City schools will push for more ‘family connections,’ parent involvement, Chancellor Carmen Fariña says is the headline of a New York Daily News article.

Here’s are some excerpts:

Family engagement at schools will be getting an overhaul, the city schools boss tells the Daily News. Changes include longer one-on-one parent-teacher conferences, workshops for parents and support for GED and English as a Second Language classes for moms and dads…

…. In November there will be one-on-one parent-teacher conferences — with the student present.

Fariña said the by-appointment, 15-minute meetings on academic progress would be more effective than in previous years, when parents would stand in line for fleeting face time with their kids’ teacher.

It’s all part of a new model — codified in the new teachers contract — that allows teachers to devote at least 40 minutes of every school week to meetings with parents.

“I personally don’t think a PTA meeting is a good measure of whether parents are engaged in schools,” said Fariña, explaining the need for a new approach.

You can read my previous posts about Chancellor Fariña’s parent involvement efforts here.