The concept of family engagement has long been included in standards developed by the NAEYC Academy for Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NAEYC Accreditation) and the federal Head Start program. Increasingly family engagement is being built in to state quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). However, there are numerous means of describing and measuring how programs engage with families. As a result, ensuring that programs effectively engage families, especially in the context of diversity or high social risk, is a challenge for quality improvement. This Brief examines two means by which programs' family engagement has been considered--NAEYC Accreditation Criteria that speak to family engagement and the seven program strategies that the Center for the Study of Social Policy's (CSSP) Strengthening Families approach has identified as effective in helping families build protective factors promote optimal child development and prevent the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. (author abstract)
Description:
Resource Type:
Fact Sheets & Briefs
Publisher(s):
Country:
United States