Family engagement is highly instrumental for student success. Actively involved families are better able to support learning, communicate with school staff, and respond to their student's needs. Not all families have the same opportunities to participate, though. Many face barriers such as language differences, work schedules, and challenges related to transportation, finance, and childcare.
Meaningful family engagement means recognizing that families and educators are equal partners. Every family's culture, experiences, and strengths enable them to contribute to their dream of wanting the best for their children. Through accessible, inclusive, and responsive communication, schools can help all families feel respected, valued, and empowered to support their children.
November is Family Engagement Month. Maine DOE has events and resources to share this month for educators and school teams working to strengthen these partnerships.
Maine DOE Events
Building Bridges Lunch & Learn
Friday, November 13, 2026, 12 p.m. Virtual event.
Join colleagues to explore the family engagement framework. Participants will:
- Explore the family engagement framework.
- Leave with resources and ideas from colleagues.
- Leave with a presentation template you can personalize.
Register for the Lunch & Learn
Maine Engagement & Attendance Center Support Series
Thursday, November 19, 2026, 3:30 p.m. Virtual event.
Hear from colleagues whose family engagement efforts are showing an impact on their attendance data. Participants will:
- Learn more about how data can inform decision-making.
- Leave with attendance practices they can start using right away.
Register for the Support Series
Family Engagement Institute and Community of Practice
Maine DOE, in collaboration with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services Office of Child and Family Services, is offering Strengthening Relationship-Based Family Engagement Practice Across Maine's Early Childhood Workforce, a professional learning opportunity for early care and education professionals serving children from birth to age six. Delivered by Educare Central Maine, the series covers relationship-based and reflective practices, the connection between adult well-being and children's development, strengthening interactions with children and families, using observation to inform practice, and navigating challenging situations.
The two-day intensive runs November 2 and 3, 2026, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Educare Central Maine in Waterville, with an online hybrid option. Three virtual Community of Practice sessions follow on November 12, November 19, and December 10, each from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
Conferences and Connection
MADSEC Annual Fall Conference
November 5 and 6, 2026. Holiday Inn by the Bay, Portland.
"Leading with Heart, Purpose, and Practice" is designed for professionals who serve and support students with disabilities in preschool through grade 12, including general and special education administrators and educators. The featured event is Maine's Inclusion Framework from Maine DOE, alongside concurrent sessions on transition planning, assistive technology, multilingual learners, and early childhood systems.
16th Annual Maine PBIS Conference
Thursday, November 19, 2026, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Augusta Civic Center.
This year's theme is "The Fabric of Maine Schools: Braiding Academics, Behavior, and Belonging." The keynote comes from Kathleen Lynne Lane, Ph.D., of the University of Kansas, on data-informed instruction in integrated tiered systems. Breakout sessions cover integrating academics and behavior within MTSS, behavior supports across grade levels, sustaining PBIS, and family engagement. Schools identified under Maine's Model of School Support may register up to three educators at no cost.
Building Bridges: A Framework for Family Engagement in Maine
Family engagement is a foundational strategy for developing effective, fair, and responsive services. When educators, providers, and agencies collaborate with families as shared decision-makers, they develop programs and services that are more responsive and community-driven and improve student outcomes.
The framework covers nine steps to develop an effective family engagement strategy, guiding principles of family engagement and key strategies to develop family leaders, and resources to support families of multilingual learners and students with special needs. It was developed by the Consortium for Engaging Families Across Maine, which operates the Maine Statewide Family Engagement Center.
Framework and chapters (PDF)
Download the full framework or jump straight to a chapter.
National Resources for Family Engagement
Schools looking for ready-made materials this month can draw on these national organizations.
Center for Family Engagement
National PTA's Center for Family Engagement collects one-pagers, fact sheets, webinars, and printable handouts, including the six National Standards for Family-School Partnerships. Several resources are available in Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic.
Center for Family Engagement resources
National Parental Involvement Day
Thursday, November 19, 2026.
For more than 32 years, National Parental Involvement Day has reminded America that parents are children's first teachers and schools' most important partners. Project Appleseed, which runs the observance, offers activity ideas, certificates, and social media graphics that schools can use.
National Parental Involvement Day
Exceptional Children's Assistance Center
ECAC, the parent center in North Carolina, builds a Family Engagement Month page each year and makes the materials freely available. It includes month-long activity calendars for families of children from birth through high school, a separate calendar for educators, and a social media toolkit. The calendars are PDFs and several are also published in Spanish. ECAC also runs a Tool Time Tuesday webinar series at noon on Tuesdays in November, covering emergency preparedness for children with special health care needs, support for military families, and building community resources for families of children with disabilities.
Parts of the page are specific to North Carolina, including the governor's proclamation and the state framework, but the calendars, the webinars, and the calls to action for families, teachers, and principals work anywhere.
Links to organizations and resources are for reference and information only and do not imply endorsement by the Maine Department of Education.