This plan was developed jointly with, and agreed upon and distributed to, parents and family members of District students. All parents of District students shall be notified of this policy in an understandable and uniform format, and, to the extent practicable, provided in a language the parents can understand. This policy shall be provided to the local community and updated periodically to meet the changing needs of parents and the District.
The Board of Education desires for meaningful parent and family involvement in the educational process for District students. To achieve that objective, the Board will:
1. Involve parents and family members in jointly developing the District’s “local educational agency plan” under 20 U.S.C. §6312, and the development of support and improvement plans under 20 U.S.C. §6311(d)(1) and (2). The Board will do this by:
Requiring parent representation on the District Leadership Team as well as individual Building Leadership Teams within the school district.
2. Provide the coordination, technical assistance, and other support necessary to assist and build the capacity of all of the District’s schools in planning and implementing effective parent and family involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance, which may include meaningful consultation with employers, business leaders, and philanthropic organizations, or individuals with expertise in effectively engaging parents and family members in education. The Board will do this by:
Monitoring family involvement activities through periodic Board of Education Updates provided by the district superintendent.
3. Coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies, to the extent feasible and appropriate, with other relevant Federal, State, and local laws and programs. The Board will do this by:
Insuring prompt updates of BOE policy as needed to fully comply with Federal, State, and local laws and programs.
4. Conduct, with the meaningful involvement of parents and family members, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of this policy in improving the academic quality of all District schools, including identifying: (i) barriers to greater participation by parents in authorized activities (with particular attention to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background); (ii) the needs of parents and family members to assist with the learning of their children, including engaging with school personnel and teachers; and (iii) strategies to support successful school and family interactions. The Board will do this by:
Requiring parent representation on the District Leadership Team as well as individual Building Leadership Teams within the district.
5. Use the findings of such evaluation in paragraph (4), above, to design evidence-based strategies for more effective parental involvement, and to revise, if necessary, the parent and family engagement policies described in this section. The Board will do this by:
Involving building Positive Behaviour Intervention Strategies committees in the review and implementation of effective parent involvement strategies.
6. Involve parents in the activities of the schools of the District, which may include establishing a parent advisory board comprised of a sufficient number and representative group of parents or family members served by the local educational agency to adequately represent the needs of the population served by such agency for the purposes of developing, revising, and reviewing the parent and family engagement policy. The Board will do this by:
Utilizing the PBIS structure to establish an effective parent advisory mechanism to review parent and family engagement.
Policy Involvement
To facilitate the involvement of parents and families under this policy, the District shall:
1. Convene an annual meeting, at a convenient time, to which all parents of District students shall be invited and encouraged to attend, to inform parents of the District’s obligations under 20 U.S.C. §6318, and to explain the requirements of that statute and the right of the parents to be involved. The District will do this by:
Hold annual meetings during the district Open House to inform parents of their rights and the district’s responsibilities in regard to those rights.
2. Offer a flexible number of meetings, such as meetings in the morning or evening, and may provide, with funds provided under this part, transportation, child care, or home visits, as such services relate to parental involvement. The District will do this by:
Scheduling parent teacher conferences at various times of the day accommodating parent needs to further enable parent attendance at the conferences.
3. Involve parents, in an organized, ongoing, and timely way, in the planning, review, and improvement of programs under this policy, including the planning, review, and improvement of this policy and the joint development of the school wide program plan under 20 U.S.C. §6314(b). The District will do this by:
Utilizing the PBIS structure to establish an effective parent advisory mechanism to enable parent involvement in the planning process.
4. Provide parents of participating children: (a) timely information about programs under this policy; (b) a description and explanation of the curriculum in use at the school, the forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, and the achievement levels of the challenging State academic standards; and (c) if requested by parents, opportunities for regular meetings to formulate suggestions and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children, and respond to any such suggestions as soon as practicably possible. The District will do this by:
Utilizing multi media and scheduled meetings to communicate information regarding student academic performance on standardized assessments.
5. If the schoolwide program plan under 20 U.S.C. §6314(b) is not satisfactory to the parents of students, the school will submit any parent comments on the plan when the school makes the plan available to the Board. The District will do this by:
Receiving direct reports by building principals to the Board of Education.
School-Parent Compact
The Board desires for parents, the entire school staff, and students to share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement. The means by which the District and parents will build and develop a partnership to help students achieve the State’s high standards are as follows:
1. Describe the District’s responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables its students to meet the challenging State academic standards, and the ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting their children’s learning; volunteering in their child’s classroom; and participating, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children and positive use of extracurricular time:
The Board of Education will enact policies supporting and establishing adequate financial support, qualified staff and while creating avenues enhancing the ability of parents to become directly involved in their child’s education.
2. Address the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis through, at a minimum: (a) parent-teacher conferences in elementary schools, at least annually, during which the compact shall be discussed as the compact relates to the individual child’s achievement; (b) frequent reports to parents on their children’s progress; (c) reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child’s class, and observation of classroom activities; and (d) ensuring regular two-way, meaningful communication between family members and school staff, and, to the extent practicable, in a language that family members can understand:
Continue meaningful parent teacher conferences both scheduled and on an as needed basis. The district will continue established grade and subject level intervention programs supporting students and parents.
Building Capacity for Involvement
To ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the District, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement, the District:
1. Shall provide assistance to parents of District students, as appropriate, in understanding such topics as the challenging State academic standards, State and local academic assessments, the requirements of 20 U.S.C. §6318, and how to monitor a child’s progress and work with educators to improve the achievement of their children. The District will do this by:
Providing supportive curriculum adequate staffing and academic resources meeting the academic needs of students.
2. Shall provide materials and training to help parents work with their children to improve their children’s achievement, such as literacy training and using technology (including education about the harms of copyright piracy), as appropriate, to foster parental involvement. The District will do this by:
Providing opportunities for parent engagement through conferences and intervention meetings identifying student needs along with resource management strategies supporting the educational plan.
3. Shall educate teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals, and other school leaders, and other staff, with the assistance of parents, in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, implement and coordinate parent programs, and build ties between parents and the school. The District will do this by:
Providing professional development opportunities to district staff focusing on research based parent engagement activities and strategies.
4. Shall, to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and integrate parent involvement programs and activities with other Federal, State, and local programs, including public preschool programs, and conduct other activities, such as parent resource centers, that encourage and support parents in more fully participating in the education of their children. The District will do this by:
The district will create and promote parent engagement opportunities with a focus on parent engagement and involvement.
5. Shall ensure that information related to school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities is sent to the parents of participating children in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand. The District will do this by:
Through the use of multi media as well as traditional means of communication the district promote parent engagement opportunities with a focus on parent engagement and involvement.
6. Shall provide such other reasonable support for parental involvement activities under this policy as parents may request. The District will do this by:
Soliciting feedback from parents with a focus on reasonable desirable involvement parent activities and opportunities.