Parental involvement and feedback

Research indicates that parental contingencies for student's school behavior decreases disruptions and both parents and students view home contingency notes for positive and negative behaviors as effective.¹ However, this effective intervention and resource is under-utilized, despite its value in helping schools to improve teaching, student learning, and appropriate student behavior. In fact, a strong home-school collaboration greatly enhances the prospects that any intervention will be effective. Parent involvement may include:

a. Providing information to and gathering information from families about their child's behavioral progress.

b. Sharing strategies that have proven successful in improving classroom behavior and gathering information from families about strategies that have worked at home.

c. Helping families identify their concerns and locate resources to assist them. For example, the US Department of Education has also published a number of resources, which can help parents address challenging behavior and academic concerns. In the attached publications, parents are provided with guidance on helping their children cope with early adolescence and how to remain drug free,

d. Contacting parents periodically by phone or postcard, focusing on students' successes and upcoming activities for students and families.

A simple strategy for facilitating teacher-home communication and improving student behavior involves the use of school-home contingency notes. The basic components of a school-home notes procedure involve a teacher periodically sending home a brief written report on a child's behavioral performance and a parent reviewing the report, delivering the prescribed consequences to the child, signing the report, and sending it back to the teacher. The parent may also send a brief written report to the teacher on the child's behavior at home, as well as any home events that may affect the student's behavior at school (for example, missing the bus; going to sleep late/not getting enough sleep; having an asthma attack; etc.) School-home notes have been described as "one of the most effective techniques for improving a student's motivation and classroom behavior. It is also one of the most mismanaged and under-utilized techniques."

Based on the intervention, an array of monitoring and feedback forms can be sent home regularly with a note like the following to keep parent (s) informed of the student’s progress.

In addition, activities and corresponding statements like the following can be included in the BIP (PBS):

1. Utilize daily school-home contingency notes - brief written report on a child's behavioral performance and a parent reviewing the report, delivering the prescribed consequences to the child, signing the report, and sending it back to the teacher.

2. " Parent will attend weekly parent counseling/training sessions to learn more effective parenting skills (e.g. recognizing and reinforcing pro-social behavior in their child; utilizing effective behavioral techniques; etc.)"

3. “The parent will send a brief written report to the teacher on the child's behavior at home, as well as any home events that may affect the student's behavior at school.”  

4. “Teacher will provide information to families about their child's behavioral progress.” 

5. “Sharing strategies that have proven successful in improving classroom behavior and gathering information from families about strategies that have worked at home.”

6. “Case manager will help families identify their concerns and locate resources to assist them”.   

7. “Teacher will contact parents periodically by phone or postcard, focusing on students' successes and upcoming activities for students and families.”