BOE Policy -Title I Parent/Family Engagement Policy 1320/3560
Title I Parent and Family Engagement Policy Code: 1320/3560
The board of education recognizes the value of family engagement in a child’s academic success and believes that the education of children is an ongoing cooperative partnership between the home and the school. Parents, guardians, and other family members are their children’s first teachers; therefore, the continued involvement of them in the educational process is most important in fostering and improving educational achievement. School system officials shall strive to support parents, guardians, and family members and provide them with opportunities to become involved in the programs offered by the Title I schools. The board encourages participation in the design and implementation of the programs and activities in order to increase the effectiveness of the school system’s Title I program in helping students meet state and local achievement standards.
A. Definition of Parent and Family Engagement
For the purposes of this policy, “parents” and “parental” are inclusive terms intended to represent both parents and guardians. Also, the term “parent and family engagement” means the participation of parents, guardians, and other family members in regular, two-way and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, including the following:
1. that parents and family members play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning;
2. that parents and family members are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school;
3. that parents are full partners in their child’s education and are included, as appropriate, in decision making and on advisory committees to assist in the education of their child; and
4. that the school system utilizes in activities that support parent and family engagement in the Title I programs.
B. Purpose and Operation of Title I Program
The Title I program is a federally supported program that offers assistance to educationally and economically disadvantaged children to help ensure they meet the school system’s challenging academic standards. The Title I program provides instructional activities and supportive services to eligible students over and above those provided by the regular school program. When applicable, students must be selected to receive Title I services based on objective criteria that are consistent with federal and state requirements, such as standardized test scores, teacher judgment, and results of pre-school screening and home-school surveys.
Qualified Title I schools will operate as school-wide programs or targeted assisted programs based upon federal eligibility criteria. School-wide programs will utilize a comprehensive school improvement process enabling schools to serve all students in the school. Targeted assistance programs will provide services to eligible students in the school having the greatest need for assistance.
Both schoolwide and targeted assistance programs shall be based on effective means of improving student achievement and shall include strategies to support parent and family engagement.
C. Annual Meeting
Each year, Title I parents must be invited to an annual meeting, at which time parental rights will be explained, programs and activities provided with Title I funds will be discussed, and input will be solicited on the Title I program and this policy. In addition, all parents will have an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the Title I programs and the parent and family engagement policies and plans. Data collected from these findings will be used to revise Title I programs and parental involvement plans.
D. Parent and Family Engagement Efforts
The board believes that the involvement of Title I parents and family members contributes significantly to the success of children. The Title I staff and all school system personnel shall strive to involve parents and family members in activities throughout the school year.
The superintendent shall ensure that this system-level parent and family engagement policy is developed with, agreed upon with, and annually distributed to parents and family members of participating students. In addition to the system-level parent and family engagement policy, each school participating in the Title I program shall jointly develop and annually distribute to parents and family members a school-level written parent and family engagement plan that describes the means for carrying out school-level plans, sharing responsibility for student academic achievement, building the capacity of school staff and parents for involvement and increasing accessibility for participation of all Title I parents and family members, including parents and family members with limited English proficiency, parents and family members with disabilities, and parents and family members of migratory children. School-level plans must involve parents in the planning and improvement of Title I activities and must provide for the distribution to parents of information on expected student proficiency levels and the school’s academic performance.
School officials will invite appropriate school personnel from private schools to consult on the design and development of its programs in order to provide equitable services to students enrolled in private schools. The superintendent or designee will establish any additional procedures necessary to achieve timely and meaningful consultation with private school officials in accordance with federal law.
In addition, school system officials and Title I school personnel shall do the following:
1. involve parents and family members in the joint development of the Title I Program and the process of school review and improvement;
2. provide coordination, technical assistance and other support from various central office departments necessary to assist participating schools in planning and implementing effective parent and family engagement activities that are designed to improve student academic achievement and school performance;
3. build the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong parent and family engagement ;
4. coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies in the Title I Program to the extent feasible with parent and family engagement activities established in other federal, state, and local laws and programs (such as Head Start, SmartStart and similar programs), that prepare children for school and parents for their role in supporting their children’s learning;
5. with the involvement of parents, conduct an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the school system parent and family engagement policies and program in improving the academic quality of the school and assisting student to met the school system’s academic standards;
6. strive to eliminate barriers to parent and family participation by assisting parents and family members with disabilities and parents and family members who are economically disadvantaged, have limited English proficiency, are migratory, or have other backgrounds or characteristics that may affect participation;
7. provide assistance to parents and family members of participating Title I children in understanding the state’s testing standards, the assessments used, Title I requirements and all national, state and local standards and expectations through varied and multiple means of communication (e.g., community-based meetings, sending information home, newsletters, workshops and newspaper articles);
8. design a parent–student–school staff compact that sets out respective responsibilities in striving to raise student achievement and explains how an effective home/school partnership will be developed and maintained;
9. with the assistance of parents, ensure that teachers, pupil services personnel, principals and other staff are educated in the value of parents as partners in the educational process and understand how to work with, communicate with and reach out to parents as equal partners in education;
10. distribute to parents information on expected student proficiency levels for their child and the school’s academic performance, and provide materials and training to help parents monitor their child’s progress and work with educators to improve achievement;
11. coordinate and integrate, to the extent feasible and appropriate, parent and family engagement programs and activities with federal, state, and local programs, including Hoke County Public Schools’ pre-school programs and conduct other activities in the community that encourage and support parents and family members in education;
12. strengthen the partnership with agencies, businesses and programs that operate in the community;
13. ensure that parents and family members are involved in the school’s Title I activities; and
14. provide such other reasonable support for Title I parent and family engagement activities as requested by parents and family members.
