Program model will be reduced

• Added 6 staff to the 24-hour alarm monitoring area to assure proper coverage 24/7. This group is responsible for monitoring and responding to alarms at district buildings.
• Added staff to 17 Elementary Schools
• Added 1 staff each to Downtown and Columbus Alternative High Schools for consistency at all high schools for entrance screenings and daily operational support
• Added 2 additional floaters who are available to assist operational needs district-wide.

• Total number of staff trained in "Introduction to Restorative Practices": 1,385 (17% of current staff)
• Total number of staff trained as Train-the-Trainers of Restorative Practices: 223 (3% of current staff)
• Total number of staff trained in Student-Led Restorative Practices: 221 (3% of current staff)
• Number of students trained in Student-Led Restorative Practices: 119
• 10 Pilot Schools for the 2024-2025 school year

Click here to view a video about Student-Led Restorative Practices.

The following information is reflective as of Summer 2024.

Summer Experience encompasses opportunities that expose students to a variety of interests. Students can partake in multicultural activities, arts programs, and educational experiences to explore diverse cultures, traditions, and perspectives, expanding their worldviews. Parental involvement is encouraged during these summer programs, which often provide resources, and opportunities for families to support their child's learning journey. Summer learning helps bridge the gap between academic years, ensuring a seamless transition back to school in the fall and setting students up for continued success.

Summer learning provides an exceptional opportunity for children to equip themselves for forthcoming academic challenges, cultivate effective study habits, and hone their organizational skills. This experience is pivotal in fostering the confidence necessary to maneuver through the rigors of the traditional school year. Students across all proficiency levels stand to gain from more than 150 minutes of intensive reading and math instruction, serving to enhance their academic prowess.

We have established long-standing partnerships with Franklin Park Conservatory, Junior Achievement, GiveBackHack, The Wexner Center, and The PAST Foundation. Last year, we expanded our list of partnerships to include We Amplify Voices, Cameron Mitchell, and The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio, among others. 

We are excited to announce that the CCS/City/Nationwide Children's Hospital has extended its partnership to provide Safety City support to all PK students attending the Summer Experience and in the community after the district's summer programming ends.

These partnerships are vital to our continued success and provide our community with the highest level of support. We want to reiterate our commitment to working closely with these organizations to achieve our shared goals. Which path will you choose #DiscoverYourPurpose

Elementary:

• 60-minute daily Math block for students participating in the Summer Experience.

• 75-minute daily English Language Arts (ELA) block for students participating in the Summer Experience.

• 75-minute daily Pathway block for students participating in Summer Experience. Pathway provides programs that enrich students' academic skills and knowledge in specific subjects, offering advanced learning opportunities beyond the standard curriculum.

  • In alignment with each pathway, community partners visit each building daily to provide additional resources, expertise, and support. These supplements enrich the services and programs offered by organizations.

  • Elementary Pathways include: Culinary Arts, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Entrepreneurship, 3GRG Gateway, World Languages & Cultures, Service-Learning, Health & Fitness, Urban Agriculture, STEM

• Each building warmly welcomed authors and ensured understanding. This event stimulates critical thinking skills as students analyze themes, characters, and narratives presented by the author. It encourages students to express their own ideas and creativity, empowering them to share their voices through writing and storytelling. 

• Each student participates in a variety of off-site experiences that are tailored to the enrichment paths, providing them with a distinctive immersive learning opportunity.

The Virtual Credit Advancement Program (VCAP) is now and extension on the Columbus Online Academy. We are excited to present the continued renovation of the Virtual Credit Advancement Program. VCAP has been redesigned, utilizing refreshed learning measures with a focus on accountability and integrity.  VCAP offers opportunities for all CCS students to complete courses through a district-approved online platform supported by highly qualified teachers. Teachers are available in person during the prescribed times identified by the high school (i.e., optional afterschool labs, scheduled VCAP period, etc.). To engage with VCAP, all students must be enrolled in the Columbus City Schools district.

