SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 30, 2026 — Research shows that family involvement positively impacts student academic performance, regardless of family income or background. ClassDojo’s new white paper, “How Strong Family Engagement Builds Community Trust, Reputation, and Academic Success,” examines how school-family communication can help stabilize student learning and enrollment. The 12-page report explains how districts can overcome communication hurdles and create a culture of honesty, clarity, and trust that increases family engagement.
“When families feel a true connection to their school community, they stay there, leading to the enrollment stability that districts so desperately need,” said Jeff Beuning, general manager of ClassDojo. “This white paper shares more than 20 years of research on how family engagement improves student academic, behavioral, and social outcomes. It also describes how ClassDojo helps educators strengthen the trust that keeps families as part of the school community.”
“How Strong Family Engagement Builds Community Trust” explains that classroom-level messaging is the foundation of a district’s credibility with families. The report also shares best practices schools have adopted to engage families in ClassDojo, including success stories from three school districts that had to address the high risk of families pulling students from school.
Schools in McDowell County, North Carolina, had to resolve ad hoc communication practices that confused parents and damaged the district’s reputation. At Moline Coal Valley School in Illinois, educators had to overcome language barriers to communicate with an increasingly diverse community. Hamilton Elementary School in San Diego had to mend a rift between parents and educators in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic.
According to Hamilton Elementary School Principal Brittany Daly, ClassDojo has been a “foundation of trust.” Initially, schools used the platform to promote relationship-building activities and fun learning events such as monthly Family Fridays. Once the foundations of a new positive relationship were established, Daley further involved families in their children’s academic lives. As a result, chronic absenteeism has decreased by more than 20 percent over the years, and the percentage of students reading at grade level has increased by nearly five times.
“Families help schools understand what to expect and evaluate students, and provide the ‘missing piece’ of support that all students need,” Buening said. “ClassDojo already has a strong reputation among families for being able to share both the little and big moments in your child’s classroom. ClassDojo for Districts allows schools to add new visibility, communication and insight tools designed to support district leaders without disrupting effective teacher-family relationships.”
You can download the full white paper here.
About ClassDojo
ClassDojo is on a mission to provide every child with the education they love. Used by 95% of U.S. schools, ClassDojo helps teachers and families build stronger school communities through everyday communication. ClassDojo for Districts is a unified communications and engagement platform that combines daily classroom updates and district-wide messaging into one seamless experience. This helps families feel connected, students are engaged, and school culture is strengthened. It is built with privacy at its core and is available to school districts at no additional cost.
