Parent Teacher Home Visits

08/12/2026

Dr. Joyce L. Epstein died on August 3rd. She was 85.

For nearly 50 years, Epstein built the research base that gave family engagement its legitimacy in American education. She authored and co-authored more than 150 publications, and her framework on the types of family involvement and her theory of overlapping spheres of influence among schools, families, and communities remain standard reading in graduate programs across the country.

Parent Teacher Home Visits owes a debt of gratitude to her scholarship. When PTHV commissioned its first national evaluation in December 2016, the researcher who led the student outcomes study was Dr. Steven B. Sheldon of Johns Hopkins, Epstein's longtime associate director at the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships she directed. Sheldon and Epstein co-authored the field's standard textbook on family engagement together, and their 2002 study on school attendance is part of the evidence base behind our own findings on chronic absenteeism and reading proficiency.

Every superintendent, principal, and education policymaker who has ever asked us for evidence that relationships between schools and families change outcomes for kids has been handed research that traces back to her lab at Johns Hopkins. We are grateful for her life's work.

08/11/2026

Exciting news from Parent Teacher Home Visits! 📣

We are proud to announce that Rachel Brice has been named Interim Executive Director, effective today!

Rachel has served as our Program Director since 2021, leading the multiyear redesign of our signature training and strengthening district partnerships across the country. With more than 25 years of experience across public education and social services, from school social worker to community schools supervisor, she brings an extraordinary depth of vision and operational leadership to this role.

"Every role I have held... has come back to the same conviction: families hold expertise about their own children, and schools that build on that expertise get better results for students," says Rachel.

Join us in celebrating Rachel as she leads PTHV into this next chapter of building trust, reducing chronic absenteeism, and strengthening family-school partnerships nationwide!

08/10/2026

Dr. Karen Mapp spent years watching teachers in a Boston K-8 school conduct home visits, and not all of them happened at home. One took place at a McDonald's, another in a library. The location mattered less than what unfolded inside: teachers who had assumed certain parents didn't care left those visits in tears, undone by hearing those same parents describe, in detail, how hard they were fighting for their kids' education.

Mapp has spent decades studying what shifts a teacher's mindset about families. This is one of the stories she still reaches for time and time again.

Want to see if a Parent Teacher Home Visits practice is right for your school community. Visit pthvp.org

08/07/2026

What made Cajon Valley say yes to home visits? Seeing what was possible. 👀

Sandra Candler didn't have to look far for inspiration. Other districts were already seeing incredible results. That was all it took to spark a decade-long commitment to knowing families in a whole new way.

"It was really to get to know our families in a way that we hadn't previously."

Sometimes the biggest transformations start with a simple willingness to try something new.

10 years later, Cajon Valley has trained hundreds of teachers and conducted thousands of home visits—all because they took that first step.

Ready to bring this transformation to your school? Training spots are open now. Link in bio to learn more about PTHV training opportunities.

08/03/2026

Every time Dr. Debbie Pushor said the words "family engagement" to a room full of education leaders in Saskatchewan, she watched the same thing happen: nothing. No shared picture, no common reference point, just blank faces staring back at her. Say "literacy," and people instantly picture a child holding a book.

The term, "Family engagement" gave them nothing to hold onto in the same way, and that gap is what eventually led her to home visits, a practice she already knew well through her connection with our team. On our latest podcast episode, Parent Engagement with Debbie Pushor talks about that turning point, and about how one tangible practice became part of a province-wide framework for family engagement in schools.

07/29/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined our recent Parent Teacher Home Visit Info Session! We’re grateful for your time, your questions, and your commitment to building stronger relationships between educators and families.

Interested in a one-on-one consultation?

If you’d like support thinking through how PTHV could look in your school, district, or organization, we’re happy to connect. A consultation is a chance to:

➡️ Talk through your local context, goals, and focus population(s)
➡️ Explore funding and compensation options for educators
➡️ Consider timelines for training and implementation
➡️ Get connected with resources, templates, and examples from our network

👉 Next step: Send us a message here or reach out via our website contact form to request a one-on-one consultation with a member of our team. https://pthvp.org/contact/

Stay tuned!
We’ll be announcing our next PTHV Info Session soon. Keep an eye on this page and our website for upcoming dates and registration details.

