Making your program family-guided is an ongoing, day-to-day consideration for every decision made about the program in general and each child specifically. To assist your team's reflection on the level of commitment and implementation of family-guided principles, it is helpful to systematically review the process and procedures a child and family encounter from their first contacts to their final transitions. Following is a process to guide your team's systematic review.

1. Identify the specific program components or steps in which the family and child participate. Some typical components will include:
   • Referral and initial contacts
   • Eligibility evaluation and programmatic assessment
   • Individualized Education Plan (IEP) development
   • Program implementation
   • Annual review
   • Transition to school program
2. For each program component, identify the typical activities that occur for the family and the team. For example:
   • Referral and initial contacts
     • Referral processed; team member assigned as contact
     • Family contacted; steps to program eligibility described
     • Intake procedures completed and shared with team members
       • child and family concerns
       • permission for evaluation
       • release(s) of information
     • Schedule for future visits completed
   • Eligibility evaluation and programmatic assessment
     • Team administered evaluation(s) undertaken
     • Eligibility determination completed; reports written and shared
     • Discipline specific measures undertaken as needed
     • Programmatic or curriculum based assessment completed with team input
     • Records reviewed
3. After the routine activities in each program component have been identified, begin discussing as a team:
   • What roles and options do we provide for families within each activity; and
   • What decision does the family need to make regarding this activity. For example, see the matrix on the following page. Note, for the evaluation component the program can provide periodic reviews with the family in a written or verbal format, at a team meeting or through a service coordinator. The family decides which format, or combinations of formats, is most appropriate for them. The team has implemented the family guided values by offering choices and respecting the family's decision.
4. After you have completed the process for each program component, use the matrix you have developed to assist your team to:
   • communicate effectively about an individual family¹s choices and decisions,
   • consistently implement family-guided practices by serving as a friendly reminder, and to
   • evaluate your program.
   

   Download a pdf version of the Choice and Decision Making Matrix

   It is also important to evaluate how families are involved beyond their child's program in systems capacities such as advisory committees. Many families are not involved only because professionals have not been effective in collaborating with them. Consider the following questions, reprinted from Essential Allies: Families as Advisors when your team discusses families' involvement. There are countless ways that families can serve as advisors.

   • Grant reviewers
   • Members of task forces
   • Advisory board members
   • Co-trainers for preservice or inservice sessions
   • Paid program staff
   • Paid program or policy consultants
   • Mentors for other families
   • Participants in a needs assessment process
   • Reviewers of audiovisual and written materials
   • Group facilitators
   • Witnesses at hearings
   • Advocates
   • Participants in focus groups
   • Members of committees hiring new staff
   • Fundraisers
   • Participants at conferences and working meetings
   • Participants in quality improvement initiatives
   Below is a list of some ways to receive input from families informally and for brief periods of time.
   • Convene focus groups of families as specific issues arise.
   • Hold a monthly family/staff coffee hour.
   • Ask families to "host" a professional-in-training for dinner.
   • Solicit family input in community and program needs assessments.
   • Include families on site visit teams to other programs.
   • Hold brainstorming sessions with families before developing educational materials.
   • Have families review drafts of all written materials.
   • Include a family panel during orientation for new staff.
   • Conduct follow-up phone calls with families after transition.
   • Ask families to assist in developing transitioning materials.
   • Develop, with families, a parent satisfaction survey.
   • Develop a "breakfast (or lunch) with the director" program for families.
   • Keep a suggestion book in the waiting room, so families can record their ideas.