It’s a familiar scene: teachers meeting with parents to talk about school programs and summer plans, answering questions about signing up for little league or when to enroll a child in school for the first time.
But what’s different about a growing number of these conversations in the New Rochelle school district is that they are happening in the comfort of families’ homes.
“We want to get to know more about the families, where they’re from, what their journey has been, and really just open the gates for families and teachers to connect,” said Eddie Castro, the school district’s director of family and community engagement.
New Rochelle’s home visit program is part of the Sacramento-based organization Parent Teacher Home Visits, which aims to build relationships with parents. Nationally, Parent Teacher Home Visits is in 700 communities in 28 states and Washington, D.C.
Asked if any other districts in New York are participating in the program, Parent Teacher Home Visits Executive Director Gina Martinez-Keddy said in an email that the program is in the beginning stages in some New York City schools.
Jonathan Raymond, New Rochelle’s last superintendent, brought the program to the district last year. Over six weeks from April to June, 34 teachers participated, visiting 60 families, Castro said. This year, 60 teachers were trained to do home visits.
In addition to teachers, social workers, teaching assistants and instructional coaches also do home visits in the program. Reynolds said the district worked with the teachers union to work through the details of the program. To make sure visitors feel safe, they agreed they should go in pairs.
Participation is largely informal
Both parents and educators choose to participate in the program. District staff who do the visits get a stipend.
The program aims to visit interested families twice a year, once at the beginning and once near the end, but it varies depending on availability and interest.
Since the program is still new, teachers are still mostly asking families if they’d like a home visit. After a building principal wrote about the district in a newsletter, though, some families did request visits, Castro said.
School staff visit at an agreed upon time. Visits typically last between 30 and 40 minutes, but some have gone for almost an hour, Castro said.
“This is really an opportunity for a two-way conversation,” New Rochelle Superintendent Corey Reynolds. “As much as we want to be able to be a resource to families, we also want the families to be a resource to us.”
The visits are particularly beneficial for parents whose work schedules make it hard to get to things like parent-teacher conferences, Reynolds said.
Visits focused on ‘hopes and dreams’
One might assume a teacher visiting a student’s home means there are serious problems to address. But that’s not the point of the program.
Rather than asking families to improve their child’s attendance or address behavioral issues, the visits are focused on building trust, Castro said.
“The visits really are not punitive. It’s not corrective action. It really is focused upon hopes and dreams,” Castro said.
Problems can be addressed at parent-teacher conferences and through other lines of communication, Reynolds said.
When choosing homes to visit, the district isn’t looking at specific criteria or any kind of targeted student profile, he said.
The program doesn’t focus on visiting the homes of high or low-achieving students. Rather, teachers should choose families they don’t hear from as much or that they want to get to know better, Castro said. That could be a high-achieving student whose parents only come to parent teacher conferences.
Visiting with a mom and three boys
On a recent visit, Idalia Mendez and Maria Garcia, both social workers in the district, visited Bertha Nyirongo. She has two sons in the district and another who will enroll when he’s old enough to start school.
During the visit, Nyirongo, 10-year-old Norman, 6-year-old Fred, and 3-year-old Norton, sat on the sectional in their living room with Mendez and Garcia.
Mendez asked Norman how he felt about going to middle school next year.
“Nervous,” he replied.
Mendez and Garcia assured him people will be available to help him figure out his locker and get adjusted to a new school.
“You’ll see — once you’re in there you’re gonna learn it so quick. It’s easy, an easy building,” Garcia told him.
Mendez and Garcia shared information about school programs and when to enroll Norton. They also asked Nyirongo how the district could better communicate with families. And they wanted to follow up with her about connecting with other parents, something Nyirongo said she wanted to do during a visit last year.
Nyirongo and her family emigrated to the U.S. two years ago from the southeastern African country of Malawi. Mendez and Garcia gave her a chance to talk about how her kids were doing since moving.
Nyirongo said she was happy they were doing well socially and that their English was improving. English is the official language of Malawi but is generally spoken with British pronunciation, meaning the family had to adjust to American accents. Her kids even correct her pronunciation now, Nyirongo said.
“Because you couldn’t say Connecticut!” Norman said.
Topics range from sports to health care
So far, the home visits have yielded a range of interests and responses from parents.
In May and June parents asked about summer programs. Some have asked how their kids could get a summer job or how they could get more involved in school functions.
Others have shared suggestions. During one home visit with a Mexican family, the family told their visitors they wanted the district to understand that there are multiple Mexican identities represented in the district, Castro said.
The visits are also an opportunity to help families with any needs outside of school that ultimately impact their kids’ learning, Reynolds said. Staff can point them in the direction of other resources such as health care or food.
Teachers who participate only visit kids in their class. But word is spreading among students, who have been pressuring their teachers who don’t participate in the program to visit them at home, Reynolds said. The hope is that more teachers will decide to participate on their own, he said.
“This program really champions that the parent knows their child best and that they have the information that can help teachers and staff members really support them,” Castro said.
Contact Diana Dombrowski at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: New Rochelle NY schools’ home visits build trust with families
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
