DESE Parent & Community Engagement 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of Epstein's six types of family involvement focuses on helping families establish home environments that support children as students?
- Communicating
- Parenting (Correct answer)
- Volunteering
- Learning at Home
Correct answer: Parenting
Epstein's 'Parenting' type addresses supporting families in creating home conditions conducive to learning and development.
Question 2: A school's family engagement policy should be developed:
- By the principal and shared with parents for comment
- In partnership with parents, school staff, and community members (Correct answer)
- By the district office and distributed to all schools
- By the school board at the annual public meeting
Correct answer: In partnership with parents, school staff, and community members
Meaningful family engagement policies are co-created with stakeholders rather than developed by administrators alone and handed down.
Question 3: A teacher receives a gift from a parent whose child is struggling academically. The MOST appropriate response is to:
- Accept it as a gesture of goodwill
- Decline and explain the school's gift policy (Correct answer)
- Accept it but report it to the principal
- Return it only if it exceeds a certain monetary value
Correct answer: Decline and explain the school's gift policy
Declining gifts from parents of current students upholds professional ethics and prevents conflicts of interest.
Question 4: Which approach BEST addresses the digital divide when communicating with families?
- Transition entirely to email and apps to modernize communication
- Offer communication in multiple formats including paper and phone calls (Correct answer)
- Purchase devices for all students to share with their families
- Require parents to create school portal accounts
Correct answer: Offer communication in multiple formats including paper and phone calls
A multi-modal communication strategy ensures families without reliable internet access are not excluded.
Question 5: Community asset mapping in the context of school-community partnerships involves:
- Cataloging the school's financial resources
- Identifying strengths, resources, and capacities within the local community (Correct answer)
- Mapping bus routes for student transportation
- Auditing community organizations for grant compliance
Correct answer: Identifying strengths, resources, and capacities within the local community
Asset mapping shifts the focus from community deficits to available strengths and resources that can support student success.
Question 6: A parent requests to observe their child's special education classroom. Under IDEA, the school should:
- Deny the request to protect other students' privacy
- Permit the observation under reasonable conditions established by the school (Correct answer)
- Require a 30-day written notice before any observation
- Allow observation only if the IEP team approves
Correct answer: Permit the observation under reasonable conditions established by the school
While schools may set reasonable conditions for observations, IDEA supports parental rights to observe programs in which their child participates.
Question 7: A school serves a high-poverty community. Which family engagement strategy is MOST likely to be effective?
- Focusing engagement efforts on academically successful families
- Providing on-site supports such as food, childcare, and transportation for school events (Correct answer)
- Limiting engagement to formal parent-teacher conferences
- Sending weekly academic progress emails
Correct answer: Providing on-site supports such as food, childcare, and transportation for school events
Removing practical barriers such as food insecurity, lack of childcare, and transportation significantly increases engagement among families in high-poverty communities.
DESE Parent & Community Engagement 3
Which of Epstein's six types of family involvement focuses on helping families establish home environments that support children as students?