Introducing Family-Centered Practice

Because families are central to their children's development, particularly during the early-childhood years, they are partners, active participants, and decision-makers in their children's education process. As a result,family-centered practiceis considered one of the indicators of quality in early-childhood education, programs, and services. At the heart of family-centered practice is the belief that families are the most important decision-makers in a child's life (Sandall, Hemmeter, Smith, & McLean, 2005).

Family-centered practice also means that you, and all program staff, understand the important effect all family members have on each other and on the individual child. Each family member affects the other and the ways that the family functions. All family members are interconnected. From our families, we learn skills that enable us to engage in school and the workplace.

When considering family-centered practice, you view each child or youth as part of a larger system; you view family members as a whole family system. As a T&C or manager you help program staff become aware of and sensitive to the interactions and relationships taking place within the family, as well as outside interactions and supports that affect them. It is important that your entire program staff understand that to maintain relationships with families and to work effectively together, you learn, respect and understand characteristics of each family and its support system. You can also consider the characteristics and stressors that may affect a family's involvement. What affects one family member can affect all family members. A family is a complex system in which no one member can be viewed in isolation.

Throughout the Virtual Laboratory School, we consider family-centered practice as an umbrella term that encompasses the beliefs and actions of people in your program. Consider this table:

Family-Centered Practice Family-centered practice is a set of beliefs and actions that influence how we engage families.
Beliefs	Actions
Families are the most important decision-makers in a child's life.	We learn about families' ideas and preferences. We provide choices in programming. We involve families in program leadership. We involve families in decision-making.
Families are unique and their differences enrich our programs.	We honor and respect diversity. We involve all the important people in a child's life. We engage and involve families. We develop responsive and reciprocal relationships. We represent families in our programs.
Families are resilient.	We learn about families' strengths, needs, and circumstances. We connect families with resources. We build families' strengths.
Families are central to development and learning.	We share information with families. We listen to families. We view families as their child's first teacher. We respect families' expertise about their child.
Families are our partners.	We use respectful, responsive, and two-way communication. We reach out to families. We involve families in all aspects of our program.

As a T&C or program manager, you should make an effort to get to know the families in your program. You should convey and model for program staff the importance of understanding each child and family, as this creates opportunities for you to better support the children or youth in your care. You can learn more about family-centered practices in the Family Engagement course.

Welcoming Each Child and Family

Where do you feel welcomed? What happens in that place that makes you feel welcome? Do families feel welcome when they come to their child's classroom? How are families greeted when they call the program or ask a question?

条例和项目经理领导角色when it comes to welcoming families to the program. As a leadership team, T&Cs and program managers should discuss how they will unite to support the program's mission to not only care for children but to also care deeply about the children's families. T&Cs and program managers set the tone for the program. They welcome parents in ways that make them feel connected to the program. Just as they care about how the children are welcomed, they pay attention to how parents are included in the program not only at drop-off and pick-up times, but throughout their child's day.

It is important that T&Cs or program managers ask parents how they want to be involved, and remind family members that they are a vital part of the program. Parents should be able to choose to be involved in many ways-for military families in particular, it is critical to have flexibility in how parents can participate. Equally important, T&Cs should have conversations with program staff, and observe their interactions with families, to ensure families are appropriately welcomed and have multiple ways to be involved in their child's particular classroom.

父母想要有意义的对话阿布t the program and their child. As a T&C or manager, it is important that you help ensure this happens at the program-level and within each classroom. In particular T&Cs should take time to observe pick-up or drop-off interactions, and, in child care programs, review parent-teacher conference documentation, to help staff members reflect on how they communicate about the child, and how they can use these opportunities to learn more about families and form a collaborative relationship with each child's family. When parents volunteer, in the classroom or the larger program, they need to have clear directions, a purpose, and to know what the expectations are for them. Parents who serve on a program advisory board need to know that their voice is just as important as that of others on the board.

In addition, a family handbook can assist T&Cs and program managers in talking with parents about program mission, philosophy, policies, procedures, roles, and responsibilities. For program managers, this can be a great informational item to share with families as you enroll them in your program, and opens the door for you to share more about the program, and answer families' questions. Asking parents for ideas to add or include in the family handbook is another way to demonstrate that families are important decision-makers and part of the program community.

的另一个核心方面确保家庭感觉welcome in your program, is confirming that program staff update families about their child's day and week. Ongoing communication, including two-way communication, where parents and the child's caregiver exchange information about the child, is important. Working together on behalf of the child benefits all parties. Program staff must also be able to reach out to T&Cs or program managers when they are unsure how to approach particular issues or topics with children's families. T&Cs and program managers should be prepared to help program staff learn how to sensitively approach families. Sometimes T&Cs or program managers may be part of meetings between caregivers and parents, or they may help staff members prepare for meetings and ensure they have the appropriate time and space to communicate with families.

T&Cs and program managers may have to explain to families why the program promotes developmentally appropriate practice, how the chosen curriculum supports youth development, and stages of development. Sharing information with families that helps them be better informed as parents is a component of program leadership. You may do this in the form of print resources, family workshop nights, and in one-on-one, or team meetings with individual families.

Program managers should have clear feedback mechanisms in place to understand how the program is meeting families' needs. It is important to ask questions and provide families with different methods to give the leadership team feedback (questionnaires, suggestion box, one on one conversations, family events).

T&Cs and program managers should also focus on families' strengths.Allfamilies have strengths andallfamilies have challenges. Model for others a focus on each family's strengths. T&Cs and program managers can engage staff in forming relationships with families and set the tone for a warm, welcoming program atmosphere. T&Cs and program managers serve as models and leaders who demonstrate the true spirit of caring for families.