FAMILY AMBASSADOR PROGRAM:

Family Ambassadors (FAs) serve as a liaison between school, home, and the community facilitating a partnership in support of student academic achievement.

• Establishes trusting relationships and serves as points of contact for families and the community.

• Facilitates multiple touch-points for parents and families for outreach and communication support.

• Facilitates family meetings and workshops in collaboration with school staff.

• Fosters relationships/partnerships with community partners and educational organizations to support student achievement and uplift whole-child supports.

• Maintains open communication with principal, school staff, families, and community partners.

• Provides opportunities for families to practice (with other families) new tips, tools, and strategies to support their children’s learning at home.

• Works with community agencies and groups for the purpose of obtaining support for needed services, professional workshops, and activities for families.

• Volunteers at and supports regional and district initiatives to foster meaningful connections and build trust with CCS families and community partners.

The Family Ambassador Team:

• 5 Regional Family Engagement Coordinators

• 123 Family Ambassadors

  • 14 multilingual Family Ambassadors

  • 2 Family Ambassadors at Central Enrollment

Highlights of the work:

Welcome Back Initiative August 1-31, 2024

The CCS Welcome Back Initiative is a multi-tiered approach designed to support families in starting the school year informed and prepared, particularly focusing on key dates and transportation details. At Tier 1, general family outreach includes robo calls with reminders about the first day of school, the back-to-school resource fair, and transportation information. Tier 2 involves Family Ambassadors conducting targeted outreach to families with a 7%–15% absenteeism rate and to new families entering transitional grades such as kindergarten, sixth, and ninth. At Tier 3, the Engagement Department sends personalized welcome-back postcards to chronically absent students (10%–35% absenteeism rate), which include first-day details, fair information, and a link to the Parent Portal for transportation support. Together, these strategies aim to increase engagement and improve attendance from the very start of the school year.

Professional Development & Training

Year-long professional development series with Scholastic Family Engagement in Education Team.

August 2024- Family Ambassador Bootcamp- Leading Family Engagement Initiatives

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the link between family engagement and student achievement. 

• Articulate key findings from foundational and current family engagement research. 

• Examine the Core Beliefs for engaging families.

• Explore and analyze the role and responsibilities of family engagement staff to determine alignment for improving academic outcomes for students.

• Recognize how incorporating the process conditions in family engagement initiatives strengthens families’ capacity to support student academic achievement. 

October 2024- Leading Family Engagement Initiatives Session 2

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the research on family engagement, including a deep dive into the Dual-Capacity Building Framework.

• Engage in activities to better understand the role of family engagement staff.

• Learn tools to assess your current practices and develop a year-long action plan aligned to student learning.

• Use communication templates to keep leadership, school staff, and families updated on the work of family engagement staff. 

December 2024- Reflective Coaching Model Introduction

January 2025- Leading Family Engagement Initiatives Session 3

Learning Outcomes:

Family Ambassador Role 

• Mide-year role Clarity

• Roles, Responsibilities and Expectations

• Priority v. Reality

• Maximizing Your Role

  1. Family Engagement MOVES

     1. Random – Linked – Aligned

  2. Linked to Learning Challenge

Building Adult Capacity

• Process Conditions Review

• Elevating Family Engagement Events

• Strategic Plan Alignment

Putting it into Practice

• Family Engagement Event/Activity Planning

March 2025- Leading Family Engagement Initiatives Bootcamp Refresh

Learning Outcomes:

• Review and understand the importance of balancing the role and responsibilities of the family ambassador to improve student academic outcomes.

• Understand how to elevate family engagement events from traditional to capacity building.

• Recognize how incorporating the 6 process conditions in family engagement initiatives strengthen families’ capacities to support student achievement.

Family Outreach & Interactions

• Over 91,000 hours of service to CCS families through international outreach and goal-link family engagement activities.

