Teachers' Homeless Student Action Center

The Homeless Family and School

Free Tools for Communicating with
Parents about Rights and Options

Let the parents in your classroom know about homeless family options. It's easy when you include these free inserts into your open house fliers, classroom newsletter templates, school websites or any teacher letter to parents you send home. These are effective public service announcements that build upon your existing parent teacher communication plan.

Spanish translations included below!

Go to recommendations on how and when to communicate with parents

Tools for Homeless Family Awareness

There is a considerable library of outreach material at the National Center on Homeless Education (a site funded by the U.S. Department of Education). I have prepared the material presented here based on my experience in the classroom. My motto: "keep it simple."

Our target audience - parents (whether they have homeless students or not) - respond best to simple and straightforward messages. Like us, they are busy. Get their attention and cause them to seek more information from expert sources, such as your district homeless family liaison.

How to Download

For all of these document types, choose to download them to your own computer when a dialog box opens...or open them, then do a "save as," usually by accessing the "file" menu in the program in which they open.

File Types Explained

Files marked PDF require a free PDF reader, such as Adobe Acrobat. It is most likely that your computer already has a PDF reader installed.

Files marked ZIP: The document is embedded in a Zip (compressed) file. If your computer does not automatically open the folder, download the Zip file then unzip or double-click it to gain access.

Images: Right click on the image, select "copy image" from the menu, then right click on the document you are creating and select "paste" from the menu. If you are using Word or another desktop publishing program, you can then re-size the image.

Fliers - Full Page and Half Page

Distribute these homeless family information fliers at open house or insert them into hard-copy classroom newsletters. All fliers say the same thing...whether they are written in English or Spanish, color or black-and-white.

Get a preview! Click each image below to open a pop-up window with a small sample of how the flier looks.

Click to download a full-page flier:

English: Color - Microsoft Word to edit before printing (ZIP)

English: Color - PDF to fill in blanks by hand before printing (PDF)

English: Black & white - Microsoft Word to edit before printing (ZIP)

English: Black & white - PDF to fill in blanks before printing (PDF)

Spanish: Color - Microsoft Word to edit before printing (ZIP)

Spanish: Color - PDF to fill in blanks by hand before printing (PDF)

Spanish: Black & white - Microsoft Word to edit before printing (ZIP)

Spanish: Black & white - PDF to fill in blanks before printing (PDF)

Save paper! The half-page fliers below contain two identical fliers side-by-side. After printing, cut them in half to end up with 4-1/4 x 8-1/2 inch smaller fliers.

Click to download a half-page flier:

English: Color - Microsoft Word to edit before printing (ZIP)

English: Color - PDF to fill in blanks by hand before printing (PDF)

English: Black & white - Microsoft Word to edit before printing (ZIP)

English: Black & white - PDF to fill in blanks before printing (PDF)

Spanish: Color - Microsoft Word to edit before printing (ZIP)

Spanish: Color - PDF to fill in blanks by hand before printing (PDF)

Spanish: Black & white - Microsoft Word to edit before printing (ZIP)

Spanish: Black & white - PDF to fill in blanks before printing (PDF)

Text for Written Correspondence

Copy this text into your classroom newsletters, e-mails or web pages, then format and edit as you normally do. When you click the links below, boxes will open with the text inside...highlight, right click/copy, then paste. Click the links again to hide the text.

Click to show or hide the English text version

Click to show or hide the Spanish text version

"Advertisements" for Newsletters or Fliers

These are small display graphics. Use them to call attention to homeless family information elsewhere in your newsletter...or insert them into your own fliers. They can also be used for elementary school websites or middle or high school websites.

Color and black-and-white options
Spanish graphics say the same thing as the English ones

Right click on the image and select "copy image" then right click and "paste" into the document you are creating:

Homeless students newsletter graphic

Headline Banners - 1-Column and Full-Page Width

Use these graphic images in fliers or newsletters or on web pages. They are great enhancements to your efforts to build parent teacher relationships by providing quality information that impacts their lives.