How Union Public Schools strengthened English learner family engagement

Case Study

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How Union Public Schools strengthened English learner family engagement

The challenge of reaching every family

Union Public Schools, located in Tulsa, OK, serves over 4,000 English learners (ELs). Like many districts nationwide, their multilingual team faced a monumental task at the start of every school year: sending out and tracking thousands of essential notification letters to the families of their ELs. Their paper-based system was a significant drain on time and resources and created multiple challenges:

Delayed communication with families: The team had to wait for specialists and staff to return from summer break before they could begin preparing the letters, delaying family engagement during the vital back-to-school period.
Manual tasks distract from student support: Instead of focusing on getting to know their students at the beginning of the school year, staff were bogged down with tasks like printing papers, stuffing envelopes, and tracking communications.
Visibility gap between the district and families: The district had no reliable way to confirm that families were actually receiving and reading the mailed letters.

The lack of an efficient communication loop made it difficult to ensure all families received equitable and timely access to crucial information about their students’ language services.

A digital solution for equitable communication

Union Public Schools found its solution in Family Communication, designed to streamline the process of sending and tracking communications with multilingual families. This immediately addressed their time-consuming, inefficient manual workflows.

What was once a logistical nightmare, taking up 46 days of paperwork, 276 staff hours, and thousands of printed materials, is now a streamlined digital process. Family Communication is saving the district time and money, reducing waste, and providing the clear visibility that staff and families need and deserve.

How Family Communication works

Family Communication is a new Ellevation Platform add-on that provides districts with a fully digital system to send, track, and collect key compliance documents – such as parent notification letters. Instead of printing, mailing, and manually tracking communications, Admins and Specialists can now embed parent letters directly into Forms to send and monitor the communication process in just a few clicks.

Families receive a secure digital link allowing them to view the communication, provide input or signatures when required, and submit it back electronically. Every action is logged, making it simple for districts to track progress, resend communications, and intervene when additional outreach is needed.

Each document is tied to the student’s profile within Ellevation, providing visibility across the district. Admin can see real-time insight into which forms have been opened, viewed, or completed. Reminders can be sent when engagement is low, and invalid contact information is flagged, allowing districts to make corrections quickly.

Clear results that strengthen connection

With Family Communication, Union Public Schools saw immediate and impactful results:

Increased parent engagement and conversations with teachers about their child's multilingual services.
$25,000 saved annually¹ in staff time that was previously dedicated to manual letter generation and mailing.
Enhanced teacher visibility into family communication, ensuring all key stakeholders have a shared, immediate understanding of the information being sent home.
46 days of staff time saved per year by automating the creation and delivery of family communications.

"The biggest impact Family Communication has had on our district is increased family engagement. Families are now reaching out, and ELD teachers have been super happy to see the increased engagement."

- Amy Smith, Director of English Learners

Family Communication closes long-standing gaps in visibility—districts finally know if families are receiving and responding to important information, eliminating the uncertainty often associated with paper-based workflows. For Union Public Schools, this shift has transformed a burdensome administrative task into a powerful tool for strengthening family engagement and ensuring every English learner's family is connected to their student’s success.

For more information about how you can bring Family Communication to your district, reach out to your Ellevation representative or request a personalized demo.

¹Based on average cost of paper, envelopes, postage and staff hours.