• 6,209 connections out of 8,385 attempts

• Average duration: 9 minutes

• Phone and In-person methods

• Topics discussed: academics, advocacy, barriers to attending school, community connections and resource referrals.

• Building level events

  • 873 total events across all buildings

  • 80,791 attendees

  • Family Ambassadors lead or co-lead goal-linked events aligned to district and school goals with school staff centered around academics outcomes and capacity building of families.

Panorama Survey Support

• The CCS Family Ambassadors were given the important goal of increasing participation in the Spring 2025 Panorama Survey by 10%. To support them in this effort, each ambassador was equipped with targeted tools, strategies, and best practices by the district Family Engagement team designed to enhance family engagement and outreach. As a result of their dedicated and coordinated efforts, the spring survey saw an increase in participation for the first time since its inception—marking a meaningful shift and a testament to the impact of intentional, relationship-driven engagement.

BILINGUAL ENGAGEMENT LIAISON PROGRAM:

The work of our Bilingual Engagement Liaisons (BELs) is grounded in the principles of Family and Community Engagement and closely aligned with the mission of the Office of Engagement. BELs serve as vital bridge-builders between families and schools, helping families navigate the educational system with confidence and support. Their outreach includes home visits, phone calls, and in-person meetings at schools and within the community to ensure families feel connected, informed, and empowered.

This work includes (but not limited to):

Meeting with EL families related to parent/student success, such as:

• Academics

• Matriculation and graduation

• Attendance challenges

• Technology

• SEL

• Parent Portal

• Access to CCS

• Community services

• Facilitating family support as identified by a school attendance team (social workers)

• Assisting principals on school-wide events (Open Houses but not Parent-Teacher Conferences)

• Providing support on district-led events/initiatives through the Engagement Office.

The Bilingual Engagement Liaison team:

• 12 Bilingual Engagement Liaisons:

  • 4 Spanish speaking BELs

  • 2 Somali/Maay Maay BELs

  • 2 Nepali BELs

  • 1 Arabic speaking BEL

  • 1 Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, and French speaking BEL

  • 1 Pasto/Dari speaking BEL

  • 1 Haitian Creole speaking BEL

Highlights of the work:

Attendance Outreach Efforts

The Bilingual Engagement Liaisons (BELs) have taken a strategic, data-driven approach to support English Language Learner (ELL) families, focusing on students with moderate to severe attendance issues. In collaboration with the Family Engagement and CCS Data Specialist, students were identified for tier 2 and 3 outreach based on attendance data disaggregated by primary home language-specifically Spanish, Somali and Maay Maay, Nepali, French, Arabic, and Kinyarwanda. Using this information, BELs provided personalized, culturally responsive support through calls, home visits, and in-person meetings. As a result, ELL students were 21% less likely to be absent than their non-ELL peers, highlighting the impact of these targeted efforts.

Central Enrollment

In August, September, and October, Bilingual Engagement Liaisons (BELs) played a key role at the Central Enrollment Center, welcoming families in their native languages and providing hands-on support throughout the enrollment process. Their presence helped families navigate a complex system with ease while creating a warm, affirming introduction to Columbus City Schools. This work reflects our commitment to making every family feel seen, supported, and valued from the very start of their journey.

Parent Portal

Each month, Bilingual Engagement Liaisons (BELs) received lists of families who had not yet activated their Parent Portal accounts and proactively reached out to offer personalized support. Beyond helping with technical setup, BELs explained the value of the Parent Portal as a key tool for staying involved in their child's education. They provided hands-on guidance to help families navigate the platform and use features like attendance tracking, grade monitoring, and school communication—empowering families to engage more deeply in their child's academic success.

Currently, four Spanish-speaking BELs serve more than 5,000 Spanish-speaking English Learner (EL) families. To maintain momentum and continue closing opportunity gaps, there is a clear and pressing need to expand our team—particularly by adding more Spanish- and Somali-speaking BELs. Doing so will help ensure more equitable, timely, and culturally responsive support for all families.

