Parental Involvement Policy

1. Involve parents in the joint development of the Title I plan. 
2. Provide necessary coordination, technical assistance, or other support needed to assist each Title I school in planning and implementing effective parental involvement activities in each building to improve student academic achievement and school performance.
3. Build the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong parental involvement through implementing and encouraging participation in appropriate parental involvement activities. This will be accomplished via the District/Building Newsletter and invitations that encourage parents to volunteer, join committees – PTA, attend attend open house/parent conferences.
4. Coordinate and integrate parental involvement strategies with parental involvement strategies under other programs including but not limited to the Head Start Program, Reading First Program, Early Reading First Program, Even Start Program, Parents as Teachers Program, and Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters and state-run preschool programs.
5. Conduct, in conjunction with parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parental involvement policy in improving the academic quality of Title I schools. Involve parents in school activities of Title I schools,
6. Involve parents of children in Title I programs in decisions regarding how funds designated for parental involvement activities are to be spent.
7. Direct each school building receiving Title I funds within the District to develop jointly with parents, a written parental involvement plan for the building. Each plan and policy will be distributed to parents on an annual basis in an understandable format and in a language parents can understand when possible.
8. Make all parental involvement policies and plans available to the local community and update them periodically to meet the changing needs of schools and parents.
9. Assist parents of children in Title I schools in understanding such topics as the state’s academic content, student achievement standards, state and local academic assessments, Title I requirements and how to monitor a child’s progress.
10. Provide materials and training to help parents of children in Title I schools work with their children to improve their children’s performance.
11. Educate teachers, pupil services personnel, principals and other staff in Title I schools with the assistance of parents about the value and use of parent contributions and in how to reach out, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, implement and coordinate parent programs and build ties between parents and school.
12. To the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and integrate parent involvement programs and activities in Title I schools with Head Start, Reading First, Early Reading First, Even Start, the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters, the Parents as Teachers Program and public preschool and other programs.
13. Conduct other activities in Title I schools such as parent resource centers that encourage and support parents in more fully participating in the education of their children.

The Board of Education hereby directs each building principal of a Title I school to ensure that a building level parental involvement plan is generated with the participation of that building’s parents. In addition to those goals stated above, each such building level plan will describe the details for:

1. Convening an annual meeting at a convenient time to inform parents of their school’s participation in Title I programs and explain Title I requirements and rights of parents to be involved. All parents of children participating in Title I programs will be invited to the meeting.
2. Offering a flexible number of meetings including morning or evening. Each building level plan may provide, with funds available under Title I, for transportation, child care, or home visits as such services relate to parental involvement.
3. Involving parents in an organized, ongoing and timely way in the planning, review and improvement of Title I programs including the planning, review and improvement of the school’s parent involvement policy.
4. Providing parents of participating children with timely information about programs, a description and explanation of the curriculum in use in Title I programs, the forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, the proficiency levels the students are expected to meet, and 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 or respond to any such suggestions as soon as practicable.
5. Developing a school-parent compact jointly with parents that outlines how the parents, school staff and students will share responsibility for improved student academic achievement and detailing the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help all children achieve the state’s standards.
6. The compact must include:
• a description of the school’s responsibility to provide high quality learning curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables children served in Title I schools to meet the State’s student academic achievement standards;
• describe the ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting their child’s learning such as monitoring attendance, homework completion, television watching, volunteering in their child’s classroom and participating as appropriate in decisions relating to the education of their child and the positive use of extracurricular time;
• addressing the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis including, but not limited to, annual parent teacher conferences including a discussion of how the compact relates to the individual child’s achievement, frequent reports to parents on their child’s progress, reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and participate in the child’s class, and observation of classroom activities.