Agenda
8:30 AM – 9:15 AM
"Before the Bell": Session for Principals
Leadership 🌟
Before the Bell is a special principals’ session on taking a multi-tiered approach to family engagement. You’ll get practical tools, reflection questions, and a preview of the new e-book, Within Reach, by coauthors Dr. Barbara Boone, Dr. Hadley Bachman, and Sarah DeShon. During this session, coauthors Hadley and Sarah will be joined by practicing principals who have implemented these strategies. Together, they will co-present to share real success stories directly from their schools. You’ll leave with ideas to get started on building multi-tiered family engagement into your school improvement plan, so that every family is reached.
9:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Keynote Speaker
Zearn
All Kids Are Math Kids
Math & STEM 🌐
In this keynote, Shalinee Sharma, national bestselling author of Math Mind and CEO and Co-Founder of Zearn, will explore how families, educators, and community leaders can help create the conditions for every student to learn and love math. Drawing on leading research and practical insights from classrooms across the country, attendees will learn how adults can help shape students’ math confidence and support rigorous, grade-level mathematics.
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Breakout Session 1
Session 1 - Principals Leading Family Friendly Schools
Principals Leading Family Friendly Schools
Promising Practice 🏫
National Family Friendly Schools Certification is a continuous improvement process that helps strengthen, sustain, and celebrate meaningful family partnerships.
Join this session to hear from 2 principals, one middle school and one elementary, leading schools in this process. Mandy Sagrecy has been leading a Family Friendly School since 2021-22 and Beth Hathaway started the process in the 25-26 school year.
Session 2 - Student-Led Conferences: Family Engagement with Students at the Center
Student-Led Conferences: Family Engagement with Students at the Center
Student Voice 📣
Patty Randall, Mary Spurrier
This session will discuss the importance of the voice of students in family-school partnerships. Two middle-school teachers will share their insights on engaging students in family engagement practices and their firsthand experiences designing, organizing, and participating in student-led parent-teacher conferences. Attendees will (1) learn about the research and theoretical evidence for elevating student voice in family engagement efforts and (2) be equipped with practical tools, resources, and inspirations for organizing student-led conferences and engaging students in the collaboration between home and school.
Session 3 - Future Fluent Families: Tool for Families and Middle Schoolers (working title)
Future Fluent Families: Tool for Families and Middle Schoolers
Artificial Intelligence 💡
Session 4 - Early Literacy Practices For Promoting Family Engagement and Education
Early Literacy Practices For Promoting Family Engagement and Education
Early Literacy 📚
Talk, Read, Write, Sing, and Play–these simple practices help unlock the door for early literacy learning when used every day. When families know what to say and how to play, they are better prepared for teaching vital early literacy and language skills. This presentation will focus on simple strategies embedding early literacy and language practices into daily play, for both families and programs. We will discuss what this looks like both at home and in early learning programs, addressing both family engagement AND education. Practical strategies for sharing resources with families as well as information about how to bring playful early literacy practices into daily life will be provided.
Session 5 - Creating Protective Factors in Children Through Positive Home-School Practices
Creating Protective Factors in Children Through Positive Home-School Practices
Student Mental Health ❤️
Protective factors, which are factors associated with resilience, can buffer against childhood trauma’s harmful effects and improve children’s and adolescents’ social, emotional, physical, and academic outcomes. While individuals can make a difference in supporting children’s mental health independently, the impacts are amplified when schools and families come together to focus on building protective factors. In this session, we will discuss opportunities for families and schools to partner together to promote protective factors and increase students’ resilience, focusing on four research-based protective factors and how to use a strengths-based, home-school partnership approach to support each. Participants will gain valuable, partnership-focused resources including planning tools, discussion guides, a research brief, and one-pagers for families in multiple languages.
