Family, School, and Community Partnerships

Family-School-Community Partnerships (FSCP) Definition:

Families, early childhood programs, schools, and communities actively partnering to develop, implement, and evaluate effective and equitable practices to improve educational outcomes for children and youth.

Launching Student Success with Family, School, and Community Partnerships

When you need a short document to explain the what, why, and how of FSCP, use the Launching Student Success with Family, School, and Community Partnerships [en español] one-pager. This resource can be used to explain what FSCP is when recruiting family engagement team members, share research-based outcomes of high-impact family engagement practices, and briefly outline the steps to an impactful FSCP program at the school and district level.

Call for Submissions - Promising Partnership Practices 2027

The State Advisory Council for Parent Involvement in Education (SACPIE), in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), is collecting promising partnership practices from schools, districts, early childhood programs, and institutes of higher education across the state to publish in the 12th annual Promising Partnership Practices—Colorado book.  SACPIE and CDE invite schools, districts, early childhood centers, institutions of higher education, accountability committees, parent-teacher committees, or any other school- or district-based council to submit an application for consideration in the publication.  The purpose of this book is for schools, districts, and other educational organizations in Colorado to share how they partner with families and the community for student success. Applications are due June 4, 2027.

Practices may be submitted using this Google form.

For more information about Promising Partnership practices, visit the website.

Connect and Collaborate

The Office of Family, School, and Community Partnerships offers regular opportunities to district staff to connect and collaborate with us, offices across CDE, and other  school districts! Every first Thursday of the month, we are now offering the Friends of FSCP Webinar Series, where we invite a different office from within CDE to share how family and community engagement helps support that content area. Every third Friday of the month, we invite district FSCP contacts to our monthly Coffee Chat. These take place either virtually or in person. For more in-depth collaboration, district teams can join regional FSCP Collaboratives. The Collaborative focuses on strengthening family engagement for positive student outcomes using the FSCP P-12 Framework and Rubrics to guide annual planning and implementation. Check out the links below to learn more about these offerings!

News and Updates

2026 Edition of Promising Partnership Practices Now Available

The State Advisory Council for Parent Involvement in Education (SACPIE) and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) are pleased to share this 12th annual collection of Promising Partnership Practices. The purpose of this publication is for schools, districts, and other educational organizations in Colorado to highlight how they partner with families and the community for student success.

View the 2026 collection of Promising Partnership Practices.

Individual practices will be posted online by Monday, August 31 2026.

Education Governance Documents for Stakeholders

From the household to the federal government, we all play a critical role in education decision making. The following infographic and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document are intended to provide a broad audience with an overview about which entity oversees different aspects of education.

View How Education Decisions are made in Colorado infographic and Frequently Asked Questions.

Consulte la infografía sobre cómo se toman las decisiones educativas en Colorado y las preguntas frecuentes.

FSCP Online Learning Center - New Courses

The Office of FSCP has published a new online course, Essentials of Community Schools Strategy for Colorado. This course is intended for anyone interested in learning more about the Community Schools strategy. The course is free and asynchronous. Five CEUs are offered to those who complete the course requirements.

Understanding the Role of District Accountability Committees is also now available. This course is intended for current and potential DAC members. The course is free and asynchronous. Five CEUs are offered to those who complete the course requirements.

Visit the Office of FSCP's Online Learning Center to see all eleven available courses.

State and Federal Accountability Crosswalk: Stakeholder Engagement

This document provides a crosswalk to identify and integrate stakeholder engagement activities that meet both State and Federal accountability requirements. The crosswalk illuminates how stakeholder engagement requirements under ESEA, EASI, and ESSA can be integrated and documented in the Unified Improvement Planning process, to create a comprehensive plan for stakeholder engagement that eliminates redundancy and maximizes time and effort of staff, families, and stakeholders.

View State and Federal Accountability Crosswalk: Stakeholder Engagement [pdf].

Stakeholder Engagement in Federal Programs

The meaningful engagement of stakeholders is required under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), reauthorized in 2016 as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Meaningful stakeholder engagement requires structures and processes that ensure the ongoing collaboration and input of a variety of stakeholders who represent the demographics of districts, schools and programs.  Stakeholders include: families, students, educators, and community members. This document is designed to help districts and schools meet federal stakeholder engagement requirements, using evidence-based principles of strong family, school, and community partnerships. Organized by ESEA Stakeholder Engagement Program Requirements (SE), this guidance provides compliance requirements, examples of evidence, resources and implementation guidance for districts receiving ESEA funds and participating in regular federal programs monitoring.

View Stakeholder Engagement in Federal Programs [pdf].

Designing Parent/Family Notifications

Using the P-12 FSCP Framework lens, this document provides ideas on ways districts and schools can intentionally design parent notifications that meet state and federal requirements, increase engagement, and ensure  families are able to understand, remember, and use the important information provided.

View Designing Parent/Family Notifications [pdf].

Engaging Stakeholders in Planning

A new resource is available to assist districts and schools as they meaningfully engage stakeholders in a variety of family and community engagement planning activities.

See the Engaging Stakeholders in Planning document here.

About The Office of Family-School-Community Partnerships

The Office of Family-School-Community Partnerships sits within the Accountability and Continuous Improvement Office at CDE, and was created in response to Senate Bill 13-193 Increasing Parent Involvement in Public Schools. Responsibilities of the office include:

• Supporting to schools and districts implementing Family and Community Engagement practices
• Incorporating strategies in the Unified Improvement Plan to increase parent engagement in schools, with a specific focus on priority performance and turnaround schools.
• Ensuring that school district board of education adopt district policy for increasing and supporting parent engagement in the public and charter schools of the district
• Communicating and providing support to the identified family partnership point of contact within school districts
• Supporting parent participation on school and district accountability committees (SACs and DACs)
• Staffing the State Advisory Council for Parent Involvement in Education (SACPIE)