Parental Involvement for Early School Leaving Prevention

This report seeks to inform and guide the short and medium term strategic planning of the 10 Urbact - PREVENT city municipalities and all other municipalities, local authorities and schools across Europe with regard to parental involvement in education for prevention of early school leaving. This review is based on an analysis of EU Commission and Council documents on ESL and social inclusion, a dialogue and ongoing consultation process with the 10 municipalities engaged in the Urbact - PREVENT project and it interrogates international research relevant to this area. PREVENT is funded by the EU Urbact programme.

The report identifies three areas as central to a holistic, differentiated and systemic focus on parental involvement in education, specifically for early school leaving prevention:

1. Outreach (community and individual family)

2. Health

3. Democratic Systems in School

Recommendations in the report are for a) community based family support centres, b) community based lifelong learning centres, and c) promoting democratic systems of communication in schools.