Hello Everyone, On December 21, I sent an E-mail to all of you describing concerns about the DRAFT policy statement of the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services for "family engagement from the early years to the early grades."  The government's web site requested that comments be sent to them at the following E-mail address (ECD@acf.hhs.gov) on their web site (http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/earlylearning/families.html#family-engagement-draft-statement).   The problem was that messages sent to that address were undeliverable.  However, they changed the deadline to January 4 (this Monday).  I sent an E-mail to that address on January 2 and it did NOT bounce back, so I assume that now it's working.  This is what their message says on the site:

 Note revised deadline.  Comments are requested on the draft statement to inform the final document through JANUARY 4, 2016 by emailing your comments to: ECD@acf.hhs.gov.

INFORMATION ON THE PROPOSAL

The US Department of Education and Health and Human Services have formulated extremely troubling and intrusive plans for the "implementation of effective family engagement practices from the early years to the early grades."  It appears that school districts could be functioning as social service agencies and teachers as social workers.  The government's DRAFT proposal provided by the USDOE and HHS is attached.  It can also be viewed at:

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/draft_hhs_ed_family_engagement.pdf

What can you do?   Read the disturbing information below, decide for yourself what you think, and send an E-mail to the government at the address ECD@acf.hhs.gov  to voice your concerns on their plans.  The deadline for comments is January 4, 2016.  This is too important to put aside.  Please E-mail them, even if you write only a few words.The purpose of the federal government's plans purportedly are to "systematically engage families in their children's development, learning and wellness, across early childhood and elementary education settings."   Although these proposals might appear   to be well-meaning, the "devil is in the details."  After reading this DRAFT, I found the federal overreach to be extremely disturbing and unacceptable. Many of these federal plans for implementation -- specifically "parenting intervention" (their words!) -- have the potential of leading us down the path of countries like Russia, North Korea, and China, where the State controls and

indoctrinates children at a young age and supplants parental values with those of the State.   An opinion article summarizing the multiple concerns of opponents of this plan can be accessed at: http://dissidentprof.com/latest-dispatches/204-contraries-dec-18-2015.html. There are multiple   concerns that I personally have about these unacceptable proposals but I shall mention only three.  You can read the DRAFT yourself to draw your own conclusions. 

(page 13 of DRAFT): "Home Visits: To support ongoing relationship building with families, programs and schools should conduct periodic home visits so that teachers and families can get to know each other and communicate about children’s goals, strengths, challenges, and progress. If home visits are not possible for all families, schools or programs should require that teachers or providers and families communicate at the beginning of the year to ensure that the relationship is started in a positive way."  

What will teachers be instructed to do in these home visits?  Will they intervene by telling parents how to raise their own children?  The phrase "parenting intervention," as noted on page 14 is particularly disturbing.  Do we really want our teachers spending their time visiting homes as pseudo social workers rather than educating them in the classrooms which they have been trained to do?

Note that there is a huge data collection process involved in the government's plans. (page 14 of DRAFT): "Track family engagement data, including family reported data.  Local schools and programs should track progress on family engagement goals, as detailed in family engagement plans. The specific data collected will be based on program’s goals, but may include assessments of the program’s family friendly environment or teacher and provider- family relationships using valid and reliable tools. In collecting data, it is important to incorporate input from various reporters, including teachers/providers, Directors and principals, family support and family engagement specialists, and families..."

To repeat... teachers are not social workers; it is totally inappropriate to send them into children's homes and expect them to acquire, tabulate, and possibly interpret data on families.  What might have started out to be data collection for enhancing student learning could very likely result in severe and intrusive privacy violations.  Although a child's well-being certainly affects his/her learning, the primary function of a teacher should be academics. 

An enormous responsibility of implementing the federal government's proposals for engaging families would rest on school districts and teachers. School districts are already overwhelmed with the innumerable federal and state unfunded mandates that are currently required of them.  The additional mandates imposed by this proposal could create insurmountable budgetary problems for many of them.  

I urge you to read the government's DRAFT proposal and relay your opinions to them at ECD@acf.hhs.gov by January 4.  Please ACT, NOW!!!