Evaluating an Intervention for Family Engagement in Schools through a Trauma-Informed and Culturally Responsive Lens

School-based mental health services aim to foster positive academic and behavioral outcomes in students, however families often are not directly involved in implementing these practices. Family engagement in schools should be an essential focal point in school-based mental health services, as the partnership between families and schools has been shown to lead to positive student outcomes. This study used an evaluation tool known as the FAMSET to examine the PFS CARE intervention, a trauma-informed and culturally responsive intervention measuring family engagement in schools, which operates from an MTSS-framework. Specifically focusing on trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, administrators and staff members were asked a series of thirteen questions regarding the construct. This study aims to examine the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, to analyze administrator and staff differences, and to create a consolidated scale. Results showed that overall, the scales were efficient in capturing the construct of trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices, and the scales should be analyzed separately for administrators and staff members; additionally, several questions should be omitted or reworded in the administrator survey in future administrations. Family engagement in schools is an understudied topic, and one with promising future implementations – this study is one of the first to evaluate the FAMSET tool. In future studies, this preliminary data can be used to create a validated scale, and it is recommended that future samples are larger and expand to other faculty positions as well.