By Erin and Carrie Basas, guest blogger

Time for another BINGO board. With many schools and programs not convening in person, family engagement has taken on new meaning. The new COVID19 ways of working is also heightening the inequality we’ve known exist but was masked or held together when programs were in-person session. Now with stay-at-home orders to keep the transmission of COVID19 at bay we are seeing family engagement by schools and programs take on new practices, some of them not helpful.

Below is a BINGO board partially put together out of jest, a dash of frustration, and mostly shared to remind people to continue to look for better ways of engaging with families — especially families of color.

Notes: The term parent is shorthand for parents and caregivers, inclusive of kinship care providers, and anyone helping to raise children or heavily involved in children’s lives. Families is inclusive of whomever you consider family.

B	I	N	G	O
Assuming families aren’t engaged in schools’ efforts	Blaming families for technology failures	Blaming families for attendance issues during this time, aka kid not online during assigned times	Failing to simplify multiple technology platforms	Providing support only in English OR providing it only online
Treating disability (either for student or parent) as pitiable	Assuming parents’ concerns are too emotional	Waiting for parents to reach out to share concerns	Only communicating with parents about students’ downfalls and weaknesses	Sending long, complicated, jargon-filled emails to parents and doing so only in English
Not including families in district or state-level decision-making of any kind (Don’t limit your efforts to silo-ed “family engagement” committees.)	Talking about SEL* for kids while not realizing the SEL impacts on families and students right now (as well as on teachers)	FREE SPACE:  Stay home, stay safe	Inferring parents do not value academics because they haven’t sent in online work, video clips, etc.	Asking about academics only, not asking families about their basic needs during COVID19 (e.g. housing, food, health, etc.)
Partnering with only larger organizations to speak for families of color	Listening to majority white parents and not reaching out to families of color	Assumes children have their own dedicated devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, etc.)	Makes busy work for families to keep them “engaged” with the school or program	Sending surveys to parents online as family engagement; nevermind families without internet access won’t be able to take the survey
Tells families to practice “self-care.” Self-care is important but saying this to a family in crisis because of COVID19 stress can be condescending	Invalidates family’s concerns “Don’t worry, your child will be fine next school year,” “Look at the bright side, you get to spend time with your child,” etc.	Demanding parents participate “Please make sure you and your child are online at 1.00 p.m.”	Uses the word equity as a proxy for another word (e.g. students of color, poverty, Black/African American, POC, etc.)	Forgetting child development and racial equity principles, etc. and expecting kids to want to engage in what adults plan online

*SEL — Social Emotional Learning

Here is a list of the BINGO board square text in list form, with some additional explainations:

• Assuming families aren’t engaged in schools’ efforts
• Blaming families for technology failures 
• Blaming families for attendance issues during this time, aka kid not online during assigned times
• Failing to simplify multiple technology platforms
• Providing support only in English OR providing it only online
• Treating disability (either for student or parent) as pitiable
• Assuming parents’ concerns are too emotional
• Waiting for parents to reach out to share concerns
• Only communicating with parents about students’ downfalls and weaknesses
• Sending long, complicated, jargon-filled emails to parents and doing so only in English
• Not including families in district or state-level decision-making of any kind (Don’t limit your efforts to silo-ed “family engagement” committees.)
• Talking about SEL* for kids while not realizing the SEL impacts on families and students right now (as well as on teachers)
• FREE SPACE: Stay home, stay safe
• Inferring parents do not value academics because they haven’t sent in online work, video clips, etc.
• Asking about academics only, not asking families about their basic needs during COVID19 (e.g. housing, food, health, etc.)
• Partnering with only larger organizations to speak for families of color
• Listening to majority white parents and not reaching out to families of color
• Assumes children have their own dedicated devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, etc.)
• Makes busy work for families to keep them “engaged” with the school or program
• Sending surveys to parents online as family engagement; nevermind families without internet access won’t be able to take the survey
• Tells families to practice “self-care.” Self-care is important but saying this to a family in crisis because of COVID19 stress can be condescending
• Invalidates family’s concerns “Don’t worry, your child will be fine next school year,” “Look at the bright side, you get to spend time with your child,” etc.
• Demanding parents participate, ex. “Please make sure you and your child are online at 1.00 p.m.”
• Uses the word equity as a proxy for another word (e.g. students of color, poverty, Black/African American, POC, etc.)
• Forgetting child development and racial equity principles, etc. and expecting kids to want to engage in what adults plan online

We can do better when we slow down and remember racial equity principles and work to include families of color in informing our work, including students. If you have questions about why some of these may be on the BINGO board please ask a friend to talk it through.

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Guest blogger: Carrie Basas works in education advocacy and formerly in civil rights law, specializing in disabilities rights. Formerly she was a law professor impressing upon law students the importance of understanding race and its impact on people. Carrie has a MEd in Education Policy, Organizations and Leadership from the University of Washington. She earned a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School and an Honors B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Sociology/Anthropology from Swarthmore College. However, her biggest claim to fame is her fashion weekend wear while hanging with her family and dog.

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