Hawai'i Statewide Family Engagement Center

Our purpose is to implement high impact family engagement strategies, programming and policies that build powerful partnerships among family, school, and community. We promote Family Engagement as a learning and equity strategy to improve student academic success and school improvement.

Support for our Maui Communities

The Hawaiʻi Statewide Family Engagement Center extends our deepest aloha and support to all of our partners, families, and educators who have been impacted by the devastation of recent events throughout Maui. To those who have lost loved ones and homes in Lāhainā and elsewhere, we extend our most heartfelt condolences. At this time, we would like to share some resources with any and all folks in need of support. We are honored to be a small part of such a special and strong community, and we are here to support you. Please visit and/or share the Center on Disability Studies (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa) website to access resources for emergency and disaster helplines, assistance finding loved ones, shelter and housing assistance, opportunities to donate to various funds, mental health support, news, and more.

Me ke aloha,
The HFEC Team

NAFSCE Reframing Academy Course

Registration now open for online course

The National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) Reframing Academy is a ten-module, asynchronous course for family engagement leaders who want to learn more effective ways to build support for family and community engagement. How? Through proven communication and messages we can all use! The Hawaiʻi Statewide Family Engagement Center proudly sponsors this learning opportunity with the National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement (NAFSCE). View the flyer for directions on how to access this $100 course for free through HFEC.

Learners in this cohort will participate in four virtual meetings (dates provided in the flyer) as they complete the virtual course. In the first session, participants will receive a code to access the course and a copy of the course learning journal. The facilitator will share contextual information about the development of the course and materials. Between courses, participants will complete specific Academy modules. The final three sessions will be spent discussing the Academy content in an organized and meaningful way. A certificate will be given upon completion of the ten modules.

Introduction to Family Engagement: The Link to Improving Student Achievement

Registration now open for online course

Introduction to Family Engagement is a free, self-paced, online, asynchronous course for educators and families developed by the Hawai‛i Statewide Family Engagement Center. Participants will be able to identify and adopt evidence-based family engagement practices that support their school’s current curriculum (within the unique Hawaiian context of the Nā Hopena A‛o Framework) in assessing and teaching ALL students, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

Earn a Certificate by completing the following:

Five self-paced modules
Four multiple choice quizzes
One assignment
Post-course survey

What is Family Engagement?

Our center has adopted the Dual Capacity-Building Framework and the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) definition of family engagement:

Family engagement is a shared responsibility in which schools and other community agencies and organizations are committed to reaching out to engage families in meaningful ways and in which families are committed to actively supporting their children’s learning and development.
Family engagement is continuous across a child’s life and entails enduring commitment but changing parent roles as children mature into young adulthood.
Effective family engagement cuts across and reinforces learning in the multiple settings where children learn- at home, in prekindergarten programs, in school, in after school programs, in faith-based institutions, and in the community.

Our Mission

To promote high impact activities and policies that build powerful partnerships among family, school, and community in order to enhance child development and student achievement.