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An Official Vermont Government Website

Family Engagement Resources Provided by the Agency of Education

The headings for families and for educators are intended to guide you to relevant resources.

Vermont Multi-tiered System of Supports (VTmtss)

Strengthening Family Engagement through a systemic approach.

Vermont Multi-tiered System of Supports (VTmtss) is a systemic approach to decision-making for excellence and equity within a culture of continuous improvement that focuses on successful outcomes for all students.

Families are a critical part of VTmtss as this systemic approach:

  • Supports the effective collaboration of all adults to meet the academic, behavioral, social and emotional needs of all students, and;
  • ​​​Engages and develops the collective expertise of educators, students, family and community partnerships.

VTmtss Framework Tools Connections to the FETSA: 

  • The VTmtss System Screener will help you identify a family engagement opportunity within your system.  
  • The Family Engagement Self-Assessment can be used in conjunction with the VTmtss Driver Diagram to gather additional systemic data to identify a family engagement-related problem of practice. 
  • When an LEA has identified a problem of practice the self-assessment (in whole or in part) can be used to analyze practices and prioritize action steps. 
  • The Family Engagement Making Connections with VTmtss  in conjunction with the VTmtss Driver Diagram, identifies which VTmtss components align and supports a Family Engagement problem of practice.  

For Educators

Educational Support Team: A Deeper Look: Defines what Educational Support Team (EST) is in our current context with suggestions for creating and maintaining an effective EST. Emphasizes the importance of supporting parents in being active participants in children’s EST for effective collaboration to identify needs and supports.

Parent/guardian participation in EST meetings regarding their children is critical. Ideally, parents attend meetings but if they cannot, the EST should solicit parent input to the decisions.

Strengthening Family Engagement: Overview of the Family Engagement Toolkit and Self-Assessment and Other Family Engagement Resources Recording 
Looking for ways to expand your family engagement, assess your current practices, and integrate this vital aspect into your VTmtss Framework? Explore the VTmtss Team's Strengthening Family Engagement: Overview of the Family Engagement Toolkit and Self-Assessment and Other Family Engagement Resources closed-captioned recording and slide deck, which dives into the AOE's Family Engagement Toolkit and Self-Assessment and offers best practices for involving the community. 

After School and Summer Programs

Opportunities to strengthen family engagement outside of the school day.

For Educators

Funding for Afterschool and Summer Programs: The Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers program funds around 90 sites in Vermont schools. Families and K-12 youth may participate, teach, and engage with programming in their schools. These programs support students' learning and interests through diverse and engaging programming using multiple approaches and curricula. Programs are delivered through schools and community partnerships for grades K-12.

Early Education

The Vermont Early Education Guiding Principles describe what individuals, organizations, and communities understand and do to realize the promise of each and every young Vermont child. These principles articulate Vermont’s commitment to fully include each and every child and their family in a continuum of meaningful experiences to ensure their health, mental health, safety, happiness and success now and into the future.

For Families with Children Birth to Age 8

Answers can be found for the following questions in Resources for Families of PreKindergarten Students.

  • What is Universal Prekindergarten Education (UPK)?
  • How old does my child need to be to qualify for UPK?
  • Where can I find a UPK program for my child? Prequalified Providers Directory
  • How do I sign up?
  • What does UPK funding cover?

UPK Café Issue

PreK Learning from Home: Supplemental Resources for Families (4/28): This supplemental guidance is intended to help families support their child’s learning in the home environment, with resources that are grounded in the Vermont Early Learning Standards.

English Learners

To help ensure that English Learners (ELs), including immigrant children and youth, attain English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement in English in order to meet challenging state academic standards. 

The program awards Title III English Learners and Immigrant subgrants to eligible local education agencies and provides technical assistance and professional learning related to meeting the diverse needs of English Learners, including:   

  • Planning and implementing effective language instruction educational programs (LIEPs) and curricula on teaching ELs 
  • Identifying or developing, and implementing, measures of English Language Proficiency (ELP) 
  • Strengthening parent, family, and community engagement in programs that serve ELs 

The AOE belongs to the WIDA Consortium, housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. The consortium is an organization comprised of states, territories, and federal agencies whose goal is to provide language development resources for educators who support the academic achievement of ELs.  

For Families and Educators 

Two Fact Sheets from U.S. Department of Education’s website: These fact sheets are also translated into eleven different languages. 

Additional Resources related to multilingual learner/immigrant/refugee families.   

  • English Learner Family Toolkit - download the toolkit National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition This resource was created to help families choose education services that meet their child’s needs. Educators can share the toolkit as a resource for English learners and their families. It is available in English, Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish  

  • The Newcomer Tool Kit is designed to help U.S. educators; elementary and secondary teachers, principals, and other school staff who work directly with immigrant students—including asylees and refugees—and their families.  

For Educators 

The WIDA Website and Resource Library provide many resources which support schools in their work with English Learners. 

  • WIDA Resources, letters and flyers, in multiple languages, explaining ELL Status, ACCESS scores, and communication and planning suggestions with a language focused approach. 
  • Vermont WIDA webpage: Educators can find state-specific information related to assessments, professional learning opportunities, state policies and procedures. 
  • For a list of 2021-22 Professional Learning Offerings, self-paced on-demand, eWorkshops: Interested educators should contact their district’s WIDA account coordinator. The workshop below focuses specifically on Family Engagement. 
    • Classroom Teachers: Engaging Multilingual Newcomers: This eWorkshop explores what educators can do to welcome and engage multilingual newcomers and their families into their classrooms and schools. 

