Positive Family Support: A tiered model for

evidenced-based parental engagement

National PBIS Leadership ForumOctober 11, 2013

Kevin J. MooreChild & Family Center

Illinois Jennifer Phillips, LCSW PBIS External Coach

and Meghan McCarthy, LCSW Family Support

Facilitator 

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MontanaCarol Ewin, MA RtI Specialist

Tammy Tolleson-Knee, LSW School Counselor

Maximizing Your Session Participation

Work with your team

Consider 4 questions:

–Where are we in our implementation?

–What do I hope to learn?

–What did I learn?

–What will I do with what I learned?

Where are you in implementation process?

Adapted from Fixsen & Blase, 2005

Leadership Team Action Planning Worksheets: Steps

Self-Assessment: Accomplishments & Priorities

Leadership Team Action Planning Worksheet

Session Assignments & Notes: High Priorities

Team Member Note-Taking Worksheet

Action Planning: Enhancements & Improvements

Leadership Team Action Planning Worksheet

Two objectives of this talk:

To demonstrate that effectively engaging and collaborating with families in the public school context can make a difference in the success and well-being of students.

To discuss specific strategies that can be used within the PBIS structure to constructively engage parents to collaborate with educators.

Apparent in national initiatives

General and special education legislation

Statements and goals of countless education related professional organizations

Critical aspects of many comprehensive school reform efforts

(Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Lewis and Henderson, 1997; Reschly & Christenson, In press) 7

Family Engagement and Involvement In Student Learning and Schools

1. A clear and shared focus 2. High standards and expectations for all students 3. Effective school leadership 4. High levels of collaboration and communication 5. Curriculum, instruction, and assessments aligned

with state and national core standards 6. Frequent monitoring of teaching and learning 7. Focused professional development 8. A supportive learning environment 9. High levels of parent and community involvement

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So what do we know about high performing schools?

Family involvement helps student achievement Henderson & Berla, 1994; Henderson & Mapp 2004;

Stormshak et al., 2011 Teacher collaborative outreach to families related to

strong and consistent gains in achievement in both reading and math

Effective outreach practices included: Face to face Sending materials home Keeping touch about progress (joint monitoring)

Workshops for families on helping their children at home linked to higher reading and math scores

Schools with higher rated partnership programs greater gains on state tests than lower rated programs9

30 Years of Evidence: Family Involvement

Higher grade point averages and scores on standardized tests

Enrollment in more challenging academic programs

More classes passed and credits earned Better attendance Improved behavior at home and at school Better social skills and adaptation to school

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Additional Benefits of Family Engagement for Students

Effective Family

ManagementInterventions

Reduce….

Effective Family

ManagementInterventions

Reduce….

Early ChildhoodProblem Behavior

Early ChildhoodProblem Behavior

Middle ChildhoodProblem Behavior

Middle ChildhoodProblem Behavior

AdolescentProblem Behavior

AdolescentProblem Behavior

30 Years of Evidence for Improved

Parent Management on Youth Outcomes

School grades and attendance Anxiety and Depression Disruptive Disorders including arrest rates ADHD Health risking behaviors

Drug and alcohol use and abuse High risk sexual Young Adult Obesity

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Improved Problem Behaviors Include

Unique Vulnerabilities of Secondary School Students:

Decreased parent involvement

Increased problem behavior

Increased peer group influence

Decreased attendance

Decreased academic performance

Two Adult Sytems Concerned About Students Outcomes

School Awareness

ParentAwareness

SchoolHome

Expectations

MonitoringSupport

Expectations

MonitoringSupport

Teacher-Parent Contact

Behavior Expectations

Homework Patterns

Parent-Teacher Contact

Tracking Grades, Beh, Attendance

Student

What is going on at

school?

What is going on at

home?

Synergy of Family Engagement Coupled with

Family Management Support in Educational Settings

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2

Prevention Research in Public Middle Schools (Project Alliance 1 and 2: Dishion & Stormshak)

RandomlyAssigned

7th 7th ---> 11th Grade

6th GradeMiddle School

Students: Portland Public

Schools

Control:Middleschool as usual.

Family Resource

Room

Offered Family

Check-up &FU support

FCU Intervention Outcome on Self Reported Substance Use for High Risk Students

(adapted from Dishion, Kavanagh et al, 2002)

Sel

f R

epo

rted

Su

bst

ance

Use

in t

he

Las

t M

on

th

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PERCENTAGE ARRESTED BY AGE 16-17

Connell Dishion et al 2007

Effects on Academic and Attendance Effects on Academic and Attendance OutcomesOutcomes

Grade Point Average School Absences

FCU Prevents GPA Decline FCU Reduces School Absences

Control

FCUControl

FCU

Challenges to Using Parenting Programs in

Schools : Respectfully identifying and engaging parents of

students who most need the services and support;

Parents are often unable to participate in parenting ‘programs’ because they are delivered in groups and/or scheduling problems

Schools don’t have resources to pay for personnel engage and work with parents in these interventions:

There are often no formal strategies for linking work of parenting interventions with school based strategies;

An adapted and tailored intervention model that is intentionally designed to be a collaboration with any particular school (i.e., based on a schools needs and goals regarding their students and families).

Structures program around evidenced-based intervention constructs and intervention targets.

Focused on reducing the response costs for schools to do effective family engagement using evidenced-based methods.

