Written by Jordan Galerkin 
Running a family engagement program at a K-12 school is no small task. You’re juggling schedules, organizing events, chasing down volunteer hours, and trying to keep parents motivated while balancing limited time and resources. The question is: how do you actually know if your school volunteer program is effective?
Introducing our Family Engagement Program Evaluation Workbook: a self-guided tool created specifically for parent volunteer coordinators to help you find where your program is successful and where you can improve!
This free self-guided e-workbook, Evaluate Your Family Engagement Program and Bring it to the Next Level, is packed with data-based prompts, scoring guides, and strategy tips. It’s designed specifically for coordinators like YOU who want to make a measurable difference and create a stronger, more sustainable volunteer program at their school.
Why Evaluate Your Family Engagement Program?
Evaluating your parent volunteer program or family engagement program helps measure current parent participation and identify areas for improvement. With proper measurement and understanding of how your program compares to other private and charter schools, you'll be able to increase school community involvement, understand what motivates parent volunteers, and build a stronger, more inclusive family engagement strategy.
Schools with structured volunteer programs consistently report better parent engagement, improved communication, and higher rates of fulfilled volunteer hour requirements.
What You'll Get out of the Family Engagement Workbook
Here's what you can expect to learn and accomplish from the workbook:
✅ Audit your current program
How many parents are actually engaging? Are your requirements working? Are you offering the right mix of volunteer opportunities?
✅ Identify the biggest blockers
Discover what’s preventing greater parent and family participation, and get ideas on how to remove those barriers.
✅ Evaluate your incentive and penalty system
Explore whether your fee structures are motivating or alienating parents, and how to adjust them.
✅ Uncover gaps in opportunity
Learn whether you’re offering enough diverse and inclusive volunteer options — including remote, in-school, and family-based activities.
✅ Assess your tracking system
Find out if your method for logging hours is helping or hindering your goals.
✅ Get a final score
Tally your responses to see where your program stands: Needs Improvement, Proficient, Advanced, or Outstanding.
You'll also evaluate key components of your parent volunteer program, such as:
- Volunteer hour tracking systems
- Overall program structure and management
- Variety and accessibility of volunteer opportunities
- Penalties or incentives for required service hours
At the end, you’ll walk away with a final score and ideas on how to improve your program and increase engagement.
The Importance of a Parent Volunteer Program Evaluation
Engagement and volunteerism go hand-in-hand. Engaged families will volunteer more, donate more, and participate more in their children’s education. Private schools and charter schools that actively measure and improve their family engagement programs see higher participation, better communication, and improved educational outcomes on average.
The result? Stronger community ties and better student outcomes.
And according to Track it Forward’s latest survey data, schools that use structured engagement programs and reliable tracking tools often report parent engagement rates of over 80%.
Ready to See Where Your Parent Program Stands?
Whether you're confident in your current setup or you know there’s room to grow, this workbook will help bring clarity and direction to your school’s parent and family engagement strategy. It’s time to stop guessing and start measuring.
Download the Family Engagement Evaluation Workbook today!
Looking for more insights on parent and family engagement in schools? Check out these articles and guides: