School-wide Needs Assessment: Family Listening Session for ELAC/LCAP/SPSA 

Session Overview

California Education Code requires ELACs to assist in the development of the schoolwide needs assessment for English learners. This meeting offers a meaningful, relationship-centered way to fulfill that requirement by centering family voice and lived experience alongside school data.

This session is designed as a two-part ELAC meeting that helps schools gather authentic input from multilingual families and strengthen participation in the school’s existing needs assessment survey.

• Part 1: Family Listening Session
  Families share what is working, what is challenging, and what their children need to thrive. This way, they can provide essential context and insight that data alone cannot capture.
  
  

• Part 2: Survey Review & Outreach Planning
  Families review the existing school’s needs assessment survey, offer feedback to improve clarity and accessibility, reflect on participation rates, and help plan outreach so more multilingual families are heard.

Together, these two parts ensure ELAC fulfills its advisory role in a way that is inclusive, responsive, and grounded in trust.

Purpose

To center family wisdom in the school’s needs assessment process, fulfill the CDE requirement for ELAC, and strengthen how the school listens to, learns from, and responds to multilingual families.

This Meeting Covers:

• ELAC’s role in the schoolwide needs assessment

• A Family Listening Session to surface what’s working and what’s needed

• Creating shared agreements for respectful, meaningful dialogue

• Reviewing and strengthening the school’s needs assessment survey

• Reflecting on multilingual family participation

• Planning outreach and drafting simple messages to invite more families to participate
  
  

Includes:

General 

• Facilitation Guide

• Slide deck 

• Sign In Sheet

• ELAC Exit Ticket

Part 1: Listening Session

• Facilitator How-To Lead a Listening Session Guide (Step-by-step guidance for planning, shared agreements, facilitation moves, and responding to challenging moments.

• Listening Session Question Bank

• Listening Session Notetaker Form

• Family Follow-Up form
  Helps staff track individual concerns and follow up after the session.

Part 2: Survey Review & Outreach

• Helping Families Share Their Voice in the School Survey worksheet