Parents’ Right to Know Their Child’s and School’s Achievement

Right to Know Child’s Achievement At the beginning of each school year, SCES will provide each parent a copy of their child’s ARMT and SAT-10 scores along with a letter explaining the scores. If you need additional assistance in understanding these reports, please set up a meeting with your child’s teacher of the school counselor.

Right to Know Personnel Qualifications You have the right to request information concerning your child’s teacher. A notebook is located in the office for you to review the qualifications of your child’s teacher. You have the right to know:

 Whether the teacher has met state qualification for the grade and subject she/he teaches;

 Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or provisional credentials because the state has waived normal qualifications;

 The teacher’s college major and any graduate certification or degree and the discipline in which it was taken; and

 Whether paraprofessionals provide services to the child, and if so, their qualifications.

In addition, if at any time your child has been assigned to and has been taught by a teacher who has not met the state’s criteria for being considered highly qualified for a period of time of 4 or more weeks, you must be notified in writing in a timely manner.

Right to Know for Parents of Limited-English Proficient Children Parents have the right to information concerning their child’s placement in a language instruction program, and they have the right “to opt out” of any placement. In any school using Title I funds for language instruction the school must provide the following information within 30 days of the beginning of school (or within 2 weeks of the child’s program placement):

 The reason for identifying the child as LEP;

 The child’s level of English proficiency, how it was determined, and the “status” of the child’s achievement;

 The instructional methods of the program in which the child is participating;

 How the program will meet the needs of the child;

 How the program specifically helps the child learn English; and

 The specific exit requirements for the program.

If a LEP child is also disabled, the parental notification must include information on how the language instructional program meets the objectives of the child’s LEP.

Notification for Parents of Children Attending Schools Not Making Progress Parents have the right to know whether their child’s school is making adequate yearly progress, and if it is not, what they can do about it. If a school has been identified as being in “school improvement” status, parents will be notified of the following:

 What the identification means and the reason for it;

 What the school is doing to address the problem;

 What local and state authorities are doing to correct the problem; and

 How parents can become involved in addressing the academic problems that caused the school to be identified in the first place

If a school fails to make adequate yearly progress for two or more years, parents must be told about options to transfer their child to another public school or to obtain supplementary educational services.