Watch the video below to hear T&Cs and programs managers describe the importance of connecting with every family every day and the benefits of creating a partnership with parents.

Program Management: Welcoming Families

Helping Families Access Services for their Child

Meeting families' needs, ensuring they feel welcome, and providing assistance when there is a concern are all essential aspects of a T&Cs and a program manager's work. In many cases, the T&Cs is the first person a staff member talks with when they have concerns about a child's development. Having an ongoing progress-monitoring system for each child that indicates his or her growth and development provides excellent documentation to share with parents. Keeping observation records at various times of the day is also critical to documenting how children are progressing over time as they learn new information and skills. Families should also be encouraged to share information about what they observe at home. Families often are the first to notice if their children are experiencing difficulties.

条例和程序经理协助项目工作人员和families with documentation and referrals to appropriate agencies when there are questions about a child's development. They should have access to phone numbers, addresses, and other written information concerning vision and hearing screenings, health-care providers, early intervention services, school district special services teams, and mental health service agencies. These can be difficult conversations to have with families and so great care and sensitivity must be used when relaying any concerns with children's families and sharing information about the child. When approaching a family with concerns about their child's development, you should be prepared:

• To ask families about their concerns and what they notice about their child's experiences at home.
• With documentation from the child or youth's experience in the program to help explain your concerns.
• With a list of resources to discuss together potential next steps.
• To listen to families. Hearing or talking about their child's development may be a very emotional experience for some families, especially if there are other stressors in their lives.
• To emphasize that you are here to help support the family and their child, and that your program staff wants to work as a team with the family to support their child in best possible ways.

When programs enroll children who receive special services, the T&Cs and program managers should ensure that the children and teachers have adequate resources and supports. Teachers need training and consultation to work with children with disabilities. The T&Cs or program manager will need to work collaboratively to ensure that an infant's individualized family service plan (IFSP) outcomes or a preschool child's individualized education plan (IEP) goals are addressed. The child's family, the school district or agency personnel, and the child care program leaders are a team working on behalf of the child with disabilities. Successful inclusion of children with disabilities requires careful planning, intentional teaching, and ongoing communication among all team members. You should follow your Service's procedures for how to support children with special needs and what is needed regarding IFSP or IEP documentation. You can also access theKIT resourcesto work with program staff on developing strategies to support children with a variety of special needs.

有优秀的可用资源(reference list) that T&Cs and program managers may use for professional development for themselves and members of their staff. Training and appropriate resources for staff and families are essential to successful inclusion and should be explicitly written into any IFSP or IEP document for children with disabilities attending a child-care or after-school program. It is important to remember that families, or sometimes children's special service providers (e.g., occupational therapists, speech therapists, physical therapists, early intervention specialists, etc.), can be a great resource for how to appropriately support a child with special needs. As a T&C or program manager, you can arrange meetings where you and the appropriate program staff come together to learn specific techniques to use in the classroom to support the child. When appropriate, you can even help families and program staff work together on how they might talk to other children in a child's classroom about their special abilities. See the Learn attachment from the PACER Center Champions for Children with Disabilities resource,Telling Classmates about Your Child's Disability May Foster Acceptance, for more information. Although this resource is framed for families, it has many helpful ideas and strategies for how families and staff may thoughtfully approach discussions around children with more significant unique abilities with the larger classroom community.

Watch the video below to hear T&Cs and program managers describe their role in ensuring children with disabilities and special needs receive appropriate care and how to support staff members and families through the journey of caring for these exceptional children.

Program Management: Families with Special Needs

Collaboration with Community Partners

The program manager represents the program to local agencies, schools, and businesses. Program managers may be involved in local groups such as a child care directors’ association, an interagency council focused on youth development and career training, a local community college work group, family advocacy groups and other associations or boards that promote child and family well-being. The program manager demonstrates a commitment to partnerships with other agencies and businesses in the community. As the face of the program, the manager acts with integrity and professionalism.

Some community partnerships may involve program managers committing to carrying out policies and procedures as outlined in memorandums of understanding (MOUs). MOUs are sometimes developed between organizations to organize and facilitate agreed-upon services for children and parents. For example, a child-care program may have an MOU with a birth-to-3 early-intervention agency that indicates in writing that the agency will conduct developmental screening for infants and toddlers enrolled in the child-care center at no cost to the parents or child-care organization. An MOU for developmental screening may commit the program manager to obtaining signed permission forms from parents in order to have their infants screened, explaining the screening process, and including parents in the process. Arranging for space at the child-care center for the agency staff to conduct the screenings also may be part of the MOU. Such an agreement means parents learn more about their child's development without the need for families to travel to another agency or take time off work. When program managers work together with community agencies and businesses, the time spent on collaboration can result in enhanced service to the children, families, and staff.

Other community collaboration activities that T&Cs and program managers can engage in include:

• Shared professional development opportunities (workshops, webinars, conferences) for themselves and their staff
• Opportunities to apply for grants, scholarships, materials for staff (e.g., some civic groups and service organizations offer grants for schools and agencies for particular ideas, such as adding more science-related materials)
• 受益于志愿者来回的机会m the community who can share their skills and expertise with the staff and children
• Fee assistance support for military families without access to an on-base child care provider, such as through Child Care Aware,https://usa.childcareaware.org/fee-assistancerespite/military-families/. Non military-affiliated families, see:http://childcareaware.org/families/paying-for-child-care/federal-state-child-care-programs/

Building collaborative relationships takes time and attention, but it often has meaningful outcomes in terms of enhancing the overall quality of the child and youth program. Groups that focus on professional support for T&Cs (e.g., a coaches group) or program managers (e.g., a child care director's group) can provide those in leadership positions with a network to share their celebrations and challenges and to create new friends and colleagues among those working on behalf of children and families.