A group of people sit at various tables inside a gymnasium

The team at Campbell Ridge Elementary (Campbell County) offers monthly family breakfast days. Photo courtesy of Sarah Sterling

My name is Sarah Sterling, and I am the family resource coordinator at Campbell Ridge Elementary. My role in the Family Friendly Schools certification work was leading the charge here at my school building. I led the Family Engagement Action Team through my work on my Family Resource Coordinator Advisory Council. I was the point person for the family-friendly work with making sure our team was completing all required assessment tools and modules as well as our narrative and evidence pieces were turned in with the application.

It was important for our district to highlight our family-friendly work because coming out of the pandemic, our schools were reporting less family engagement with the school community. This work was in response to that dip; to assess, reflect, plan and revise or implement – based on the results of the assessment, survey and feedback process. To see that all Campbell County schools received the Family Friendly Certification speaks volumes to our commitment for reconnecting with families and building that relationship between home and school after the pandemic changed our ways of living.

The Prichard Committee made it quite simple to go about finding out how to assess your family-friendly practices at school through a Family Engagement guide they have available on their website. The first couple of steps were to make sure you had principal support and form your family engagement action team. Once those two items were accomplished, our team met every other month and assessed our practices through their assessment tool. The work was done by me, our school principal, school staff members and parents and guardians of Campbell Ridge. Without the input of all these parties, the work could not have been done successfully. We also completed the Family Friendly School modules as a team and came back together to determine our family-friendly score. From this score we developed a plan of action of what we needed to accomplish in the school year to meet the Family Friendly School certificate requirements. Throughout the year the team reviewed and sent me data pieces to include as evidence in our spring application. It truly took the work of every action team member to make submitting an application possible. Our team committed to the work which made the process smooth even with a rigorous application process. My advice to any school taking on this work is to start and plan early while delegating the checklist tasks in a time-friendly manner. I think Family Resource Coordinators are important members to have on the action team with their knowledge and connections with their families.

Our school is keeping this work alive by continuing to be more intentional with our family-friendly engagement practices. An example of this is offering programs and resources that families are listing as needs through the yearly Family Resource Coordinator Family Needs Survey, which is completed by all families at Campbell Ridge. This school year I asked families what the most important topics are for them to have more information on for potential caregiver information nights. In not only my top needs reported at Campbell Ridge, but also a top need district-wide, was a focus on ADHD information for parents to gain more knowledge. We, as a school and district, partnered with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to come to Campbell Ridge to present on effective treatment and management strategies.

Another way we are continuing the work is offering more opportunities for parents to engage with their students in the building. We started monthly family breakfast days for all families to take part in gathering and enjoying school breakfast together. We recognize that all families look different and wanted to convey that all family types and adults in our students’ lives were invited.

We will also continue to make sure we are assessing families and their engagement with Campbell Ridge by surveying parents and guardians once a year with the family-friendly engagement survey. The survey was provided by the Prichard Committee and was a great tool used for our family-friendly work last school year. We are excited to keep using it going forward to be able to make improvements to our engagement plans.

Since completing our family-friendly work, we have been more intentional with our family engagement practices. We are prioritizing data and making sure we are offering programs and resources that our parents and guardians are stating is a need. Assessing and reviewing many forms of data is critical to making sure you are engaging families with intent. The Family Engagement Team continues to meet every other month through the Family Resource Coordinator Advisory Council where we seek input for planning, implementing, and assessing programs we are offering. We recognize the importance of continuing to build the relationship between home and school and how it relates to an increase of academic outcomes for our students. We are proud of what we accomplished in the past year and excited about continuing the work for our families.

Each year, the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence awards Family Friendly Schools Certification to a group of schools and early care centers. This school and 53 others earned the certification in 2024. For more details on Family Friendly Schools Certification, visit the Prichard Committee’s family engagement website.