Written by Kate Pechacek
Let’s be honest—there’s never been a moment in public education quite like this. And as common as this sentiment has become, it always seems to be true. But for the K-12 school district heroes reading this, it will hopefully be a refreshing dose of truth.
The challenges surrounding the classroom have become as urgent as those within it, creating barriers that educators and school systems alone can no longer carry. From immeasurable student anxiety to digital disruptions, the world outside is pressing in. But there is hope—real, tangible hope—and it starts with families as essential partners.
As behavior and student dysregulation concerns grow more complex, student and staff mental health strains systems, and AI throws schools into uncharted waters, leaders are left navigating chaos with limited tools and limited time to think. The TikTok-fueled Chromebook Challenge is just the latest wave, leaving schools scrambling for solutions to problems they didn’t create—and can’t solve alone.
The truth? Schools have been holding the weight for too long. Families have been doing the same. It’s time to shift the mindset: these aren’t just school or family problems. They are shared challenges that require shared solutions.
The halo around the classroom
Think of the “halo” around the classroom as the external forces that shape what happens inside it: student well-being, attendance, screen time, and social-emotional development. These forces are no longer on the margins—they’re an overwhelming reality surrounding the work in classrooms. And if schools try to face them without families, progress stalls, and exhaustion sets in.
That’s where superintendents and communications leaders come in. You hold the keys to unlocking two levels of transformative family partnership: system-wide efforts to address the “halo” of challenges surrounding the classroom and the daily classroom relationships, where families are valued as the students’ first and best experts.
Check out our on-demand webinar:
From Chaos to Calm: A Dual Strategy for Family Engagement at the District and Classroom Level
Two necessary levels of family engagement
Family engagement has power on two levels, with two distinct groups of school staff. District communications leaders and superintendents are uniquely positioned to activate family partnerships on two levels: Systemwide partnerships that bring families and leaders together to co-address the “halo” of systemic issues affecting classrooms, and classroom-level partnerships that position teachers and families as co-experts, creating trust-based, student-centered support.
When site and district administrators lead system-wide engagement with families and work collaboratively to problem-solve effectively, the halo surrounding the classroom begins to calm. That calm then creates space for teachers and school staff to deepen partnerships with families and unlock better outcomes for each student.
To move from chaos to coherence, districts need a way to engage not just the most accessible families but especially those who have historically been the hardest to reach. A universally designed, two-way family engagement tool that supports staff at every level is a critical bridge to in-person engagement. And it offers the best chance to activate both levels of partnership:
1. Systems-level partnership
Addressing the “halo” requires a coordinated, intentional effort to partner with families as part of a larger school community. For example, one family feeling the urgency to encourage limited cell phone use during school will end in a fruitless effort if it is not part of a broader coordinated effort across families and schools to do the same.
A group of families informed about inappropriate uses of AI, as another example, can’t have an impact unless there is coordination with the schools and then across all families. The issues in the halo cannot be solved alone, by anyone, or even by any small group.
District and school leaders must have a mechanism to deliver clear and positive direction to families about how the current halo affects the school community and, therefore, their child. Then, leaders must create space for families to help surface and co-solve the challenges they see on the horizon.
With a tool designed to engage all, and the leadership to open the conversations to the halo affecting students, the chaos can be calmed, and classroom efforts can show the promise they hold.
When leaders open conversations to include the full circle of influence around each student—and use tools designed to engage every family—chaos calms and the promise of classroom efforts becomes reality.
2. Student-level wraparound
This is where the magic happens. Research shows that when families and teachers collaborate meaningfully around a student, outcomes improve across attendance, academics, behavior, and mental health. Family engagement is twice as predictive of student success as socioeconomic status.
For decades, income was treated as a fixed determinant. But family partnership? It’s the hammer that breaks through that cement. With the halo of chaos calming in a school district, the trusting relationships between schools and families can fully realize the promise they hold to better support students and their outcomes.
If a tool can be provided that is built to engage the hardest to engage, all families have a better chance of becoming trusted partners of the teacher and other school-level student support staff.
Family engagement to improve student outcomes
This moment calls for more than messages. It calls for mobilization.
When communications departments are equipped with tools that reach all families, in all languages, and with understandability at the forefront, they can start to shape a culture of true family-school partnership.
At the system level, that means a chance to reshape the halo and let the magic of the classroom shine. At the classroom level, it means unlocking the power of co-experts: families and educators working together for student success.
We can’t solve today’s challenges by hoping things settle down. But we can solve them together.
Let’s build something great together—start your journey with TalkingPoints.
Celebrating 10 Years of Partnership and Impact
For a decade, TalkingPoints has supported students, families, and educators through the power of effective family-school partnerships. Help us continue building a future where every child has the support they need to thrive. TalkingPoints is an education technology nonprofit whose award-winning Universal Family Engagement platform has improved student and district outcomes nationwide. To date, we’ve connected ten million educators, students, and family members through more than one billion conversations that build trust, foster relationships, and fuel student success. Named by Common Sense Education as “the best overall family communication platform for teachers and schools,” TalkingPoints drives measurable gains in attendance and academic achievement, backed by rigorous, causal research.
