Our family partnership approach works because it’s grounded in a shared set of standards that have driven repeated success across programs, schools, and districts. We called it DEPS — Domains, Essential Pathways, and Standards — because it defines what high-quality family enablement looks like in practice.
In short, DEPS provides guidance that helps schools and families build meaningful learning relationships that drive student success. With DEPS, families become active partners in their children’s learning, strengthening the connection between school and home in ways that accelerate growth.
We apply DEPS across our work to build real results. Each school and district is different, so the framework is designed to be flexible — providing a consistent standard for excellence while allowing communities to adapt implementation to their local needs.
Why Create a Unifying Set of Standards?
Research consistently shows that strong family-school partnerships are essential to student growth and success over time. But there is no widely accepted standard for defining what high-quality family partnership looks like or how to sustain it in practice.
DEPS helps fill that gap by providing a common language, organizing structure, and set of quality standards for family enablement. The framework can be applied across multiple contexts while remaining flexible enough to reflect local needs and priorities.
DEPS helps schools and districts:
- Assess current strategy and system coherence
- Identify strengths, gaps, and entry points
- Prioritize investments strategically
- Align initiatives around shared academic goals
- Support continuous improvement and sustainability
Domains
Domains define the four essential focus areas of family enablement. Together, they provide a broad view of what strong family partnership systems require and help schools and districts identify where to focus their efforts.
Essential Pathways
Going a step beyond domains, essential pathways define the specific skills, capacities, and conditions that help educators and families build strong learning partnerships. Pathways help schools move from broad goals to consistent, intentional practices that drive student growth.
Standards
Standards define the observable actions and practices that demonstrate progress within a pathway. They provide clear benchmarks that schools and organizations can use to assess implementation, strengthen quality, and align efforts across programs.
Use DEPS to Strengthen Family Partnership and Accelerate Student Growth
Want to apply the DEPS framework to your own family engagement strategy? Springboard has a comprehensive guide that explores each domain, essential pathway, and standard in detail, helping you assess your current strategy and approach and build sustainable partnership systems.