Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Family Engagement topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Special School District highlights expanded family and community engagement work
Summary
District staff told the board that the FACE (Family and Community Engagement) division expanded outreach this year to all 22 districts, ran a well-attended Family Academy and launched a family resource hub at North Tech; staff said they are pursuing improved survey response and targeted follow-up for 24,000 families served.
Mala Bolton, the district’s chief of teaching, learning and accountability, and Adrian(ne) Beulen, director of community engagement for the Family and Community Engagement (FACE) division, briefed the Special School District Board of Education on the division’s outreach and supports for families.
Bolton and Beulen said the division aligns its work to five National Family Engagement Standards and recently restructured staffing to add family ambassadors and coordinators. Staff said FACE provides evening and weekend outreach across all 22 school districts served by the district and reported multiple channels for family contact, including tabling events, flyers and social media.
The presenters reported that, despite a low response rate to digital surveys, staff observed strong event feedback: FACE staff said 100% of attendees at a recent Family Academy indicated the event was meaningful and increased their knowledge. Face staff also said 98.6% of responding families showed strong agreement with key items on their measures. District staff said they have direct contact records showing about 269 follow-up contacts with families who asked for resources or help navigating special education processes, and that roughly 214 families have registered for FACE events or offerings after outreach.
Beulen described collaborations with community partners and county agencies. She said the division invited six organizations families identified as important — including the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation — to outreach events. FACE staff said they have a satellite family resource hub at North Tech High School that includes a staff-donated food pantry and that about 50 unique families have used that location and connected with the Community Action Agency of St. Louis County for utility assistance.
The presentation noted an ongoing partnership with the Special Education Foundation, which staff said provided 326 food kits for students identified with food insecurity during school breaks. Staff also said they distribute a printed and digital “family toolkit” landing page intended to centralize resources and support for families new to the special education process.
Board members who spoke in the discussion praised the division’s communications and outreach and described personal examples of families who benefited from earlier connection to vocational rehabilitation and other supports. Staff said next steps include improving survey response, updating the district family handbook for clarity, continuing data-informed programming and reestablishing collaborative practices with partner districts to address service gaps.
The presentation and discussion were informational only; no formal action on FACE programming was taken at the meeting.