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Positive Family Support

Follows a Response to Intervention RtI approach Note: Family involvement considered one of the Three Essential

Components of RtI along with Tiered instruction/intervention and Ongoing Student Assessment

Designed to integrate into PBIS structures

Adapted to the unique ecology of each school

Partnership model: intervention team and school’s key personnel collaborate to learn the model

Key Features of this Model

Integration into PBIS & RTIIntegration into PBIS & RTI

Indicated

Selected

Universal

•Family Check-Up •Parenting Support Sessions•Parent Management Training•Community Referrals•Parent Integration CICO•Attendance & Homework Support•Home-School Beh Change Plans•Email and Text messages•Family Resource Center

•Parenting Materials (Brochures/Videos/Handouts)•Positive Family Outreach•Student Needs Parent Screening

•Individualized Supports•Functional Behavioral Assessments

•Specialized Supports•Check-In/Check-Out

• School Rules & Expectations• Positive Reinforcement• Student Needs Screening

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Preliminary Fam-Set Effects Sizes for PFS Model Implementation Across the

Three Tiers

Talk Talk Talk…When Do We Eat?

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Proactive Screening that is “Respectful to Parents”Revised Multiple Gating Approach

Parent ReadinessScreener(school entry)

Parent ReadinessScreener(school entry)

Teacher &StaffScreening*(fall-spring)

Teacher &StaffScreening*(fall-spring)

Family Check UpFamily Check Up

School-ParentPBS plan

School-ParentPBS plan

TailoredStudent &Family Support

TailoredStudent &Family Support

* Behavior (e.g., SWIS); Homework Completion/Grades; Attendance

The Parent Readiness Screen for Positive Family Support.Begin the School Year with Parents Expressing

THEIR Needs

• Use Parent Readiness Screen to place students in the

triangle • Use their data to guide your

approach to contact parents

• Use data to inform your practices (e.g., targeted parent nights)

Positive Family Support Readiness Screener A pragmatic screening tool that:

Uses 14 questions to ask caretakers at beginning of the school year to express THEIR concerns and support needs about their child in regards to school

Asks parents if they need support for any of the questions Asks parents if they would like school contact Easily sorted into a triaged proactive parent contact

strategy Use caretaker data to guide parent contact by grade level

teams, counselors, and/or administration

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Readiness Screening as a Proactive Caring and

Collaborative “Joining Process”

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Behavior

Self-regulation

Peers

Affective/Mood

Attendance

Academics

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School-wide needs assessment from parent perspective.

Increase teacher and administrative knowledge of what, if any, concerns caretakers have about their student.

Creates opportunities for proactive reach-out to caretakers.

Can inform teacher and administrator about caretaker knowledge or concern about a student’s problems before making an achievement or behavior related contact.

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Multiple Uses of Parent Screener

Sixth Grade Parent Responses to the School Readiness Screener (N=3

schools)

Item Description

Doing Great

Some Concern

SeriousConcern

Asking for Support

CompletingHomework assignments

59% 30% 8.9% 11%

Needing Structure and Supervision

65% 28% 6% 9%

Getting easily distracted by other kids

51% 40% 10% 11%

Focusing and staying on task at school

60% 33% 7% 9%

Depressed or anxious

69% 25% 6% 7%

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Parent Scaffolding for Homework Support

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For teachers & family resource specialists

For parents and students (with teacher & family

resource specialist help)

For teachers and parents

Selected-Level: Selected-Level: Behavior Change PlansBehavior Change Plans

Get to Know You Interview

Get to Know You Interview

FamilyQuestionnai

re

FamilyQuestionnai

re

Collaborative

Feedback &

Motivation

Collaborative

Feedback &

Motivation

Parent Materials

and Support

Parent Materials

and Support

Parent Topic

Events/Groups

Parent Topic

Events/Groups

Student Intervention

Support

Student Intervention

Support

CommunityResourcesCommunityResources

An Overview of the Family Check-Up and Follow-Up Services

The Family Check-Up

Case

Example

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FCU CASE STUDY

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Previous year: Threatened with

expulsion unless referred out

for individual therapy-- parents

not invited to be involved with

therapy—After 8 Sessions

therapist thought youth was

“fine”

In-school and out-school suspension

48

49

50

MDM/D

D

D

M

M

M

DM

M

M

D

D

D

M/D

M/D

M/D

M/D

M/DT

T

T

M

Parenting Resources: BrochuresParenting Resources: Brochures

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54

Video Support for Families

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FCU CASE STUDY

FCU plus 2 follow-up sessionson home incentives for CICO and increased encouragementat home 1 session re-visit home and school

CICO Plan-- found normal drift in both settings to lower rates of R+ increased adult attention and R+ at home and school back to levels of October plan

34

11

Finds out Adopted

Previous year: Threatened with

expulsion unless referred out

for individual therapy-- parents

not invited to be involved with

therapy—After 8 Sessions

therapist thought youth was

“fine”

In-school and out-school suspension

Summary and Conclusions

Effectively and respectfully engaging parents in school contexts with empirically validated interventions can increase student success.

PBIS provides an excellent infrastructure and behavior management structure for embedding parenting interventions into universal, selected and individualized intervention services.

We need to create an integrated system that includes parent engagement, so that there is ‘value added’, and we help school staff be more efficient and effective at what they are doing already.

Where we are at

Things we are learning

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Current First Year Implementers

PFS Acknowledgements

Intervention Developers and Consultation TeamKimbree BrownTom DishionRosemarie DowneyCorrina FalkensteinGreg FoscoKate KavanaghKevin MooreBeth Stormshak

PFS Research Evaluation Research TeamCarey BlackJeff GauJohn SeeleyKeith Smolkowski

Thank you for your attention

For more information on Positive Family SupportPlease contact Dr. Kevin Moore at kmoore2@uoregon.edu

And visit the FCU and PFS website:

(http://fcu.cfc.uoregon.edu/)