About This Episode

Season 6. Episode 13.

In this week’s episode of Education Insight, we explore how trust, shared decision-making, and open communication can transform the culture of an entire school community.

The conversation turns everyday family engagement into something deeper—showing how student behavior improves, relationships strengthen, and classrooms become more supportive when families are treated as true partners rather than occasional participants.

Through real stories and practical examples, the episode highlights the power of bringing parents, teachers, and students into the same conversation. The message is simple but transformative: schools thrive when every voice around a child is heard, valued, and included.

Featured Guest

Marissa Lazo-Necco

Project Manager for Family and Community Engagement, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools

Biography

Marissa Lazo-Necco is the Project Manager of SAP/PBIS and Parent Engagement for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, where she applies her experiences with family engagement as she supports districts that are implementing Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports and Student Assistance Programs to improve positive student engagement for a greater academic success for ALL students. She was born in El Salvador to a mother who was a professor and a father who was an accountant. Being the youngest of three siblings, life in a country that was going through civil war was filtered through the care and love of her parents and brother and sister. In 1988, Marissa and her family came to this country where she navigated the education system as an English Learner Student who struggled to merge into the language and culture of this country. Her experience with family engagement was first lived as a teenager who stayed focused on education through the inspiration and support of her own parents. After serving children as a pre-school teacher for 2 years, Marissa transitioned to gain experience in a High School District where her passion for family engagement met her passion for high expectation for all students through the coordination of district-wide family engagement and coordination of English Learner student placement and reclassification. Her family engagement journey has taken her through a growing process as a Coordinator for a Parent Center for the Ontario-Montclair School District, where she applied, at ground level, dierent family engagement promising practices to engage the wider community.