Requirements, Applications, Laws

Information on assessing and strengthening parent/family engagement through requirements, applications and laws.

Consolidated Federal Grants

For Administrators

Consolidated Federal Grants provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps.

Consolidated Federal Programs Guide to Title I, Part A Parent and Family Engagement: This toolkit includes information and resources for Title I, Part A requirements for parent and family engagement, including policies, compacts, annual meetings, and parent involvement activities.

Title I, Part A: Parent and Family Engagement: This video focuses on the Title I, Part A requirements for parent and family engagement, including policies, compacts, annual meetings, and parent involvement activities. It provides an overview of the allowable uses of the Title I PFE set-aside and multiple resources to create an effective PFE program at the LEA and school level.

Data and Reporting

Examine information on school, educational, student, and financial data that the Agency of Education collects each year from Vermont's education community.

List of Data and Reports: Each year, the Agency of Education collects school, educational, student, and financial data from Vermont's education community. The information collected helps inform agency staff, schools, educators, and taxpayers about the functionality and success of Vermont's education system. Includes Vermont Education Dashboard, assessment data, and Vermont Annual Snapshot.

Health Services

For Families and Educators

Concussion Guidelines: The law requires that schools educate their coaches, their youth athletes, and the youth athletes’ parents and guardians regarding the prevention and mitigation concussion-related injuries. Under 16 V.S.A. §1431, responsibility to ensure compliance with these guidelines falls on principals of public schools, and on heads of approved independent schools.

Nutrition

For Families

All public schools and some independent schools offer free breakfast and lunch for all students during the school year. However, this does not change the Agency of Education’s need to collect student-level household income information using the Household Income Form. Many state and federal programs require this information to determine eligibility for their programs and services.

Personalized Learning

For Families and Educators

Act 77 Law Personalized Learning: This 2013 law paved the way for schools to work with every student in grade seven through grade 12 in an ongoing personalized learning planning process, and states that the process includes participation by families and other engaged adults. Act 77 defines Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) as: documentation of an evolving plan developed on behalf of a student in an ongoing process involving a secondary student, a representative of the school, and, if the student is a minor, the student’s parents or legal guardian and updated at least annually by November 30; provided, however, that a home study student and the student’s parent or guardian shall be solely responsible for developing a plan.

Special Education

Resources are intended to help families partner collaboratively with IEP Teams and to make overall decisions about special education services for their children with disabilities eligible for special education services under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). More information can be found on Special Education Resources for Families webpage.

For Families and Educators

Resources as well as rights, roles and responsibilities of all involved in a child's education.

Parent Rights in Special Education: Parents have specific rights concerning their participation in the special education process. These documents should help guide you through this process.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) strongly supports the rights of families to be involved in their child's education. These pages will help families to understand the rights, roles, and responsibilities of all parties involved in making decisions about a child's education.  Additionally, these pages provide evidence-based tools and resources designed to educate and empower families in supporting their children to succeed in school and beyond.

Rights of Parents of Students with Disabilities: Parents of children who receive or who may be eligible for special education services have rights under a law called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This brochure provides a summary of those rights.

Special Education Parent Involvement Survey: The IDEA State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report Indicator 8 requires states to measure the percent of parents who report that the school facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities. The Special Education Parent Involvement Survey is mailed to parents yearly and informs the Agency of Education, as well as Supervisory Unions/Districts, how parents feel about their school’s efforts to create meaningful partnerships with them and how they believe schools can better meet their child’s special needs.

Additional Resources

Student Learning

What and how we are learning and how families as stakeholders are involved.

Find explanations and resources for Content Areas, Career Technical Education, Proficiency-Based Learning, Personalized Learning, Project-Based Learning, Flexible Pathways, Adult Education, and A Portrait of a Graduate.   

For Families

Lexile and Quantile Frameworks Page Tools

Lexile measures help educators and parents find reading materials at each student's unique reading level, engaging students in learning by ensuring they comprehend their reading materials and monitoring their progress over time.

Quantile measures help educators and parents target instruction and monitor student growth toward learning standards and the mathematical demands of college and careers.

For Families and Educators

Proficiency-Based Learning:

  • What is Proficiency-Based Learning: This document provides the characteristics of a proficiency-based learning system and de scribes its connections to Proficiency-Based Graduation Requirements (PBGRs)and Personalized Learning.
  • Proficiency-Based Grading Practices: This document provides an overview of what a proficiency-based grading system is and why it is important. Sample practices from districts around Vermont are provided.

Personalized Learning:

Dual Enrollment: The Dual Enrollment program allows eligible Vermont students the opportunity to take up to two credit bearing college courses while receiving high school and college credit before they graduate. Program is open to juniors and seniors.

Early College: The Early College program allows eligible Vermont students in grade 12 to receive a high school diploma and complete a full year of college at the same time.

Safe and Healthy Schools webpage includes the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model as well as AOE Comprehensive Health webpages.

Vermont Public: The Vermont Agency of Education and Vermont Public have expanded their partnership to support learning for Vermont students, families, and school communities this school year and beyond. This partnership provides access to free educational programming, curricular connections, and distance learning tutorials through Vermont Public.

Return to Parent, Family and Community Engagement Home.