When Families Are Equipped, Students Thrive: Launching the Parent Engagement Program

Communities In Schools® (CIS®) is partnering with Parents for Public Schools to bring a research-based curriculum to affiliates across the country, a living example of what it means to put our shared principles to work.  

At Communities In Schools, we have always believed that the conditions for a student’s success extend far beyond the classroom. They have families, live in communities, and engage in schools, and our role is to work across each of these systems. Over time, that belief has sharpened into something our entire network can hold together: a set of shared principles that define not just what we do, but how we think about the world every student grows up in. 

These shared principles; things like safe spaces to learn, caring adults who are present and engaged, and families equipped to advocate, aren’t checkboxes. They’re a framework for understanding students as whole people embedded in interconnected systems. And when we apply them to our work, they push us beyond the school building and into the community, the home, and every relationship in between. 

ABOUT OUR SHARED PRINCIPLES 
Our shared principles represent CIS’s collective understanding of what every student needs to succeed, not as a list of services, but as a lens for how we design, partner, and show up across the systems that shape young people’s lives. They guide our network of 100+ organizations in tailoring their work to local communities while staying rooted in a common purpose. 

This spring, CIS launched the Parent Engagement Program (PEP) in partnership with Parents for Public Schools (PPS), made possible through funding from the NFL Foundation. The program equips site coordinators across our network with a turnkey, research-based curriculum to lead meaningful family engagement sessions at their schools. It’s a powerful example of what it looks like when our principles stop being abstract and start shaping real programs, real conversations, and real outcomes for families. 

SHARED PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 
Every student and the systems surrounding them need a caring adult. 
This principle doesn’t stop at the school door — it extends into the home and the relationship between families and educators. PEP builds that bridge by giving parents and caregivers concrete tools: understanding how their child learns, navigating special education systems, supporting homework and home routines, and knowing how to advocate at a school level. When a parent feels informed, confident, and supported, they become an active partner in the broader system surrounding them. 

The PEP curriculum includes 15 modules that local teams can mix and match based on what their families need. Topics range from college and career readiness and technology in education, to data accountability and parent leadership development. No two schools are the same, and the program is designed with that in mind. This flexibility is itself a reflection of our principles: meeting people where they are, within the specific systems and contexts that shape their lives. 

SHARED PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 
Every student and the systems that surround them need and deserve a safe place to learn and grow. 
Safety, in the truest sense, means belonging, having a voice, access to information, and the power to shape the environments your children are part of. PEP creates that kind of safety for families. Through sessions on leadership, advocacy, and school governance, parents learn how to engage not just as supporters of their child’s education, but as co-creators of their school community. When families are activated across the systems that affect their children, those systems become more just, more responsive, and safer for everyone. 

Over the next year, trained site coordinators will begin delivering sessions to families at their schools, on their own schedule, at their own pace, and in the format that works best for their community. Sessions can be in-person or virtual, and coordinators are supported through optional office hours led by the PPS team to help with planning and implementation every step of the way. 

Our goal is to reach 2,100 families by March 2027. But more than any number, what we’re working toward is something harder to measure: families who feel seen, informed, and empowered to show up fully, in their child’s school, in their community, and in the systems that shape both.