NCJ Number
199510
Date Published
September 2002
Length
123 pages
Annotation
In an effort to create safer schools, this guide provides an overview of the nature and scope of collaboration among school, family, and the community, explores barriers to effectively working together, and discusses the processes of establishing and sustaining the work.
Abstract
To assist schools in their safety efforts, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) developed a series of eight guidebooks intended to build a foundation of information that will assist schools and school districts in developing safe learning environments. This seventh guide in the series is intended to provide a perspective and resources for enhancing home, community, and school collaboration as part of comprehensive safe school planning. When schools are an integral part of the community, they are more effective and caring places. The guide reviews the state of the art collaboration around the country, the importance of data, and other issues related to sharing information. The guide is divided into 11 sections: (1) an overview of collaboration; (2) the importance of family, community, and school; (3) defining collaboration and its purpose; (4) collaboration as a growing movement across the country; (5) understanding the key facets of collaboration; (6) barriers to collaboration; (7) building and maintaining effective collaboratives; (8) getting from one place to the next; (9) state of the art family, community, and school collaboration; (10) using data for planning, implementation, and evaluation; and (11) legal issues involved in sharing information. Effective family-community-school collaboration requires a cohesive set of policies which will only emerge if current policies are revisited to reduce redundancy and redeploy school and community resources that are used effectively. Appendices A-F, references, and resources