Student Achievement. Behavior. Attendance. Emotional Well-Being.
To Change What's Happening at School, We Must Change What's Happening at Home.
We educate parents so your educators can focus on educating students.
Schools Are Paying for the Same Problems, Year After Year.
When parents lack access to the knowledge and skills that support healthy child development, the consequences can extend into schools.
Chronic absenteeism threatens attendance-based funding. Behavioral disruptions consume instructional time. Academic performance suffers. Teacher burnout makes retaining experienced educators increasingly difficult.
Schools respond by investing more resources in interventions, often while facing the very financial pressures these challenges help create.
The cycle continues because we keep investing in managing problems without investing enough in preventing them.
The Compounding Cost of Reactive School Improvement
The Cost of Doing Nothing Differently Is Not Zero.
What would change if we invested in parents before these problems ever reached the school?
The Research Is Clear:What Happens at Home Matters at School.
of U.S. public schools reported continuing negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' behavioral development.
of U.S. public schools reported continuing negative effects of the pandemic on students' social-emotional development.
of teachers reported experiencing burnout in RAND's 2026 research.
Students with regular family support scored higher in mathematics, even after accounting for socioeconomic differences.
Two Trends. One Urgent Conversation.
Between 2022 and 2025, a measure of regular family support reported by students across OECD countries declined from 77% to 71%.
Average reading performance declined by 14 score points between 2022 and 2025 across 35 OECD countries with comparable data.
Because Family Support Is Connected to Academic Achievement, Parent Education Must Be a Central Part of Your School Improvement Plan.
Parents Have the Most Important Job in the World, Yet Receive Little to No Formal Preparation.
Society requires training and licenses to drive vehicles, sell real estate, and sell insurance. Schools establish academic standards for what children should know and be able to do, beginning in kindergarten and, in some states, preschool.
Despite these expectations for professional preparation and childhood education, parents are largely left to navigate one of life's greatest responsibilities without formal instruction.
Parenting Is a Skill. Skills Can Be Taught.
Parent Education Is School Improvement.
Teaching parents how to parent is not the responsibility of school administrators. Improving student outcomes is.
Schools already invest in curriculum, professional development, behavioral interventions, attendance initiatives, and mental health services. These investments are important, but they largely address challenges after they have reached the school.
Parent education creates an opportunity to address some of those challenges before they arrive.
The Intentional Parent Institute educates parents so your teachers and administrators can focus on educating students.
When Parents Are Better Equipped, Schools Are Better Positioned to Succeed.
What happens at home influences what happens at school. When parents gain the knowledge, skills, and support to create healthier, more stable environments for their children, the benefits can extend across the entire school community.
Academic Achievement
Stronger foundations for learning, academic growth, and student success.
Student Behavior
Fewer behavioral disruptions and more productive learning environments.
Attendance
More consistent attendance, fewer tardies, and stronger daily readiness for school.
Emotional Well-Being
Greater emotional stability, healthier relationships, and improved readiness to learn.
Teacher Retention
Less strain on educators and a more supportive environment for teaching.
School Resources
Less reliance on reactive interventions and more resources available for student achievement.
The Goal Is Not Simply Greater Parent Participation;
It Is Stronger Student Outcomes.
Kaleesha Washington
Founder, The Intentional Parent Institute
Former Principal & LMU Graduate School of Education Professor
Your Parents Deserve Someone Who Understands Their Challenges, and Your School Deserves Someone Who Understands Yours.
For nearly two decades, I worked in education as a teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal, and principal. I began my education career in 2006 as a Teach For America corps member in Los Angeles and later served as a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University.
“I created the parent education program I wish had been available when I was raising my children, and the school partnership resource I wish I'd had when I was a principal.”
My goal is to make sure parents have access to the knowledge I had to go to college to receive, without having to wait until their children are teenagers to get it.
The Intentional Leader
A monthly publication exploring research, practical strategies, and new perspectives on parent education, family engagement, and student success, written for principals, superintendents, and family engagement leaders.
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