Teacher Toolbox
Classroom Management - Behavior in the Classroom

Family Communication

When working with a Behavior Management Plan, it is important to collaborate with the student’s family. Frequent communication with the home can help provide feedback about using the appropriate behavior. Also, it can help to minimize confusion about incidents that occurred at school.

Communication Suggestions
  • Determine the type of information that would be most useful to support the student in both the family and educational settings.

    Communication Folder
    Example: Images, folders, and schedules that the child uses at school could be duplicated at home to keep the behavior reinforcement consistent.

  • Establish a point person at school to direct and respond to the communications. The point person could be the lead teacher or a school counselor. It needs to be someone who works closely with the student and understands the issues.
  • Decide how the communications between home and school need to be sent (e.g. e-mail, notes, telephone calls, folders carried by the child).
  • Decide how often the communications need to be passed between home and school.

Establishing a consistent communication system with families is necessary to provide support for the student. Also, it demonstrates to the student that the instructors and the parents are working in a unified manner to help the student improve his or her behavior and provide stability.

Sample Form

Sample Form

In the Sample Behavior Management Plan for CW, family communication includes these points.

1. Daily notes will be sent in CW's communication or school folder.

2. A weekly summary of the behavior will be emailed to the family.

3. Information sent to CW's family will include how often he signaled the instructor, the effectiveness of the redirection, and the use of the tally and sticker system.

4. A weekly summary will consist of the current week's progress and will compare to prior weeks. It will note any intervention changes.