Maryland State Department of Education
MAEC partnered with the Maryland State Department of Education’s Early Childhood Family Engagement Coalition to create a Family Engagement Framework. MAEC has begun work to develop and implement a state-wide Family Engagement Plan aimed at:
- Assisting service providers in self-assessing their family engagement capacity and quality;
- Improving the ability of families to navigate systems and achieve goals in the areas of education, health, and economic security;
- Supporting effective child/family transitions from early childhood programs (Infant/Toddlers, Home Visiting, childcare, preschool, etc.) to school;
- Implementing equitable policies, procedures, and practices into early childhood programs; and
- Supporting early childhood providers to work effectively with culturally and linguistically diverse families and students so that they feel welcome and their cultural backgrounds are valued.
Implementation will focus on four key areas: 1) Development of training and technical assistance resources to implement strategies from the Framework; 2) Development of family leaders; 3) Support to other states in the development of statewide family engagement practices to establish and share relevant and innovative family engagement strategies through the use of the technology and social media; and 4) Development and implementation of effective methods for evaluating the positive impacts of family engagement to promote healthy child development and school readiness.
