Family Engagement Task Force

Northshore School District is committed to creating inclusive, equitable, and meaningful partnerships with families — particularly those whose voices have been historically underrepresented or are furthest away from racial and educational justice. Family engagement is central to student success, and as such, the District must ensure coherent structures, staffing, and professional learning to strengthen authentic, two-way family partnerships across all schools. To fulfill this commitment, the District is creating a Family Engagement Task Force charged by Superintendent Dr. Justin Irish to determine the vision, staffing structure, support, and training needed to strengthen school-based family engagement — supportive of high achievement for all students. 

This body of work will be complemented by training for school leaders in alignment with their leadership core competency: climate, culture and community. This body of work will also advance Goal 3 of the Family Engagement and Resource Center. 

While Northshore has a strong approach to school-based family engagement through the district’s partnership and support of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and the Northshore Council PTSA, engagement of families who have been historically underrepresented in school life is inconsistent and access and support varies by school site. Several years ago, a new position — Family Engagement Specialist — was created but a common framework, training, and needs-based allocation of staffing was never implemented.

This has led to inconsistencies and structures for universal and targeted family support are not yet aligned district-wide. Additionally, interrupted attempts have been made over the years to create structures to support the growth of parent leaders at schools without Family Engagement Specialists, again resulting in fractured support and inconsistency. To ensure every family can navigate and connect meaningfully with schools in support of student learning, the District must come to agreement on the vision for family engagement and how it will be approached and supported in the Northshore School District. 

The Northshore Family Engagement Task Force will:

• Inform the district’s vision and core beliefs around school-based family engagement.
• Develop criteria for staffing Family Engagement Specialists in response to student/family needs, and other key factors, and revise the current job description roles and functions to reflect equity-focused practices.
• Develop common structures, approaches, and support for growing parent leaders outside of the PTA structure and focused on families furthest from racial and educational justice. 
• Identify training and professional learning opportunities to build districtwide capacity for implementing equitable family partnerships. 
• Recommend universal support to reduce barriers and strengthen access for all families such as language access, communication systems, and navigation resources and propose targeted support that meets the needs of families furthest away from racial and educational justice.
• Inform development of a multi-year implementation plan reflecting the recommendations of the task force. 

The Task Force will:

• Review current Northshore School District family engagement practices, staffing, and FTE allocation.

• Analyze data and feedback from families, staff, and community partners.

• Review relevant research to identify promising practices for implementation and continuous improvement.

• Develop recommendations for staffing models, training, and resource alignment.

• Inform the development of structures that support families and bring the work of family engagement into alignment with the strategic work of the district. 

• Participate in work groups focused on but not limited to staffing structures, training, tiered supports including universal support to reduce barriers and improve district navigation. 

• Recommended staffing and deployment framework for Family Engagement Specialists.
• Revised job description for Family Engagement Specialists.
• Tiered model of family supports with attention to racial and educational justice including a universal access plan for communication and navigation support.
• Professional learning framework for equitable family engagement.
• Multi-year implementation plan including budget and timeline.

This 20–25 member Task Force will include broad representation from the Northshore community including:

• Labor partners
• Family Engagement Specialists
• Head Start Family Engagement Specialists
• School Nurse
• English Learner Development (ELD) educator 
• School Leaders 
• Racial & Educational Justice Department representative
• Language Access Coordinator
• McKinney-Vento/Support Services staff
• Family Representatives 
• Secondary students 
• Assistant Director, Family Engagement & Resource Center
• PTSA Council Representative
• Community Partners
• School Counselors 
• Special Education Representative
• College & Career Readiness Representative

Broader engagement to inform Task Force conversations and work may include student focus groups, community listening sessions, and Board updates. The Task Force will use the Northshore Shared-Decision making model to inform final recommendations to Dr. Irish.

• The Task Force will submit final recommendations to the Superintendent for review by June 30, 2026.
• Updates will be provided to the Board and Cabinet throughout the process, with meeting summaries included in the Friday Brief.

The Family Engagement Task Force will be led and staffed by the Executive Director of Communications and Engagement. 

The Family Engagement Task Force will have access to relevant district data, research, and administrative support. A budget for staff release time, translation/interpretation, and engagement activities will be approved by the Executive Director of Communications and Engagement as needed. 

To apply, please complete the Family Engagement Task Force Application and submit it by December 3, 2025. 

Submit Your Family Engagement Task Force Application