Family involvement is a critical predictor of student success in an academic setting, but many parents, teachers, and school communities are unaware of the benefits each party receives from the partnership. Involving families in education improves social skills, confidence, test scores, school attendance, and academic skills. As a future educator, I have made it a career-long goal to encourage families to participate and become a part of my classrooms. I will seek out and provide a variety of diverse opportunities for various family members to become active members in my classrooms. Initiating and establishing relationships with families from the onset of school is crucial to the success of family involvement. The sooner families become active members of the school community, the greater the benefits to all parties will be. An orientation packet is a great way to make families feel welcome in my classroom right away. A letter introducing myself, a brief questionnaire allowing me to learn important information about my students from their parents, a survey about involven1ent, and the first newsletters are all instrumental tools I can use to take the first step in establishing important relationships with families. Once relationships have been formed in individual classrooms, it is important to implement a school-wide family involvement program. Several popular programs such as Epstein's Model, the FIT model, and "the Levels of Family Involvement Model, are all great prototypes to use when creating and putting into action a family involvement plan.