E. Notice Requirements
School system officials and Title I school personnel shall provide effective notice of the following information as required by law. The notice must be in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.
1. LEP Program
a. Each year the principal or designee shall provide notice of the following to parents of limited English proficient (LEP) children identified for participation in a Title I, Part A-funded language-instruction educational program:
i. the reasons for the child’s identification;
ii. the child’s level of English proficiency;
iii. methods of instruction;
iv. how the program will help the child;
v. the exit requirements for the program;
vi. if the child has a disability, how the language instruction educational program meets the objectives of the child’s individualized educational program (IEP); and
vii. any other information necessary to effectively inform the parent and family of the program and the parental rights regarding enrollment, removal and selection of an LEP program.
b. The principal or designee of a school with a Title I, Part A-funded language instruction program that has failed to make progress on the annual achievement objectives for LEP students, shall notify the parents and family members of such failure no later than 30 days after the failure occurs.
2. System Report Card and School Progress Review
a. Each year, school system officials shall disseminate to all parents, schools, and the public a school system report card containing aggregate information, including, but not limited to, student achievement (disaggregated by category), graduation rates, performance of the school system and teacher qualifications.
b. Each year, school system officials shall disseminate to all parents, schools and the community the results of the LEA’s yearly progress review of each school.
3. Teacher Qualifications
a. Each year, school system officials shall notify parents of Title I students of the right to request certain information on the professional qualifications of the student’s classroom teachers and paraprofessionals providing services to the child (see policy 7820, Personnel Files).
b. The principal or designee of a Title I school shall provide timely notice informing parents that their student has been assigned to or has been taught for at least four consecutive weeks by a teacher does not meet applicable State certification or licensure requirements at the grade level or subject area in which the teacher has been assigned.
4. Parental Rights and Opportunities for Involvement
Each year, the principal or designee of a Title I school shall provide notice to parents of the school’s written parent and family engagement policy, parents’ right to be involved in their child’s school and opportunities for parents and family members to be involved in the school.
F. Website Notification
When a Title I school is identified for improvement, corrective action or restructuring, the school system will display on its website the following information in a timely manner to ensure that parents have current information regarding supplemental services and public school choice:
1. beginning with data from the 2007-2008 school year and for each subsequent school year, the number of students who were eligible for and the number of students who participated in public school choice;
2. for the current school year, a list of available schools to which students eligible to participate in public school choice may transfer;
3. beginning with data from the 2007-2008 school year and for each subsequent school year, the number of students who were eligible for and the number of students who participated in supplemental educational services; and
4. for the current school year, a list of supplemental educational services providers approved by the state to serve the school system and the locations where services are provided.
The superintendent shall develop any additional administrative procedures necessary to implement the requirements of this policy.
Legal References: Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq., 34 C.F.R. pt. 200.; 20 U.S.C. 7801(32); Public School Choice Non-Regulatory Guidance, U.S. Department of Education (January 14, 2009); Supplemental Educational Services Non-Regulatory Guidance, U.S. Department of Education (January 14, 2009); U.S. Department of Education approval of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Request (May 29, 2012); State Board of Education Policy TCS-R-000
Cross References: Parental Involvement (policy 1310/4002), Goals and Objectives of the Educational Program (policy 3000), Curriculum Development (policy 3100), Personnel Files (policy 7820)
Other Resources: Giving Parents Options: Strategies for Informing Parents and Implementing Public School Choice and Supplemental Educational Services Under No Child Left Behind, U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement (September 2007)
Adopted: January 14, 1997
Revised: December 11, 2001; April 10, 2012; January 8, 2013; June 7, 2018