SFUSD Family Partnership School FAQs

Helpful FAQs for School Sites

SFUSD's Office of Family Partnership offers capacity-building opportunities for both SFUSD staff and families, as outlined in the Dual Capacity Framework.

What is Family Partnership?

Family Partnership refers to collaborative relationships and activities that involve students’ families, school staff, and community partners. These relationships are based on mutual trust and respect, and on a shared responsibility for the education of each and every student. Partnerships exists when all the adults work together to support the social, emotional, and academic growth of all the students in a given school community. These relationships are built on trust, through honest and open communication where all input is honored and valued; where shared visions and actions grow from shared understandings about what is real and possible; where power dynamics are openly articulated; and where stakeholders know where they stand and what they can achieve together.

What does the Family Partnerships and Empowerment Office do?

The SFUSD Family Partnership and Empowerment Office offers capacity-building opportunities through our Family Partnership Planning and Implementation Process and Tools (link) and resources, SFUSD Partnerships Academy (link) , and site-based consultation.

How can you help us with our Balanced Scorecard (BSC)?

When we provide support to school site teams through our Family Partnership Planning and Implementation Process (link). During that process we help the site team review their BSC goals and help them revise and refocus when needed.

Who and what are Family Liaisons?

The Family Liaison is an individual at a specific school, selected and supervised by the school’s principal, who focuses on strengthening family partnership at that school in support of student education.

Does my school have a Family Liaison?

The best way to find out is to contact your school office.

How do I hire a Family Liaison?

Any school can hire a Family Liaison out of its own funds by contacting HR, which will create a job code and commence the hiring process. There are also centrally funded Family Liaison positions, which are allocated based on the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS).

How do I contact all the Family Liaisons?

You can contact them through our office by emailing familypartnerships@sfusd.edu, and we will help you share the information.

How do we support Family Partnerships without a Family Liaison?

Our philosophy is that Family Partnership is everyone’s job and not just a family liaison’s job. Some ideas for supporting this include: (1) identifying potential Family Partnership Team makeup; (2) reaching out to the FPE Team for site support, assessment tools, tips, resources, and referrals; (3) devising a plan and choosing a focus; and (4) embedding Family Partnership goals into Grade Level Team Meetings, Instructional Rounds, etc.

Where do I look for training opportunities?

This page was last updated on June 6, 2022