Family, School, and Community Partnerships

Family-School-Community Partnerships (FSCP) Definition:

Families, early childhood programs, schools, and communities actively partnering to develop, implement, and evaluate effective and equitable practices to improve educational outcomes for children and youth.

The Office of Family, School, and Community Partnerships has released their meetings and events calendar for the 2022-2023 school year. The calendar is updated regularly so check back often for the most up-to-date information.

FSCP Year-at-a Glance

This monthly newsletter is sent to family partnership contacts around the state, and includes updates from the director of family partnerships, promising practices, and current FSCP research. Let us know if you'd like to receive this in your inbox!

March 2023 Key (PDF)

News and Updates

Call for Submissions - Promising Partnership Practices

The State Advisory Council for Parent Involvement in Education (SACPIE), in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), is collecting promising partnership practices from schools, districts, early childhood programs, and institutes of higher education across the state to publish in the eighth annual Promising Partnership Practices—Colorado book. SACPIE and CDE invite schools, districts, early childhood centers, institutions of higher education, accountability committees, parent-teacher committees, or any other school- or district-based council to submit an application for consideration in the publication. The purpose of this book is for schools, districts, and other educational organizations in Colorado to share how they partner with families and the community for student success. Submissions are due June 2, 2023

View the call for submissions here.

You may also submit using this Google form.

CDE's Family, School, and Community Partnerships Online Learning Center

The Family, School, and Community Partnerships Office is excited to share our Online Learning Center through LearnWorlds. This learning center is a hub of online courses developed by CDE's FSCP Office. The following courses are available to all at no charge and are self-paced. Click on the link to learn more about each course.

Foundations of Family, School, and Community Partnerships (Target audience: those who are new to FSCP)
Elevating Your Role as a Family Engagement Liaison (Target audience: School-level family engagement liaisons)
Colorado's P12 FSCP Framework: User's Guide (Target audience: all)
Reframing FSCP Online Academy (Target audience: all)

2022 Edition of Promising Partnership Practices

The State Advisory Council for Parent Involvement in Education (SACPIE) and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) are pleased to share this eighth annual collection of Promising Partnership Practices. The purpose of this publication is for schools, districts, and other educational organizations in Colorado to highlight how they partner with families and the community for student success.

Read the 2022 collection of Promising Partnership Practices.

Family-School-Community Partnership Framework Collaborative and User's Guide

New resources are now available to help schools, districts, and early childhood programs to implement the P-12 FSCP Framework. A series of 12 rubrics allows sites to rate their current partnership programs and practices. During the 2021-2022 school year, six districts piloted the P-12 FSCP Framework. Their stories are shared in the accompanying User's Guide, which walks sites through a step-by-step, research-based process to identify starting points and prioritize next steps.

The Office of Family School and Community Partnerships developed a self-paced course available to anyone who would like to learn more about the P-12 FSCP Framework and rubrics. Individuals who complete the course will receive five hours of professional development credits.

Visit the Colorado's P-12 FSCP Framework: User's Guide Course

About The Office of Family-School-Community Partnerships

The Office of Family-School-Community Partnerships sits within the Accountability and Continuous Improvement Office at CDE, and was created in response to Senate Bill 13-193 Increasing Parent Involvement in Public Schools. Responsibilities of the office include:

Supporting to schools and districts implementing Family and Community Engagement practices
Incorporating strategies in the Unified Improvement Plan to increase parent engagement in schools, with a specific focus on priority performance and turnaround schools.
Ensuring that school district board of education adopt district policy for increasing and supporting parent engagement in the public and charter schools of the district
Communicating and providing support to the identified family partnership point of contact within school districts
Supporting parent participation on school and district accountability committees (SACs and DACs)
Staffing the State Advisory Council for Parent Involvement in Education (SACPIE)

Family and School Partnership in Education Month

Governor Polis has declared November to be Family and School Partnership in Education Month.

Read the Proclamation here | Spanish

Research indicates that family, school and community partnerships lead to improved students’ attendance, higher graduation rates and a deeper sense of belonging (Mapp et al., 2022). Districts interested in promoting Family and School Partnership in Education Month can use this communications toolkit.

The Family, School, and Community Partnerships Office started November 2022 with a Kickoff at the Denver Zoo. Governor Polis shared a few words and read the Proclamation in English and in Spanish. Schools set up displays of their promising practices and Scholastic was in attendance giving away free books to the kids in attendance. Check out the video to hear the governor's remarks and see a few of the promising practices.