HOW STUDENT, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IMPACTS STUDENTS’ SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL, AND ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT - April 2024

Oct 15, 2026

April 2024 work by Blair Wriston and Nancy Duchesneau explains how student, family, and community engagement strengthens students’ long-term social, emotional, and academic development. It defines engagement as shared responsibility, then describes impacts on academic achievement, graduation, literacy, attendance, and mental health. The text also details barriers such as distrust, limited funding, cultural competency gaps, and challenges for linguistically diverse families, concluding with the need for authentic relationships, trust, and mutual respect.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

What Is Student, Family, and Community Engagement?

The Impact of Student, Family, and Community Engagement

Disparities in Student, Family, and Community Engagement

APRIL 2024 HOW STUDENT, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IMPACTS STUDENTS’ SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL, AND ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT (SEAD) By Blair Wriston, Senior Government Affairs Manager, And Nancy Duchesneau, Senior P-12 Research Manager What Is Student, Family, and Community Engagement? To create emotionally supportive and culturally affirming environments for all students, schools must adopt policies that support student, family, and community engagement. Authentic student, family, and community engagement helps to create safe and inclusive learning environments in schools that support students’ long-term social, emotional, and academic development. The National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement defines family and community engagement as “a shared responsibility involving schools and other community agencies engaging families in meaningful ways to support the learning and development of children.”1 A child’s education extends far beyond the classroom, and family and community engagement is crucial to ensuring a student’s growth and development. While there are many ways schools can ensure that students, families, and communities remain engaged, including home visits or community walks, systemic professional development opportunities, culturally infused classroom curriculums, and more, meaningful engagement, at its core, is about building personal relationships, trust, and mutual respect between students, educators, families, and communities. The Impact of Student, Family, and Community Engagement When families and communities are engaged and invested in a student’s social, emotional, and academic success, the impacts are powerful. Extensive research demonstrates that when families are engaged in their children’s academic growth and development, students are more likely to succeed academically. Students not only perform better academically, but are more likely to graduate and pursue a postsecondary education when there is a shared sense of responsibility in which educators meaningfully listen to families and collaborate with them, and families commit to prioritizing their child’s education.2 For example, research shows that students of involved parents score better on standardized tests and have better attendance records and higher career aspirations.3 In fact, family engagement in early grades is a stronger indicator for literacy development than family income, maternal level of education, and ethnicity.4 Research also demonstrates that when schools employ strong engagement practices, all students have higher academic outcomes across the board.5 Furthermore, students whose families and communities are more engaged are less likely to develop mental health issues or drop out of school. When educators engage with the communities they serve, they gain a deeper understanding of their students—including students’ strengths, identities, and needs—and develop stronger relationships with students, which leads to more positive social and emotional development, and greater student academic success. Community engagement also greatly benefits educators, districts, and communities. Strong relationships between educators and families help to create a positive and inclusive school climate, which, in turn, helps improve educator retention rates and decrease discriminatory discipline practices.6 Disparities in Student, Family, and Community Engagement Despite the significant benefits of parental and community involvement, several barriers can hinder meaningful student, family, and community engagement. Perhaps the most significant and common barrier to meaningful engagement is a lack of trust between educators and families.7 Whether because of their own biases, negative perceptions about parental involvement, or insufficient training on how to engage with families, educators may be reluctant to reach out to families of students and build a relationship with them. Parents may also harbor feelings of mistrust

FAQs

What does the National Association define as family and community engagement?

It is described as a shared responsibility involving schools and other community agencies engaging families in meaningful ways to support children’s learning and development.

How does strong engagement affect students’ academic and postsecondary outcomes?

When families and communities are invested in students’ success, research shows students are more likely to succeed academically, graduate, and pursue postsecondary education, with early engagement especially linked to literacy development.

What are common barriers that limit meaningful engagement?

Barriers include lack of trust between educators and families and insufficient district funding, which can restrict schools’ ability to meet demand for engagement opportunities.

Oct 15, 2026

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