Family involvement in a child’s education is a complex system that extends beyond the presence of partnershipsbetween families, schools, and the community (Epstein, 2011). By measuring families’ feelings of connectedness andmembership to the school community, this study explores families’ motivations for participating in their child’slearning and development at school. Results suggest that a family’s sense of connectedness to their child’s schoolcommunity may be related to their level of participation. Findings are discussed in terms of implications foreducational communities emphasizing the power of families’ community connectedness within the schools andexpanding on the ways to enhance family involvement and participation.

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Transition to kindergarten videos (in English and Spanish) are one proposed technology tool to promote parental engagement. Regression analyses were conducted to examine links between parents’ video experience and parental self-efficacy, teacher communication, and school communication. High parental self-efficacy was associated with more positive perceptions about teacher communication but less positive perceptions about school communication. Parents’ experience of the transition video was not associated with their parental self-efficacy. Viewing videos with children was only associated with lower levels of parental self-efficacy. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

As formal, nonformal, and informal educational settings work to improve participant involvement, understanding perceptions of physical and digital spaces can add insights for improving specific aspects of any educational setting. This exploratory study examines the use of the Washoe County School District [WCSD] family-friendly school assessment tools for gauging the extent to which school environments welcome families. The WCSD family-friendly school assessment tools consist of the walk-through rating scale (17 items), the website rating scale (11 items), and the phone survey (10 items). Metrics of inter-rater reliability (IRR) included percent agreements and Cohen’s kappa. Results from the walk-through rating scale and website rating scale reported good agreement. Inter-rater reliability for phone survey items was lower than for walk-through and website categories. Implications for this study focus on applicability of these tools within formal, informal, and nonformal educational settings.