To support and enhance family engagement, providers can consider the following:

• Creating a welcoming family child care environment by greeting families during hellos and goodbyes, hanging welcome signs on the door, posting caregiver photos and information, hanging a board to post information about community and program events
• Providing a comfortable space in your program for families to observe or participate with their children while in your program
• Ways to get involved in the community and learn about different cultural backgrounds of the children and families they support
• Asking families how they prefer to receive information and consider different ways to communicate with families on a regular basis and prepare written materials in the home languages of families they support
• Ways to gather information from families and learn about what is important to them, such as using surveys or creating a question-and-answer section on a program website
• Opportunities for families to be involved in decision-making and voice their opinions
• Opportunities for families to volunteer and spend time in the family child-care setting:
  • Share a favorite family song or dance
  • Read a favorite family story in their home language
  • Create a family fun area in the care setting where families can spend time playing and learning with their children
• Supporting a family meeting or family night by suggesting:
  • That families gather together on a regular basis—once a month or quarter
  • Meeting or session topics (learning a new language class, stress management for adults, first aid, infant and toddler safe sleep)
  • Community members or speakers to help with topics
  • A space where these meetings can take place, if outside your program is preferred
  • Possibly including families from other family child-care programs in the meetings
• Providing families with activities and materials to use at home or in the community; consider recording routines and interactions during the day within the family child-care that families can watch, learn about, and use at home