Session 6 - Family Engagement in Supporting Student Math Achievement (working title)
Family Engagement in Supporting Student Math Achievement
Math & STEM 🌐
Dr. Holly Kreider
Session 7 - Engaging Families and Improving Attendance: International and National Best Practices (working title)
Engaging Familes and Improving Attendance: International and National Best Practices
Attendance📅 , Promising Practice 🏫
Dr. Emily Markovich Morris
12:00 PM – 12:15 PM
Break
12:15 PM – 12:45 PM
Lunch Panel
Lunch Panel - Session 8 - What Fathers Wish Teachers Knew
What Fathers Wish Teachers Knew
Family Voice 📣
Hear from a panel of fathers, intentional about being engaged in their children’s development and learning. In many systems, like education and early learning, fathers are considered secondary parents. Fathers should feel empowered to confidently participate in conversations with educators, counselors, and academic administrators regarding their children’s behaviors, as well as the development of their scholastic successes. According to the National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) in Father Facts 8, when the fathers are present in a healthy and responsible way, children have better academic outcomes, appropriate behaviors, and teen pregnancy decreases by 7x’s. This session will provide an opportunity for the panelists to discuss what they wish teachers knew and how teachers can best engage fathers in various methods of communication.
12:45 PM – 1:00 PM
Break
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Breakout Session 2
Session 9 - Research-based Family Engagement in the High School Years (working title)
Research-based Family Engagement in the High School Years
Promising Practice 🏫
Dr. Joyce Epstein
Session 10 - Teen Science Cafes (working title)
Teen Science Cafes
Math & STEM 🌐, Student Voice 📣
Kate Ahmann and Shelia James
Session 11 - AI Tip Sheets for Families (working title)
AI Tip Sheets for Families
Artificial Intelligence 💡
Emma Venetis
Session 12 - Family Engagement for Early Literacy (working title)
Family Engagement for Early Literacy
Early Literacy 📚
Kristin Farley
Session 13 - Listening First: What Students Teach Us About Chronic Absenteeism (working title)
Listening First: What Students Teach Us About Chronic Absenteeism
Student Voice 📣, Attendance 📅
Heather Tsavaris
Session 14 - Small Shifts, Big Impact: Redefining Family Engagement in 6-12 Mathematics
Small Shifts, Big Impact: Redefining Family Engagement in 6-12 Mathematics
Math & STEM 🌐
What if the most powerful force in your math classroom was waiting at home? When families step into the equation, student motivation, persistence, and mathematical identity transform. Yet as students move into middle and high school, the home–school connection often fades — and many educators feel that distance growing. This interactive session flips that narrative. Grounded in the “Building Family–School Partnerships in Secondary Math” book by Dr. Shakiyya Bland and Dr. Julitha Rials, participants will explore research-informed strategies that rebuild and strengthen family engagement. You’ll engage with resources showing how to cultivate culturally responsive, strengths-based partnerships that connect families to the Standards for Mathematical Practice, Math Language Routines, and Funds of Knowledge. Small, intentional shifts in language, structure, and communication can profoundly reshape how students see themselves as mathematicians. Leave with practical tools ready to use and a renewed vision for what family partnership can be.
Session 15 - Family, School, and Community Partnership Collaborative with Colorado (working title)
Family, School, and Community Partnership Collaborative with Colorado
Leadership 🌟
Dr. Darcy Hutchins
2:00 PM – 2:15 PM
Break
2:15PM – 3:15 PM
Breakout Session 3
Session 16 - Two Schools’ Journeys Toward Family-School Partnership (working title)
Two Schools’ Journeys Toward Family-School Partnership
Promising Practice 🏫
Dr. Linda Gibson-Fletcher and Barry Bay
Session 17 - Family Engagement Resources to Promote Math Learning (working title)
Family Engagement Resources to Promote Math Learning
Math & STEM 🌐
Session 18 - Families, Schools, and Businesses Working Together for STEM Education (working title)
Families, Schools, and Businesses Working Together for STEM Education
Math & STEM 🌐, Leadership 🌟
Heather Sherman
Session 19 - Deep and Simple Interactions (working title)
Deep and Simple Interactions
Leadership 🌟, Communications 💬
Thelma Ramirez
Session 20 - School Counselors Partnering with Families (working title)
School Counselors Partnering with Families
Student Mental Health❤️
Dr. Brett Zyromski
Walnut Hill’s School Counselors
Session 21 - Family & Community Engagement: Concrete Strategies for your STEM Programs
Family & Community Engagement: Concrete Strategies for your STEM Programs
Math & STEM 🌐
Attendees will reflect on ways they currently engage families in STEM, identify the components to effective family engagement within career-connected STEM activities, practice adapting career-connected STEM activities to include families, and brainstorm ways to adapt their STEM activities to be career-connected, family engaged.
3:30PM – 4:30 PM
After the Bell: Sessions for Statewide Family Engagement Centers