Collaboration with Families, Guardians, and the Community
Families and community partners expand what educators can know and provide. Coordination turns separate goodwill into a more coherent support system.
The official Element
Element 6D: Teachers collaborate with families, guardians, and community partners to develop and use a common language, strategies, and communication around in-school and out-of-school learning experiences and to align services and initiatives that affect each student’s growth and well-being.
What this Element asks of an educator
Families and community partners expand what educators can know and provide. Coordination turns separate goodwill into a more coherent support system.
Read together, these indicators ask educators to make collaboration with families, guardians, and the community visible in planning, teaching, student experience, and follow-through. The aim is not to display every indicator in every lesson, but to understand the full range of the Element and select a focused practice to develop with evidence.
Official Example Indicators—and an SDLA reading
The Commission presents Example Indicators as illustrations rather than a comprehensive or required checklist. Their sequence shows the breadth of this Element and gives teachers, mentors, and coaches a shared language for focused development.
Engage in experiences where they respectfully listen to and…
Official indicator: Engage in experiences where they respectfully listen to and learn from families, guardians, and community partners about the diverse assets and needs in the communities represented by their students.
Work with families
Official indicator: Work with families, guardians, and community partners to identify local academic and social–emotional support services, including trauma, health, and mental health resources, that can be directed toward improving the well-being of students.
Participate
Official indicator: Participate, with families, guardians, local education agencies, and community partners, in efforts to coordinate in-school and out-of-school care, learning, and enrichment opportunities.
Support school relationships with universities and businesses to create…
Official indicator: Support school relationships with universities and businesses to create extended learning opportunities and to get updated information about what students need to know and be able to do, upon graduation, for college and career success.
Participate in the development of formal learning plans
Official indicator: Participate in the development of formal learning plans, student study teams, Individual Education Programs (IEPs), and support plans that provide insights from each teacher’s area of instructional expertise to help ensure that specialized instructional supports for students are authentic and meaningful.
Developing the practice
Name a precise growth problem
Turn a broad aspiration into one observable practice, an action, and evidence to revisit.
Learn with other people
Use students, families, colleagues, specialists, mentors, and community partners as sources of knowledge and feedback.
Protect trust and sustainability
Attend to ethics, equity, legal responsibilities, professional boundaries, follow-through, and personal well-being.
Evidence worth noticing
- a focused professional goal connected to student experience
- reflection records showing a decision, action, evidence, and revision
- collaboration artifacts documenting roles, feedback, and follow-through
- an ethical, equity, or workload decision with its reasoning and observed effect
Evidence caution: No single artifact proves accomplished practice. Interpret evidence in context, center student experience and learning, use multiple sources, and avoid collecting identifiable information that is not necessary.
A pinch of data integration and digital learning
Digital systems can organize information, improve access, coordinate work, or shorten a feedback loop. They are valuable only when the educator can explain the human decision they support, the information they require, and how privacy, accessibility, equity, and professional responsibility are protected.
Remind Hub
Explore how a communication platform may make two-way family contact more timely and accessible.
Questions for reflection and coaching
- Where is collaboration with families, guardians, and the community already visible in my practice, and what evidence supports that judgment?
- Which students experience the current approach differently from the way I intend?
- Which official indicator names the most important next area for growth?
- What is one affordable, manageable adjustment I can test, and what will I look for afterward?
- Whose perspective—student, family, colleague, specialist, or community partner—would improve the next decision?
Continuum of Teaching Practice: Element 6D
This Element-specific continuum describes how practice develops from Emerging through Innovating. Compare the teacher-practice descriptions with the related evidence in students’ experience, then identify a current strength and a purposeful next step.
How to understand and use this continuum for professional growth
- Begin at Emerging and read across. Practices described at earlier levels carry forward even when they are not repeated.
- Use evidence gathered over time to identify the description that most closely reflects current practice.
- A teacher may be at different levels in different Elements, regardless of years in the profession.
- Changes in students, content, grade level, school, or responsibilities may appropriately shift practice in either direction.
- Use the continuum for reflection and goal setting, not as a stand-alone observation or evaluation instrument.
Select a level to expand it. Select it again to return to the full comparison.
Teacher practice
The teacher listens to families, guardians, and community partners.
Teacher practice
The teacher learns about community assets and needs and begins identifying support services with families and partners.
Teacher practice
The teacher consistently engages with families, guardians, and partners to understand assets and needs.
The teacher supports coordinating services, learning experiences, and enrichment opportunities.
The teacher supports school, family, and community partnerships.
Teacher practice
The teacher facilitates regular, in-depth collaboration with a range of educational partners.
The teacher aligns in-school and out-of-school services and enrichment.
The teacher participates in developing meaningful, specialized learning plans.
Teacher practice
The teacher establishes systems for ongoing community engagement and coordination.
The teacher ensures learning plans incorporate insights from all relevant experts.
The teacher advocates for resources and partnerships to support student growth and well-being.
Source and attribution: Continuum language reproduced from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Continuum of Teaching Practice (2025), aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession (2024). This publication by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing is not copyright. It may be reproduced in the public interest, but proper attribution is requested.