Dashboard Information: Interaction Log

• 3,607 Interactions

• 4,411 attempts

• Average time spent

• 60.1% by phone

• 16.6% by text

• Interacted the most with Regions 4, 1, and 5

• Discussion topics- Attendance, Parent Portal, and Academics

• Barriers to attending school- transportation, SEL supports, and Before/After school care

REGIONAL FAMILY ENGAGEMENT COORDINATORS:

This position plays a critical leadership role in advancing Columbus City Schools’ Family Engagement (FE) strategy by fostering strong, equity-centered connections between families, schools, and community stakeholders. The focus is on promoting whole-child investment and ensuring all families—particularly those with K–12 students—have access to high-quality programs and support. The role of the Regional Family Engagement Coordinator emphasizes collaboration, communication, and capacity-building to create inclusive, impactful engagement opportunities across the district.

Key responsibilities include recruiting and managing Family Ambassadors, aligning engagement efforts with district goals, and evaluating program effectiveness through data and metrics. The Regional Family Engagement Coordinator also serves as the primary point of contact for Ambassadors within the assigned region, ensuring alignment with district and department goals and expectations, supporting regional communication efforts, and coordinating professional development. Through cross-departmental collaboration and ongoing relationship-building with community partners, the coordinator plays an essential role in driving family engagement that supports student success.

Professional Development Focus ‘Coaching of Coaches’

During the CCS Professional Development Days, a year-long “Coaching of Coaches” program was held in collaboration with the Scholastic Family Engagement team to support the FE (Family Engagement) team in implementing and sustaining strong home-school partnerships. These sessions focused on key concepts essential to effective coaching and family engagement, including guided reflection on the HarvardX Family Engagement in Education course, exploration and application of the Dual Capacity Building Framework, and the distinction between coaching and supervising. Participants also engaged in developing tools and templates for coaching Family Ambassadors, introduced to the NAFSCE Core Competencies, and received side-by-side support as they practiced implementing coaching strategies. Additionally, teams collaborated on drafting one-year action plans, creating tracking systems for family engagement initiatives, and utilizing data to align efforts with broader district and school goals.

Highlights of the Work:

• Regional Core Team Member.

• Providing coaching and support to 20-22 Family Ambassadors and schools within their region.

• Coordinate and facilitate hiring and onboarding process of new Family Ambassador.

• Bi-weekly invoice processing.

• Weekly virtual and on-site touch base with Family Ambassadors to support the development and implementation of school-based family engagement efforts.

• Data-dashboard reviews and monthly/quarterly reports to building administrators to support Title I create Family Engagement evidence collection.

• Plan and implement one-on-one Reflective Coaching sessions with Family Ambassadors.

• Create regional S'more newsletters to highlight the family engagement efforts for key stakeholders including Family Ambassadors, Principals, Area Superintendents.

• Participate in and lead family and community engagement events, special projects, professional development, and staff meetings. 

343 students currently enrolled 7-12 program.

June 2024 graduates:

• 53 (2024 cohort)
• 7 (2025 cohort)

August 2024 graduates:

• 1 (2024 cohort)
• 1 (2025 cohort)

The early grads are a good highlight. The COA program allows student flexibility and the ability to accelerate, earn more credits than a traditional school and graduate early:) Students from brick and mortar schools have also joined online classes when they need acceleration, but it is not available at their home school. Eight students from World Language Middle School take geometry with Columbus Online Academy. We have had this partnership for the past three years. 

Teachers use district resources including:

• Canvas
• Apex
• Study Sync
• Aleks

Daily morning meetings

Quarterly in person mixers

In-person assistance is available to students at least one day each week.

Students have access to the same resources as traditional schools: counselors, social workers, matriculation coach, participation in extra curricular activities at home schools etc. 

District Math Professional Development Days: