Support for Family Engagement in South Carolina

The RC6 will assist the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) in providing integrated, focused family engagement support to districts and low-performing schools that may not have strong family-engagement initiatives. The SCDE defines parent engagement as when “parents and families are actively involved in the learning and development of all students to become college- and career-ready.” To the extent that schools and LEAs are successful in giving families the tools, skills, and needed information to help their student, the families are likely to be better able to support their students. However, moving families to a more “engaged” status, particularly in high-poverty communities, is a challenge faced by many low-performing schools. The project, which started in Year 3, assumes a three-pronged approach to supporting the SCDE:

1. Due to the wide range of organizations and resources working in support of family engagement in schools in South Carolina, the RC6 developed a resource guide/directory of these organizations, including key contacts, brief descriptions of services, and websites. This document will help the SCDE ensure that its divisions and other state partners are working in an aligned fashion towards improved family engagement. (See document at: region6cc.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Family-Engagement_SouthCarolina_2022_RC6_002.pdf)
2. The South Carolina Family Engagement K-12 Framework is intended to guide all SCDE local- and school-level school, family, and community engagement activities. The document also includes various self-assessment tools for schools to use in exploring areas of family engagement needing improvement. The SCDE would like the RC6 to describe how schools are using—or not using—this resource and the facilitators and barriers to the use of the self-assessment tools in improving levels of family engagement. The RC6 is collecting and summarizing information to address this need.
3. Several districts have asked the SCDE for support in evaluating their family and community engagement efforts. The RC6 is conducting a state scan of the evaluation efforts used to monitor and build robust family engagement initiatives for the SCDE.