Title:                      Deputy, Parent & Family Services

Department:         Student Support Services

Reports To:          Chief, Student Support Services  

Salary Range:      $128,954 - $168,387

For forward-thinking administrators and educators opportunities abound in the School District of Philadelphia.  The School District of Philadelphia is committed to transforming the education opportunities it offers the city’s 200,000 school-aged children. The district seeks administrators who have a passion for working with children, families and community partners and who are committed to ensuring all students achieve. Serving a population as diverse as ours requires creativity, commitment and vision.  Will you join us?

Job Summary

The active engagement of parents and families is critical to the improvement of student achievement and overall performance of the School District of Philadelphia. The Deputy for Parent Coordination and Services is responsible for directing and coordinating outreach to parents to involve them in the achievement of the goals of their children’s schools.  The Deputy will also lead the launch of a School Advisory Council (SAC) in every school and establishes clear processes for parent and family input and ideas.  Ensuring parents receive important information regularly about their children’s progress and how to support that progress is an important function of this job. The Deputy is also expected to provide parents and families with excellent customer service. 

Essential Functions

•   Support parents’ efforts to be more actively and meaningfully engaged in supporting their children’s educational needs.

•   Expand the establishment of School Advisory Councils (SACs) to include every school in the District, and work to increase the number of parents participating in school-based and parent groups.

•   Establish, publicize and monitor for quality clear consistent avenues for parents and families to express and resolve concerns.

•   Seek family input and feedback through appropriate means, such as surveys, customer service audit, focus groups, and/or town hall meetings, on the effectiveness of our schools and our key departments.

•   Create and coordinate professional development training for teachers and principals on two-way communication strategies and strategies to support learning in the home.

•   Provide parents and families with information that articulates our expectations for all students and a parent’s role in their child’s learning.  Information should include evidence-based (Examples: National Network of Partnership Schools, Flamboyan Foundation, Harvard Family Research Project) training materials and the tools necessary for parents to gain insights and ideas on how to support their child’s learning, and on how to hold the District accountable for the delivery of high-quality educational opportunities to all students.

•   Partner with the Office of Community Relations to leverage community resources to support parent engagement.

•   Provide welcoming and service-oriented systems for parents to obtain immediate answers to questions through the District’s call center and a parent accessible Knowledge Base.

•   Provide parents with frequent and transparent information about their children, our schools and our performance as a system through ParentNet.  

•   Work with other District offices to clearly communicate the processes associated with student enrollment, transfer and placement.

•   Facilitate the improvement of service to parents and families across all schools and central administrative functions.

•   Oversee the meeting of specific parent needs, including translation services.

•   Develops overall program strategy and clear, specific, and ambitious performance measures for multiple projects and operational priorities; and translates targets into individual work goals and deliverables for other team members.

•   Helps manage the analysis and presentation of data and progress of data‐driven initiatives for senior management team and external audiences; communicates progress to key stakeholder groups; and incorporates their input.

•   Builds relationships and liaises with various internal departments to drive collaboration and project success; and interacts with and responds effectively to urgent requests from multiple internal and external SDP stakeholders.

•   Remains aware of innovations, developments in policy, and research and advises SDP senior management team on proposed legislation, policies, procedures, best practices, and directives affecting parent and family engagement.