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Adapt, Advance, Achieve: Connecticut’s Plan to Learn and Grow Together
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Prioritize what families say about their children’s interests and challenges.
Consider monthly parent-teacher conferences or connections throughout
the 2020–21 school year to support and engage families and gain their
perspectives on their children’s experiences during this time.
Model high-quality learning practices. Consider webinars for families to
demonstrate teaching techniques and other supports for learning that they
can use at home.
Share information frequently with families about how their children are
doing. Consider how families might track their students’ progress and provide
opportunities for families to ask questions and understand the expectations
for progress.
Engage students in conversations about how they want teachers and families
to support their learning.
Co-develop cultural competence among staff and families. Create
opportunities for families and staff to work together to build students’ home
cultures into programming and curriculum by centering families as authorities
on their cultures and experiences.
Support parents to become effective leaders and advocates for children.
Empower parent-led groups to support families by providing timely and
accurate information and resources. Invest in parent leadership training
opportunities.
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Mental Health
Requirements
• Develop a detailed plan to reengage all students, staff and families. Particularly
identify strategies to identify and engage populations and specific students that have
been disengaged.
• Prepare staff to identify issues related to abuse and neglect in the context of the
pandemic and comply with all mandated reporting requirements.
Guidance
• Provide a period of time for students to acclimate back to school. Focus on the whole
child and use this period to reestablishing routines and relationships.
• Intensify communication efforts with all families and at the same time provide
additional supports for students who are struggling or at risk.
• Communicate the importance of SEL as a foundational and necessary aspect of a
highly functioning school community.
• Consult the available resources on SEL, for example, the Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) publication, Leveraging the Power of SEL as
You Prepare to Reopen and Renew your School Community.
• Consider staff in addressing SEL and mental health support.
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Design opportunities for adults to connect, heal, and cultivate their own
SEL competence. Work with school and district-based mental health staff,
psychologists, counselors, social workers, and school nurses to lead these
efforts.
Ensure access to mental health and trauma support for adults.