In recent years, a major theme of SPS issues raised by families has been outreach, communication, engagement, and accountability. More specifically, connecting with underserved and marginalized families. We’ve seen SPS fall flat on its face in connecting with families of color during major recent events, such as the district’s budgetary problems and school closures, and the hiring process for the new superintendent. However, the difficulties in actually centering families of color and marginalized families in schooling aren’t unique to SPS. These difficulties are seen across school districts, as well as community-based organizations focused on advocacy, equity, and social justice (such as SESEC).
The challenge and need to center marginalized families and families of color (in our context, SE Seattle families) is deeply rooted in the systemic and historical inequities of education (and other aspects of our societies). Currently, schooling is designed in a school-centric way, where families must navigate school expectations, practices, and channels to engage in any kind of advocacy, decision-making, or participation. This model of school-centric family engagement rewards families with greater power, such as economic ($), social (profession), political (who you know), and cultural power (language, etc.). Families must come into schools, school systems, and school ‘mode of operation’, rather than schools coming to families, family spaces, and through family cultures.
My experience with the literacy co-design project with Black SPS families identified how SPS literacy curricula could be significantly improved by being more culturally responsive and relevant. This shift required bringing in families and students of color as learning experts to partner with teachers, administrators, and district leaders to create curricula, including learning units/lessons, and assessments. Data from this project have shown that centering Black students and families in school practices, such as school belonging, engagement of families and community in schooling, and centering families and their cultures. For system-level players (district folks), participants’ test scores improved compared to non-participating peers.
Why hasn’t this taken off? It takes great humility for school leaders and educators to open their buildings and practices to families of color. It also takes time and energy, which are at a premium, often because of the demands placed on schools at the system level (district and state) and the limited resources available to begin with. Although school administrators are the primary gatekeepers and stewards of schools, centering families of color must start and be continuously supported at the system level. Centering families will be unsustainable until the school-centric system of education is dismantled.
SESEC has also long known about the need to elevate the knowledge and voices of marginalized families, empower families of color as leaders, and recenter the SPS system with those families. The origins of SESEC lie in SE families of color being dissatisfied with their marginalized experiences with SPS. Our journey in developing family programming also shows the challenges in actually and authentically centering families in the programming, as well as decentralizing the school system in the process. I will provide an overview of SESEC’s journey to better center families in our advocacy and coalition work.
Last year, SESEC piloted its first family program, Family Navigators, which aimed to create cohorts of family leaders marginalized by SPS, equipping them with knowledge of the school system and advocacy practices. The original goal of Family Navigator was to cultivate a community of family leaders that was disrupting and transforming SPS into a more equitable, responsive, and community-centric school system.
As the pilot took shape, it evolved into a co-design-esque program in which 3 leaders from distinct communities (E. African, Latino/e, and Urban Native) came together to design a program that met the needs of their constituents. The 3 family leaders of Family Navigator designed an affinity-solidarity cohort model to deepen their own ethnic communities, create solidarity across communities, identify school needs, and update communities on SPS issues and decisions. The Family Navigators crafted a letter to the new SPS superintendent that portrayed the SPS landscape regarding family outreach and engagement, the needs specific to families of color, and strategies and actions to support those families. Some of the key needs, issues, and areas for growth included more robust language support/access for SPS staff and families, IEP compliance, school welcome and safety, and an approachable central office/school system. It is incumbent on us, as constituents of Seattle, to keep SPS and its leaders accountable to our families, as they have laid out a comprehensive landscape review of schools based on deep experience.
SESEC’s executive director, Liz Huizar, and I reflected after the culmination of Family Navigators to assess how our first family programming was developing. We had earnest reflections and dialogues about how aligned Family Navigators was with SESEC’s overall mission and organizational approach. More importantly, we gave deep consideration to how Family Navigators was still playing into the school-centric model of education and to how it was trying to position families as advocates within the system and through system channels.
Liz decided to move away from “Navigators”. Navigating schooling indicates that families and local stakeholders must have system-level (SPS) knowledge, engage in system practices, and advocate for our children and educational justice through avenues within the system. For us at SESEC, Navigators did not center families’ expertise, power, vision, and ways of doing. For us at SESEC, we want to expand and grow the existing power of our SE Seattle families (through organizations they are involved with) to advocate, disrupt, and transform schooling to better serve their children within and outside the system. The move away from “Navigators” was critical to decentering power in the system and shifting it toward our SE Seattle families. We thus shifted to Family Power Building (FamPow). At an organizational level, SESEC evolved FamPow to better reflect its organizational mission by focusing on supporting the burgeoning family programming of coalition organizations. Our first cohort of FamPow began to take shape this spring (2026) when we onboarded Kandelia and Rainier Scholars to help grow their family programming by cultivating family leaders equipped to advocate through a strong understanding of educational systems.
FamPow focuses on centering, expanding, and connecting the power of marginalized families and families of color of SPS and SE Seattle through a series of learning sessions based on the advocacy needs of participating organizations. These series are facilitated by a variety of education and community leaders, such as district leaders, community advocates, researchers, and community connectors. While Kandelia and Rainier Scholars differ in their missions, purposes, and communities, they share similar visions and needs for their family programs and families. Some of their visions and needs are embedded in a school-centric model (as we all naturally revert to status quo ways of thinking and dreaming on occasion), such as being more knowledgeable about channels of communication and leadership within SPS. Our learning sessions have been impactful in developing community across organizations (thus SESEC’s coalition), recognizing and centering the power of our families, expanding that power with insights about the system, and envisioning futures for our families and family programs. So far, we have learned about our inherent advocacy power, SPS leaders and history, using data, and advocacy strategies. Our next steps will be to engage in capstone projects in which families from Kandelia and Rainier Scholars will design their own advocacy projects to advance their educational vision and the future of their children.
As you reflect on the issues of “family engagement” in SPS and education, as well as SESEC’s own journey in family programming, consider who is being centered in your practice and your organization’s programs. How are you and your organization decentering systems and institutions such as SPS or schools, and centering communities and families? Connect with Kandelia and Rainier Scholars to support their family programs, learn from their experiences, and collaborate on advocating for a family-centric model of schooling. Check in with us at SESEC to learn more about the program, including how to be a learning facilitator for future cohorts, join future cohorts, and support capstone projects!
While oil and water do not mix naturally, with a little upkeep in shaking and some extra ingredients, we can make oil and water into a powerful mix (e.g. salad dressing).