The National Alliance for Father Friendly Schools

06/15/2026

Proud to be accepted as a Trusted Partner of The National Family Friendly Schools initiative.

Thank you to The National Alliance for Father Friendly Schools for being a National Family Friendly Schools Trusted Partner! Father Friendly Schools is an alliance and training organization comprised of multiple national and regionally recognized school-based father engagement programs. We are excited to partner with them to help schools across the country achieve their family and community engagement goals.

Find out more about National Family Friendly Schools here: https://prichardcommittee.org/nffs/
Find out more about The National Alliance for Father Friendly Schools here: https://fatherfriendlyschools.org/

06/15/2026

Many school districts depend on voters to approve bond referendums, capital projects, and other funding measures that help maintain and improve schools.

Yet many schools struggle to connect with one of the largest groups of voters in their communities: fathers and father figures.

For many adults, their understanding of public education is based on memories from their own school days. The challenge is that today's schools often look very different from the schools they attended.

School-Based Father Engagement programs help school leaders connect with community members who are also voters. When fathers and father figures volunteer, attend events, mentor students, and spend time inside school buildings, they gain a firsthand understanding of modern education. They see the opportunities, challenges, successes, and needs that cannot be fully understood through headlines, social media posts, or decades-old experiences.

To be clear, SBFE programs must remain nonpartisan and non-ideological. Their purpose is not to influence elections or tell anyone how to vote.

Their purpose is to help create more informed community members and more informed voters through firsthand experience.

Sometimes the best way to tell your school's story is simply to invite people inside.

06/12/2026

Public schools may be entering an era where they need to think differently about marketing.

In some communities, birth rates have declined. In others, enrollment patterns have shifted. Families today also have more access to information and educational options than ever before.

As a result, schools can no longer assume that families automatically feel connected to their school community.

Schools have to tell their story.

The most effective marketing isn't advertising.

It's relationships.

When families feel welcomed, valued, and connected, they tell others.

That's one reason School-Based Father Engagement matters.

Every father or father figure who volunteers, attends an event, mentors students, or feels a genuine connection to the school becomes another positive voice in the community.

SBFE is not a marketing campaign.

But if your school is looking for ways to strengthen relationships, increase community support, and create more advocates for your school, it may be one of the most effective strategies you haven't fully considered.

The schools that tell the best stories may be the schools with the most people willing to tell them.

05/12/2026

We want to help school leaders be father-friendly in 2026-27.

04/29/2026

I’ll start by saying this—I commend the creator of this. It’s fun. It’s lighthearted. And I’m sure there was absolutely no ill intent behind it.

It just came into my inbox today.

Most people will scroll right past it and see it for what it is… just a joke.

But this is also a perfect example of what I talk about when I say schools and parent organizations quietly—and unintentionally—create a culture that discourages fathers and father figures from engaging.

No one is saying “dads aren’t welcome.”

But when everything tied to parent involvement consistently reflects one perspective, one experience, one type of role… it sends a message.

And over time, that message sticks.

When I say that fathers and father figures are unknowingly and unintentionally discouraged from engaging with their children’s school, many school leaders will say, “Oh, that’s not our school”—and then circulate something like this and have absolutely no idea what they’ve done.

While it may reflect the current state of engagement at a school, it also reinforces and secures that that state will continue.

Many fathers already believe they don’t belong in school spaces. They’re not always told that directly—but they feel it. And content like this, even when it’s meant to be fun, reinforces that perception.

Being inclusive should not require excluding anyone.

If we want more fathers engaged in schools, we have to be intentional about the culture we’re creating—not just the events we host, but the messaging we normalize every single day.

This is why training on recognizing and removing barriers is so important. While programs are available, most schools don’t even realize they may need to consider a School-Based Father Engagement (SBFE) approach because they are completely unaware that they are perpetuating a discouraging climate and culture.

NAFFS can help you see your blind spots.

04/29/2026

My friends at Varner nailed it again!

04/18/2026

We talk about the big national programs a lot. But, our regional partners are doing some great work too!
Good Dads - Strong Schools is a great program serving schools in Missouri.

04/17/2026

Why Are Donuts with Dad Events Often at the End of the Year?

Let me start with this—
This is not about schools that are running structured School-Based Father Engagement (SBFE) programs, or schools that are consistently engaging dads throughout the year.
In those schools, Donuts with Dad is just one moment in a much bigger plan.

This is about the schools that don’t have that structure in place.
Because in those schools, a pattern shows up.

You’ll often see Donuts with Dad events scheduled in late March, April… sometimes even May.

And it raises a fair question:

Why now?

Simple.

Because it got pushed.

It didn’t start that way. The intention was there. School leaders wanted to engage fathers and father figures. They talked about it. Maybe it was even on the calendar at one point.

But then the school year got moving.

Priorities shifted. Schedules filled up. Testing season started looming—and everything else started moving out of the way.

And father engagement?

It kept getting bumped further and further down the list.

Until one day, someone looks up and realizes:
“We never did anything for the dads.”

So now something has to happen—and it has to happen fast.

A Donuts with Dad event gets scheduled. It looks good on paper.

It checks the box.

But let’s be honest about what it often becomes.

It’s a lot of effort, time, and money…
for nothing more than a social media post.

And then it’s over.

No follow-up.
No system.
No next step.

What could have been the start of something meaningful turns into a one-day event with no lasting impact.

Dads get the message that they are only welcome at the school on that one day a year.

That’s the missed opportunity.

And there’s another one that often gets overlooked.

When events are thrown together at the last minute, there’s usually no plan in place to support the students who don’t have a father or father figure actively involved in their life.
So what was meant to be a positive experience can quietly become a difficult one for some students—simply because no one had time to think it through.

Let me be clear—

This is not a reason to stop having Donuts with Dad.

In fact, it’s the opposite.

Schools should absolutely host events that specifically and intentionally invite dads and father figures by name.

That matters.

But it has to be done at the right time—with purpose—and in a way that includes and supports all families and students.

Because when you wait until the end of the school year, you’re not building anything — you’re wrapping it up.

And here’s the part that doesn’t get said enough:

If you’re not using that event to sign dads up for next year, it’s a waste of time, effort, and money.

That event should be a launch point—not a closing ceremony.

There should be a plan for what comes next.

There should be an invitation to stay involved.

There should be a system ready to receive them.

In other words—
You need a plan for what you’re going to do…

After the Donut...

04/13/2026

NOW is when successful father engagement actually begins.

Not in August.

Not at Back-to-School Night.

Not at your first “Donuts with Dad.”

Right now.

The schools that build strong School-Based Father Engagement (SBFE) programs don’t scramble in the fall…
They follow a plan.
They follow a rhythm.

They follow the START Strategy through the 6 Seasons of SBFE:

March–April → Structure
Build your leadership team. Make a plan.

May–June → Training
Prepare your leaders before summer hits.

July–August → Resources
Recruit. Communicate. Launch strong.

September–October → Accountability
Engage consistently. Communicate both ways.

November–December → Trust
Relationships deepen. Momentum builds.

January–February → Accountability 2.0
Review. Adjust. Finish strong.

Here’s the truth most schools don’t realize:
If you wait until the school year starts…
you’ve already missed your best opportunity.
The schools that win in SBFE don’t guess—
they prepare.

👉 NOW is the time to start building your 2026–27 plan.