Dive Brief:
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Despite attempts to bridge the gap, middle-income parents have the means and time to participate in school activities and build relationships with educators, while low-income parents have difficulty making the time due to life circumstances, Education Week reports.
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As trends show the gap between middle and low-income families growing in American cities, research indicates that families from different economic categories tended to "silo" themselves in networks, which leaves low-income families cut out of school activities.
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The Albuquerque school district responded to the issue by initiating the Family Independence Initiative, which eventually enables families to apply for small-scale grants to help plug the financial gaps separating them from middle-income families.
Dive Insight:
Often, low-income parents are inhibited from participating more frequently with their children’s school due to the fact that they are often working more hours at conflicting times. One way schools could work to help build relationships between faculty, staff and these parents is to welcome these parents to contribute in the time that works for them, even if it is an unconventional time for parent involvement at school.
Parents may be conducive to a design that allows them to partner with faculty during the day. After establishing these relationships, familiarity and collegiality could breed greater opportunities for low-income students. Faculty may not know parents from a parent-teacher conference or PTA meeting, but those relationships can be built due to interactions at school.
Schools must also be proactive in offering all information in multiple languages and trying to reach parents in all manners. Low-income families are often digitally "under-connected,"at times only reliant on a mobile connection at home. Families dependent on a mobile-only connection are more likely to be battling poverty and more likely to be English language learners. The digital divide remains an issue, but a school should be able to offer school information in multiple languages that can be accessed via a mobile device. Low-income parents still may have difficulty in attending functions, but with advance warning via means parents can reasonably access, schools may be able to begin the work of closing the gap.