Strong partnerships among families, schools, and communities improve student outcomes by intentionally building trust, fostering shared responsibility, and creating welcoming environments. The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) and the Gulf Comprehensive Center (Gulf CC) are working together to strengthen these partnerships through a coherent, statewide approach to family and community engagement.
Why Do Family and Community Partnerships Matter?
Evidence consistently demonstrates that family and community engagement is linked to improved student outcomes, including academic achievement, attendance, school engagement, behavior, and overall well-being (Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2024; Swain et al., 2025; Wood et al., 2017). Student success is shaped not only by what occurs in schools, but also by the relationships and supports students experience across home, school, and community settings (Epstein & Sheldon, 2023).
How Do Partnerships Support Attendance?
Chronic absenteeism remains a significant barrier to student success. Attendance challenges are often influenced by factors beyond academics, including health concerns, transportation, family circumstances, and students’ sense of belonging at school (Jordan, 2023).
Research suggests that strong family-school partnerships can improve attendance by helping schools better understand barriers to attendance, strengthen communication with families, and connect students to needed supports (McArdle, 2024; Jordan, 2023). Community partnerships can further strengthen student outcomes by expanding resources available to students and families to address barriers to success by offering a range of services that can include mentoring programs, health services, after-school opportunities, and family supports (Jordan, 2023; Swain et al., 2025). These findings suggest that improving attendance requires coordinated efforts across families, schools, and communities.
How Can Schools, Districts, and States Support Meaningful Engagement?
Family and community engagement is most effective when schools adopt a partnership approach that connects families, educators, community organizations, students, and system leaders in supporting student success (Epstein & Sheldon, 2023; Mapp & Bergman, 2019). Evidence-based strategies include:
- Create welcoming school environments.
- Establish two-way communication systems with families.
- Engage families in academic goal-setting and learning.
- Incorporate family voice into decision making and school improvement efforts.
- Partner with community organizations to address academic, social, health, and attendance-related needs.
- Coordinate supports across schools, districts, families, and community partners.
(Jordan, 2023; Maier et al., 2017; Bergman & Riddick, 2026)
All together, these strategies create a comprehensive system of support that strengthens student learning, engagement, attendance, and well-being.
How Does Gulf CC Support a Unified Approach to Family and Community Engagement?
Through its partnership with ALSDE, the Gulf CC is supporting the development of statewide guidance to help schools, districts, and communities build and sustain effective family and community partnerships. This work aligns engagement efforts across literacy, mathematics, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), extended learning, and school improvement initiatives. It also strengthens collaboration across state teams and builds district capacity for authentic, partnership-based engagement.
The guidance is anchored in five ALSDE Guiding Principles that emphasize meaningful partnerships, shared decision making, strategic use of resources, welcoming environments, and responsive communication. These principles support a statewide vision in which families and communities are valued partners with shared responsibility for student success. To support clarity and implementation, the guidance is organized into a three-pillar framework that builds from understanding to practice to sustainability. This framework helps educators deepen their understanding of engagement, implement practical strategies, and sustain effective partnerships over time.
ALSDE has reported improvements in attendance trends and reductions in chronic absenteeism alongside expanded engagement efforts. These efforts reflect a broader emphasis on coherence across systems, practical tools for educators, and long-term capacity building to strengthen family and community engagement across Alabama.
Authors: Delina Zapata-Romero, Heidi Goertzen, Lacy Wood, and Sarah Hughes; Gulf Comprehensive Center
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References
Bergman, E., & Riddick, Z. (2026). The engagement advantage: Findings from a mixed-methods study of family-school partnerships. Learning Heroes.
https://bealearninghero.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/LH-26_Family-Engagement-Study_FULL-REPORT_V7.pdf
Epstein, J. L., & Sheldon, S. B. (2023). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Henderson, A. T., & Mapp, K. L. (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community connections on student achievement. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. https://sedl.org/connections/resources/evidence.pdf
Jeynes, W. H. (2024). A meta-analysis: The relationship between the parental expectations component of parental involvement with students’ academic achievement. Urban Education, 59(1), 63-95. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859211073892
Jordan, P. W. (2023). Attendance playbook: Smart strategies for reducing student absenteeism post-pandemic. FutureEd. https://www.future-ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Attendance-Playbook.5.23.pdf
Maier, A., Daniel, J., Oakes, J., & Lam, L. (2017). Community schools as an effective school improvement strategy: A review of the evidence. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED606765.pdf
Mapp, K. L., & Bergman, E. (2019). Dual capacity-building framework for family-school partnerships (Version 2). www.dualcapacity.org
McArdle, E. (2024, May 8). Um. . . where is everybody? Families may be the key to ending chronic absenteeism, a pandemic-era problem that has only gotten worse. Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/ed-magazine/24/05/um-where-everybody
Swain, W., Leung-Gagné, M., Maier, A., & Rubinstein, C. (2025). Community schools impact on student outcomes: Evidence from California. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/541.498
Wood, L., Bauman, E., Rudo, Z., & Dimock, V. (2017). How family, school, and community engagement can improve student achievement and influence school reform: A literature review. American Institutes for Research. https://innovatesaisd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.-Community-Engagement-Literature-Review.pdf
