Five High Impact B2S Engagement Tips

We’ve gathered the highest impact activities to kick off the new year from hundreds of families and community engagement experts

Across the Flyer Connect network, we’ve gathered the highest impact activities to kick off the new year from hundreds of families and community engagement experts. Here are five tips we have for schools and districts planning their back to school night and other family engagement activities.

1. Family community partnership is a priority

Family engagement is a top factor that predicts student success1. Pursue a partnership with families to increase student achievement at your school.

Make it known and make it heard. Incorporate your family engagement mission at all levels of presentations and family facing activities.
Share how families should expect to receive communication and share feedback. Ex: School news goes out Thursdays via the app and email, District news goes out Fridays via the app and email. Direct inbound feedback to the school main office. Direct learning feedback to teachers.
Share engagement opportunities and put them on the calendar. Ex: Conference dates, volunteer opportunities, celebrations.

2. Expect collaboration

Set the expectation that families and staff collaborate to support their child's learning.

Prior to day one (or at the first opportunity) begin collaboration by requesting families share a student brief about their child. Ex: How does your child learn? What subjects do they love/find difficult? What do they find fun? Basketball vs. Legos, etc.
Request guardians share other caregiver information in case the guardian isn’t available.
Share a Parent-Student Compact detailed expected responsibilities of the guardian, the student and the teacher. Ex: Build a compact in Flyer Connect for parents to sign digitally and upload to a Google sheet.

3. Schedule home visits

Home visits provide a unique insight in students’ home life and can guide the best use of resources and tiered support.

Within the first 90 days encourage staff to schedule home visits with families. Ex: Families can choose from available times on their app and share specific information privately.
Build a PD session for your staff as to how to conduct home visits. Resource
Track completed home visits to measure how they impact students’ achievement.

4. Share daily class schedules with families

Families need timely prompts to engage their students. “What happened today?” versus “What happened in Algebra?” get completely different responses.

Share syllabuses, LMS calendars and school calendars via paper as well as an app. Ex: Sync your Flyer Connect app with Google Classroom, Canvas, and sports scheduled to give families a custom all-in-one view.
Notify families of additions and changes to the calendar.
Maintain the calendar at least once a week.

5. Deliver Family Learning Guides

Untangle and decipher the complicated grading scales, behavior reports, attendance reports and missed assignments. Empower families to advocate for their children.

Guide families through grading scales such as GPA, Grade Level and letter scales. Explain the impact/opportunities for each.
Set behavior and attendance expectations and goals.
Provide families with links to curriculum support sites to help students at home.
Provide guides to good study habits and create good spaces for learning.
Provide an app that incorporates specific and general recommendations to support individualized learning.

Take advantage of this valuable moment to set you, your students and families up for a successful year!

https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-power-of-parentalexpectations&sa=D&source=editors&u...

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When Residents Don’t Trust You: How to Still Keep Them Safe and Informed

By Zuben Bastani • June 17, 2025

Government distrust is at an all-time high. Many residents are wary of sharing their personal information with public agencies, often due to fears of surveillance, spam, or data misuse. This hesitation is especially acute among low-income and unhoused individuals who frequently change phone numbers due to service lapses, making traditional outreach efforts ineffective. Most public communication systems fall short. They rely on platforms like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, which get lost in crowded inboxes. Social media, while pervasive, is designed to harvest data and push ads—not to protect user privacy. Even emergency alert systems often require residents to sign up and share their location, further eroding trust. Text messaging, often called the holy grail of communication, is no longer a guaranteed solution. People guard their phone numbers carefully, especially when interacting with the government. They fear being spammed or having their data sold. So how can agencies inform and protect the public without breaching their trust? A New Approach to Community Communication Using ReachWell's extensive experience and broad customer base, here are some recommendations to consider when engaging your community in a less intrusive yet more effective manner: Offer Communication Choices : Let residents decide how they want to receive information—whether it's through text, email, voice calls, app notifications, or a combination. This respects personal preferences and helps reduce message fatigue. Respect Anonymity : Not everyone wants to share personal contact details. Provide anonymous access to messages via public channels or apps that don’t require identifying information. Support Multilingual Access : Language should never be a barrier to safety or services. Translate messages into the primary languages spoken in your community, and consider text-to-speech options for low-literacy audiences. Allow Topic Subscription : Let people select specific topics or groups they care about. Targeted messages reduce noise and increase engagement. Minimize Data Collection : Collect only the data you truly need. Avoid tracking location or behavior unless absolutely necessary—and be transparent about what is collected and why. Ensure Accessibility : Meet or exceed accessibility standards (such as WCAG 2.2 AA compliance) so all residents, including those with disabilities, can access and understand public messages. These practices foster trust, improve message delivery, and help ensure no one is left out of important conversations—especially in moments of crisis or community need. Expanded Real-World Examples: Trusted by Diverse Communities El Paso County, CO (Colorado Springs area) uses ReachWell to distribute emergency alerts—including shelter-in-place orders and missing persons reports—in over 130 languages. Residents can receive alerts even without providing contact information. The Town of Carbondale, CO keeps its multilingual and low-literate residents informed of community events, social services, and public works projects using WCAG 2.2 AA-compliant messaging and text-to-speech capabilities—ensuring no one is left behind. Tucson, AZ : Child-Parent Centers, a Head Start provider, uses ReachWell to keep 500+ staff updated on safety alerts, training sessions, and HR notices across 130 languages—building internal trust through inclusive communication. Boulder County Housing Authority ensures ongoing connection with residents—even after their contact information changes—by sending updates about emergencies, upcoming maintenance, and resident services using ReachWell’s multilingual and anonymous outreach tools. Conclusion Building trust with residents starts with giving them control. When governments let people choose how they connect, what they receive, and in what language—trust grows. ReachWell is proving that communities can be kept safe and informed without sacrificing privacy or accessibility. When people don’t trust the system, it’s time to change the system. ReachWell is doing just that. BOOK A DEMO TODAY