the students’ families and display them outside the classroom. Home visits are a tremendously important first step in establishing safe relationships between the teacher and student and between the teacher and students’ families at the start of the year. Watch our Home Visits Video to see how it’s done.

For our Pre-K families, the home visits don’t stop there. Momentous School visits each of our Pre-K families in their home throughout their first year. Home visits help support these youngest learners and their families transition to school, strengthen the parent-school connection and set students up for success both at school and at home.

Watch our Home Visits 101 to learn more about our approach to building relationships with our Pre-K families throughout their first year.

Family Engagement Events

Momentous School’s Family Engagement Coordinator leads the Learning Juntos program, where parent leaders and classroom teachers co-create and execute lessons that facilitate students, teachers and families learning together. Lesson topics for the Parent and Child Together (PACT) events can be connected to the school mental health model or be more academic focused, but what’s most important is the synergy fostered between home and school. Working together and knowing one another better helps both parents and staff members understand the children they share more comprehensively and provide them a broader and deeper foundation.

Momentous School also provides parents and caregivers opportunities to expand their parenting skills and self-development with a parent workshop series. Developed and delivered by the Family Engagement Coordinator and a school mental health professional, the intent of the classes is to deepen caregivers’ skills, knowledge and confidence so that they are better able to support their children’s growth. For example, learning about attachment theory helped parents better understand themselves and recognize their children’s attachment styles and needs.

Between family engagement is supported through opportunities for families to spend time together. When families get to know each other and enjoy spending time together, they build a sense of community that carries over to the school community. One way Momentous School supports this is through the Parent Center.

What is the Parent Center?

We believe that the school belongs to our students and their families. To make this point clear, we have a room dedicated just to them – we call it the Parent Center. The Parent Center is designed as a drop-in space for families. The Parent Center is stocked with coffee, a breakfast bar, and snack supplies throughout the day. Any family member is welcome to stop in and help themselves. It is a space that belongs to the community, not just for scheduled programming.

The Parent Center also serves as a hub for family-led planning meetings, childcare during events, access to technology for personal or school-related needs, resources and information. Families also use the Parent Center to organize their own activities based on interest or needs, work together on school projects, or just drop in to socialize and connect with other families. What’s most important about the Parent Center is that they take ownership of the space. We don’t ask the parents to do things like make copies for us, and we don’t use the room for meetings or anything else. They own the space and they can choose how to use it.

Parenting Resources to Share with Your Families

Another important element to family engagement is serving as a resource hub for families. We have endless resources available right on our website, but beyond that, here are some of our go-to sources to share with the families at your school. These are things we read to be informed and knowledgeable about parenting and mental health topics.