In the past ten years at EdNavigator, we’ve helped thousands of families interact with complex educational systems successfully. We’ve done it by partnering with their employers, meeting them at schools, connecting with them on virtual platforms, and, for the last several years, by acting on referrals from their pediatricians. Folks often ask us what we’ve learned.
One lesson stands out above all others: 1:1 human relationships are the most efficient way to ensure marginalized families successfully access the services promised to them and their children. While such models – like ours – may be relatively costly and challenging to scale, they deliver much more significant results. They work.
Today, the foundation of our effectiveness is the relationship between families and their pediatricians. Deep familiarity and trust accrue through regular visits that begin soon after a child is born. When a doctor makes a recommendation to a family, whether for a medical procedure or for a conversation about school-related challenges with one of our Navigators, there is a high likelihood that the parent will act on it.
We strengthen our relationships with families by making them personal. Navigators contact newly referred families by phone or text message. We don’t ask busy parents to fill out an online form or call an office where they are guided through an endless, AI-driven menu of options. They don’t take a number and wait in line. It’s a real person reaching out. If the family speaks Spanish, that real person speaks Spanish, too. They ask questions, they listen, and they start helping make things better right away.
Through all the permutations of our work, this relationship between a Navigator and a family has been constant. If you want to empower families, connect them to someone who has the knowledge and wherewithal to help solve their problems. That’s what we have always done.
The hard part about this is there are no shortcuts. It costs more than most school systems prefer to spend on family engagement. It’s not easy to hire and train Navigators with the skills to work through the thickest district bureaucracies, but they achieve outcomes that aren’t feasible with lighter touch, more “scalable” interventions.
What types of outcomes are we talking about?
- Real-world victories. Things like enrolling your child in a school that you feel good about, or successfully securing special education services that are critical to your child’s success. 98 percent of families say they were able to accomplish the objective they had when they were first referred to EdNavigator. This is partly a credit to the health care providers who carefully target referrals so they are matched to family needs and achievable. It’s also because this model of high-touch support works.
- Exceptional family engagement. Of the families referred to EdNavigator, only 14 percent decline our services after being contacted. This figure is especially notable because Navigators often live hundreds of miles away from the families. But having a specific reason for the referral and simple, personalized outreach typically outweighs the benefits of being perceived as local. The vast majority of families that begin receiving support see the process through to the very end – on average, two to six months.
- Near-universal happiness. This year, when asked if they would highly recommend EdNavigator to others, 97 percent of families say yes. That’s not a typo. It is nearly impossible to duplicate that level of customer satisfaction through text nudges, apps, informational websites, or sporadic parent outreach initiatives.
- Improved parental confidence. After working with EdNavigator, 95 percent of parents say they feel more confident supporting their children going forward.
That’s why we are believers in relationships. It’s also why we have felt a sense of dismay watching the entire education sector move in exactly the opposite direction in recent years. Schools push out floods of muddled information through text, email, social media, and apps with very little personal touch. Tech systems assume parents constantly check their devices for new updates – even though many working-class families often have limited or zero access on the job. Even in the classroom, increased reliance on screen-based learning has depersonalized instruction.
There’s plenty of evidence that this trend has backfired. Polls show the public has record-low satisfaction with schools. Family disengagement has fueled a chronic absenteeism epidemic that shows up prominently in kindergarten and first grade. Parents and kids alike say they feel more lonely and disconnected than ever.
If we want families to re-invest in education, we need to stop with flimsy, low-octane schemes. We need real relationships. So if you’re working in a school or district, remember that the best way to get through to parents is sometimes to reach out directly and individually, not through another app. If you’re a funder in the education space, look for relationship-powered programs and initiatives whose impact is deep, not just wide. And if you’re involved in policy-making, look for opportunities to make our public systems and institutions work better for real people by leveraging connections that already exist—or still need to be made. There are no shortcuts, but there are plenty of gaps to bridge.