07/27/2026

Tomorrow, July 28, at 3:00 PM ET (12:00 PM PT), we're hosting a free, 45-minute Information Session for any school or district leader who wants a clear-eyed look at what Parent Teacher Home Visits actually is, and whether it fits where your community is headed.

Chronic absenteeism, family trust that keeps eroding, educators leaving the profession faster than districts can replace them: these challenges show up in nearly every conversation we have with school leaders, and most are still looking for something that treats the cause rather than managing the symptoms. Two national evaluations from Johns Hopkins University and RTI International found that schools using our model saw chronic absenteeism fall by 21 percent, with students growing 1.34 times more likely to reach proficiency in English Language Arts. We built tomorrow's session to walk through exactly how that happens, and what starting the practice in your own schools would actually look like.

The session runs live over Zoom, with the final 15 minutes set aside for your questions. If you have been wondering whether home visits could fit your district's strategy, tomorrow is built for that exact question. 👇🏽

07/24/2026

"There's no money for that."

That's what a young teacher and union leader in St. Paul heard, twice, from two different administrators, the first time he pitched home visits to his district. He could have taken the hint and moved on.

He didn't. Instead, he brought the idea to his union, found funding for a handful of trainings, and sent five or six educators on visits that same November. Minnesota winter hit right after, and for a while, the whole effort nearly stalled before it got off the ground.

A few years later, those first fifteen visits had grown into a few thousand, spread across more than forty schools, and written directly into union contract language.

Read how a district's "no" turned into one of the strongest home visit programs in the country. Link in the comments. 👇

07/23/2026

Every teacher walks into a new school year with assumptions already formed: about who struggles, who excels, and why. Home visits interrupt that pattern before it can take root. When an educator sits at a kitchen table instead of behind a desk, a parent becomes the expert in the room, describing the traditions, the languages, and the daily rhythms that shape how their child learns best.

Our guide, "Strengthening Community-Connected Classrooms," walks through exactly how that shift happens. It draws on research showing that home visits change more than a family's comfort with a school; they change what gets taught, how it gets taught, and whose knowledge counts as valuable inside the classroom. A teacher who learns that a student's grandmother tells stories every evening after dinner can bring oral tradition into a literacy lesson. One who learns a family manages three jobs between them can rethink how homework gets assigned.

The guide lays out six practical steps, from initial reflection through sustained practice, for any educator or school leader ready to move past one-time diversity trainings and into lasting instructional change.

Ready to learn more. 👇🏽

07/21/2026

The fall is a critical time to build relationships, foster belonging and set the expectation of strong attendance all year long. Join our friends for this important conversation.

💬Join us, the Institute for Educational Leadership and the campaign partners on Wednesday, August 5, from 12-1:30 p.m. PT / 3-4:30 p.m. ET for the third webinar in the 2026 Attendance Awareness Campaign series: Create Community in the Fall.
🔗 Register: https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/webinars/
Building a strong school community and a culture of attendance starts in the fall. By intentionally fostering belonging, communicating proactively with families and creating opportunities for students to thrive, schools lay the foundation for strong attendance, student well-being and academic success throughout the year.
In this free webinar, panelists will explore strategies for:
Establishing trusted relationships among staff, students and families
Promoting students’ healthy habits, learning and long-term success
Engaging the entire school community
📢 Don’t miss this free event.
Confirmed speakers:
▪️ Laura Thieman, Senior Manager, Student Attendance & Engagement, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
▪️ Ileana Rios, Dean, Falls Church High School, Fairfax, VA
▪️ Maria Martin, Dean, Falls Church High School, Fairfax, VA
▪️ Luis Murillo, Assistant Superintendent, Alamosa School District, CO
▪️ Scott Aldridge, Assistant Principal, Alamosa Elementary K-2, Alamosa, CO
▪️ Kwesi Rollins, Interim President, Institute for Educational Leadership
▪️ Elliott Attisha, Senior Fellow for Health, Attendance Works
▪️ Hedy Chang, CEO and President, Attendance Works
🔗 Register: https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/webinars/


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