11 Tips for Sharing DECA Results and Collaborating with Families

By Rudee Robertson | April 29, 2025

Is your program using the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) Program? Do you include families in your use of it? We sure hope you are, because one of the key steps of the DECA Program is to review DECA results and plan, which should be done with all the adults in a child’s life.

Whether your program has families complete DECAs on their children, or only teachers/caregivers, it is important to discuss DECA results with families. Their interest and involvement are vital to their children’s resilience and social and emotional development. Here are some suggestions for sharing DECA results and collaborating with the families of children in your care:

• Schedule adequate time for conversation with the child’s family. Avoid discussing confidential assessment results at drop-off or pick-up times.
• Practice with a colleague to prepare for the meeting. Be sure to protect a child’s identity during practice sessions.
• Summarize (again) the purpose of the DECA Program and what to expect over the next several months.
• Use the Individual Child Profile to help a family understand the DECA results. Take it one section, one step at a time to avoid distracting or overwhelming families. If they do become distracted or overwhelmed by the results, move on and discuss the child’s strengths and goals.
• Explain to families why home and school results may differ. You might say, “The characteristics of your home and the program are different in many ways, including the number of children, the types of activities, and daily routines. Your family has special relationships with each other. We expect children’s behavior to vary depending on the setting.” Or you might say, “You have known your child for longer than I have. Tell me more about your child’s behaviors at home.”
• Take notes about each child’s strengths and goals. Then use that information as you plan ways to individualize for each child.
• Start by talking about the child’s strengths. Share specific skills, behaviors, and experiences you have seen through observations or gathered from other data. Refer to the items on the DECA that fell into the strengths region. Invite families to add to the list of strengths.
• Ask families what goals they have for their child’s social and emotional health and for their learning in all domains. Discuss what areas you see as goals for the child and review items that fell into either the typical or area of need regions. It’s likely that you and the family will have some shared goals. Expect that some of your goals will differ, however, and discuss how you can partner to support all the goals for this child.
• Have resources such as the ones below with you when you meet with families to help you talk about resilience, protective factors, and possible strategies for the school or home.
  • • Promoting Resilience in Preschoolers (for early childhood professionals)
    • Promoting Resilience For Now and Forever in Preschoolers (for parents/families)
    • Promoting Resilience in Infants/Toddlers (for early childhood professionals)
    • Promoting Resilience For Now and Forever in Infants/Toddlers (for parents/families)
• Create a schedule for keeping in touch to exchange information about the child’s experiences, interests, behavior, and progress. Be sure to give families a written copy of what you discussed in the meeting.
• End with encouraging words so families remain excited about working together to help their child build protective factors and social and emotional health.

Try to remember that input from families should be a must-have for your planning process. You should also keep in mind that how you partner with families should be unique to your program’s practices, your teaching style, and the needs of the children and families. There is no “one-size-fits-all” strategy when it comes to communicating and collaborating with families. Just do what you feel works best for you and for them.

And…if you’re looking for an idea of how to share DECA results on a wider classroom scale, check out this blog post where we shared how Clayton Early Learning in Denver, CO has done it. You might be inspired to do something similar – and we’d love to see it!