Schools should be concerned with the legal implications amongst school practices and student mannerisms that include supervising activities and reporting child abuse which is aimed at the promotion of equity in service provision and ensuring a connection between the school services and the needs of their clients. The clients are students and parents; whose views are vital for the effective learning process. In order to undertake a big and broad endeavor like the legal entanglement plan, schools and teachers can make use of a technique referred to as Classroom Action Research in addressing more holistic concerns that relate to the school they teach as well as their school districts (Ramsay, n.d.). Amongst such overarching matters would be the most effective ways by which parent involvement in class and child welfare can be taken into consideration. The No Child Left Behind Act enacted in 2001 mandated parent involvement in school plans (Hayes, 2008). This paper discusses the selection and collaboration of families and caregivers in the selection of a topic and provides an explanation for their involvement in the decision-making of a topic to be selected.
Whilst one way of selecting parents for such a program would be by calling for volunteers amongst family and caregivers, an ideal technique is home-visiting which aids in connecting teachers with all the children’s families. This presents an opportunity for the school to gain more insights on the problems children face in school that have legal implications and also be able to bridge the gap between the school and the children’s families. Thus new perspectives can be gained from family members and caregivers on the different unique features of children and thus can be able to incorporate the differences in the pedagogical practices. Home-visiting also shows the family and caregivers how much worth their children are with to the school and also to the teacher specifically (Ramsay, n.d.). Home-visiting is also most important since the views of many parents will be gained.
Family and caregivers are first visited in face-to-face and maybe later on engaged in phone calls (Ramsay, n.d.). Active listening to family and caregivers during home visits shows that most parents want teachers to be more involved in the supervision of both the academic and social lives of their children. This leads to an efficient and genuine interaction between the person coordinating the process and the family or caregiver. The visits show a great respect for the family and caregivers’ perspectives and aids in gaining insightful information on the topic of supervision of the children’s activities. The family and caregivers may, later on, be formally invited for a forum where they will all meet to engage in discourses that will result in decision making on the topic (American Humane Association, 2010).
To fully engage family and caregivers, every single bit of information is given to them in a transparent manner and due preparation with information on the topic should take place. They are also given the onus of deciding how many of them will come to the meeting. On the day of the meeting, the coordinator welcomes everyone, makes a formal introduction, and elucidates the purpose of the family and caregiver meeting. Family and caregivers are awarded the biggest time possible to share their views collaboratively and adequate clarifications are made on the points one makes. The information obtained here is community-based and hence the views of each and every family or caregiver are debated until conclusion by the others. The information that is obtained from the meeting is duly recorded and read out to the participants for confirmation and the school can now take into full consideration the points raised (American Humane Association, 2010). The topic discussed can now be implemented since the collaboration of the family and caregivers has been done.