Grandparents as an Educational Asset

Family engagement is more than getting parents involved. It’s finding the community around a student, and making them part of the learning team. West Virginia’s Department of Education is doing just that in its battle against the opioid crisis.

West Virginia’s Department of Education (WVDE) is looking to an often underutilized population as a part of its strategy in the state’s battle against the opioid crisis: grandparents. Through its ReClaimWV initiative, WVDE is collaborating across the education sector to enhance student’s social-emotional, physical, behavioral, and mental health development. WVDE is using Flyer Connect to deliver technical assistance and disseminate information to all school districts regarding grandparents.

In 2017, West Virginia led the country in deaths caused from drug-related overdose. “West Virginia’s students are suffering from the fallout of the substance abuse epidemic that is engulfing the state’s adults. The trauma these children are experiencing affects not only their ability to learn but their entire lives,” says the ReclaimWV website.

Because of the substance abuse epidemic, the number of grandparents raising school age grandchildren — or GrandFamilies, as ReClaimWV calls them — has soared. With over 40,000 students living in a home with a grandparent, ReClaimWV has found an ally to support students’ academic success. In its partnership with Flyer Connect, WVDE ​provides strategies, suggestions, and professional development to school districts as they develop and implement ​targeted resources and programming that address the needs of GrandFamilies.

Tips to get grandparents involved in their grandchildren’s education

• Make information easy to access. Provide targeted messaging just for grandparents on a platform that is accessible to all. Flyer Connect and WVDE staff are designing campaigns for targeted groups, such as grandparents. For example, WVDE has a GrandFamilies group on the Flyer Connect app for​ school personnel to engage grandparents ​in learning. The campaign is specifically based on the needs of West Virginia GrandFamilies and includes various state-specific resources.
• Reach out regularly with actionable information. WVDE’s GrandFamilies campaign sends out short, biweekly messages to grandparents, with specific, actionable messages, like how to ask your grandchild about school or ways grandparents and grandchildren can learn together. Also included in the campaign are a number of resources accessible through Flyer Connect. Some resources include a one-page resource that is ready to distribute, state and county agencies that provide training for grandparents, and brief, concrete programming examples.
• Value their experience. Grandparents have decades of experience. On top of that, they are context experts in their grandchildren’s home life. Ask them for their input, invite them to participate, and recognize their skills that they bring to their grandchildren’s education and the school-community at-large. The WVDE campaign includes a survey that schools can use to gather valuable data from grandparents.
• Think holistically about students’ learning team. If a child doesn’t have grandparents as additional support, who else in a child’s life can be advocates of their learning? WVDE suggests that school personnel invite other family members who support the child’s learning and all school staff including related service providers, support staff, and community agency staffs to use Flyer Connect.

For more information on ReClaimWV, visit https://wvde.us/reclaimwv/ and view its grandparent outreach campaign here
To see how Flyer Connect can be part of rethinking your family engagement strategy, learn more and sign up for a demo at https://www.flyerconnect.org/