McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY Cara Murdoch and Sherry Rocha, MS.Ed. | April 14, 2025

This document may be printed, photocopied, and disseminated freely with attribution. All content is the property of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership.

What is “Family Engagement?” Early childhood program administrators often hear that they should “engage” families in order to best meet the needs of children and ensure understanding of their programming. Family engagement is a partnership with the families in your program. It can develop and grow from birth to school age, and change with circumstances. Family engagement may look different from family to family and can also contain some similar qualities from family to family.


Why Engage Families?


What happens when we engage families? Engagement can have a lasting effect and sets the stage for a positive future, for both the child and the family.

Family engagement includes actions, habits, and collaborations which can change as the child ages.


Who should Engage Families?


Directors are the first to engage the family, but it doesn’t stop there. The classroom teacher and other staff need to get involved as well.


How to Engage Families


In your daily work as program administrators, many of the things you are already doing contribute to family engagement and help families feel secure in their decision to use your facility to help care for and teach their children.

These can include:


  • Sharing photos you take with parents
  • Talking with parents at enrollment about important items in your parent handbook
  • Learning about each child’s developmental history
  • Greeting each child and parent daily
  • Sending at-home activities for parents and children to do together


Directors and teachers need to be responsive, strengths-based, accessible, and effective. There are surveys that can help directors and teachers to understand family needs. They can help identify things like time constraints that might make it difficult for families to engage in program activities.


Get creative as you see the needs in your area. Involve other agencies, businesses, and other programs. Establish collaborations within your community that can help each family in your program. Offer volunteer opportunities for the caregivers to get involved with the program and classroom. Continually invite feedback from the families. Make sure parents and relatives know that they can volunteer to read books or share information about the family customs etc.


One specific example could be to have the program stay open a little longer for a day and offer a meal as parents pick up children. Parents and children can eat together, then have time for separate parent and child activities. Invite a speaker to come for the parent session on a topic of interest while children complete a planned activity.


What do your families need?


To determine how best to help families and encourage relationships that grow, remember to consider family structures. There are many types of family structures today. Learn about your families, how they say their names, who is important in each child’s life, and how you can understand and support them.



The environment in your child care center or home shows what is important to you. It comes through in your engagement with families, the displays families see, and the organization of your child care space. Looking over your environment can be a starting place for directors and teachers as you imagine how it feels to someone who has never entered your space before.


This first engagement can lead to engaging other families and the community, and it can set the stage for continued engagement with the schools and community as the child ages.


Some family engagement ideas:


  • Potlucks
  • Reading nights
  • Date nights
  • Resource nights
  • Food pantries
  • Health departments
  • Library days
  • Community gardens
  • Host social events
  • Participate in community events
  • Host fun and educational activities


In closing, start implementing your strategies for engaging families. Keep it as an item for your staff meetings so new ideas always come forward. The better you get to know your families, the stronger your program will be.

Cara Murdoch, B.A., is an assessor and training specialist at the McCormick Institute, Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University. Cara earned a baccalaureate degree in art and psychology and a lifetime teaching certificate for Art K-12 from Culver-Stockton College. Previously, Cara was a Quality Specialist. She spent 20 years in the Early Childhood Education field in classroom settings and as an assistant director. Cara initiated, advised, and was a consultant in the development of the year-round Essentials Preschool Curriculum for Gospel Publishing House.



Sherry Rocha, MS.Ed., is an assessor and training specialist at the McCormick Institute, Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University. She holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in multicultural education. Sherry has been dedicated to children and their welfare, safety, and emotional growth for over 30 years. She designed Nurturing Creativity in Children, a curriculum that won a national award from the National Extension Association of Family Consumer Sciences (NEAFCS), and was the recipient of additional awards for state and regional diversity work as the leader of the Education and Community committees of the Chicago Latino Coalition for Prevention. Sherry took the lead in creating the coalition’s video, Choosing Quality Childcare, in Spanish with subtitles in English.

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The AI-Enabled Administrator: Reclaim Valuable Time

By Dr. Neal Green • February 8, 2026
Tools: Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, Perplexity Spaces Overview The evidence is clear that early childhood professionals' most significant challenge is a lack of time. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, when used strategically, can give administrators some of the time they desperately need, allowing them to focus more on their staff and the children and families in their care. This approach aligns with the foundational goal of strengthening leadership effectiveness and program impact (Abel, Talan, & Masterson, 2023). When I scan the AI landscape of available products and platforms, it becomes overwhelming. There are so many options that it is impossible to keep up with every new development. Focusing on a limited number of AI tools backed by organizations with strong infrastructure and fiscal stability is a wise place to start your AI journey. McCormick Institute for Early Childhood’s (MIEC’s) upcoming professional development sessions will focus on three AI tools. These include Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, and Perplexity Spaces. Think of Gemini Gems as your customized AI assistant that you "train" to follow your rules and meet your goals. Gemini Gems are the right tool to tackle Internal Operations . NotebookLM is perfect for creating Family Support resources that stick. NotebookLM is a powerful AI tool that uses only the documents or other resources you add to generate specific, focused output. Perplexity Spaces is a fantastic choice to address Marketing demands. Like many AI tools, you can toggle back and forth between open web searches and focused documents that are specific to your work. Gemini Gems: The “Specialist Teammate” Gemini Gems allow you to create templates you can use repeatedly for agendas, HR policies, and more. If you have used AI in the past, you know that writing an effective prompt takes time, and they can easily get "lost" if you use AI often. Gems removes that challenge and lets you save your most effective prompts without having to rewrite them every time you use Gemini. It is up to you to decide if you want to create several smaller Gems to tackle common challenges you face or create larger Gems that encompass large swaths of your work. For our purposes, we will focus our Gem work on Internal Operations, addressing Program Administration Scale (PAS) Item 9: Internal Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). Imagine using a Gem to turn messy staff meeting notes into professional minutes with clear action plans in minutes or less! NotebookLM: The "Walled Garden" NotebookLM is an excellent tool for Family Support for your center, addressing PAS Item 17: Family Support and Involvement (Talan & Bloom, 2011). After uploading documents and resources, such as your parent handbook or community referral lists, to your Notebook, you can create several resources that parents/guardians of your center students will love. Just a few of the impressive features available with NotebookLM include audio (podcast) summaries, video summaries, and reporting functions with templates or the option to create your own report with metrics that matter most to you. Perplexity Spaces: The "Research Librarian" Perplexity Spaces is a perfect AI partner for Marketing your early childhood education (ECE) program, addressing PAS Item 18: External Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). You can build your own centralized repository, with control over branding to ensure consistency and present a professional, current image. Adding specific instructions to your space eliminates the need to format documents constantly and saves valuable time. The consistency that a Perplexity Space offers in this regard allows you to upload messages that are the "voice” of your brand. Your marketing efforts are not only more aesthetically pleasing but also enable you to track trends at similar centers in your area, helping you assess the competition. Strategies for Success: Audit your Internal Communications: Identify one repetitive task, such as creating staff meeting agendas (PAS Item 9), and automate it with a Gemini Gem. Curate your Family Resources: Gather three to five existing documents to "feed" a NotebookLM project for more responsive family support (PAS Item 17). Standardize your Brand: Use a Perplexity Space to ensure all public relations tools project a consistent, professional image (PAS Item 18). Reflection Questions: Which administrative task takes the most time away from your interactions with staff and families? How might centralizing marketing materials (branding) impact the professional image to prospective families? Table 1: AI Tools for ECE Professionals
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