Karen Seay PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT 101 – Writing a compliant policy and compact We’re all in this together:  State Department of Education  Districts  Schools  Parents  Students

Karen Seay  LEA Parental Involvement Policy SDE Finding  School Parental Involvement Policy SDE Finding  School-Parent Compact 2 SDE Findings  Building Capacity for Involvement  Accessibility Our focus today…

Karen Seay It’s the law…  Involving parents of participating children in “meaningful consultation” in a district’s and school’s Title IA programs, activities, and procedures is a condition for receiving Title IA funds, NCLB 1118(a)(1).

Karen Seay LEA Parental Involvement Policy  Written Parental Involvement Policy is developed jointly with, agreed on with, and distributed to parents of participating children.

Karen Seay LEA Parental Involvement Policy 1 st Element 1. Involve parents in the development of the consolidated plan and the process for annually reviewing each school for improvement; Dear Parents: Our school needs you for some important work…

Karen Seay LEA Parental Involvement Policy 2 nd Element 2. Provide technical assistance support to assist participating schools in planning and implementing parental involvement activities to improve student academic achievement; Hey, I have a great idea I want to share with you that I think might help.

Karen Seay Build the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong parental involvement (see slides #23-29); LEA Parental Involvement Policy 3 rd Element

Karen Seay LEA Parental Involvement Policy 4 th Element 4. Coordinate and integrate parental involvement strategies with other programs, such as Head Start, Reading First, Even Start, etc.;

Karen Seay LEA Parental Involvement Policy 5 th Element 5. Involve parents in the annual evaluation of the LEA parental involvement policy- o Identify barriers, o Design strategies for more effective parental involvement, and o Revise policy appropriately;

Karen Seay LEA Parental Involvement Policy 6 th Element 6. Involve parents in the activities of the schools served under Title IA.

Karen Seay LEA Parental Involvement Policy – Notes:  Each district is required to set aside at least 1% of allocation for parental involvement. (Set aside does not apply for districts with a Title IA allocation of $500,000 or less; however parental involvement regulation requirements still apply.)  Parents will be involved in deciding how these funds are allotted for parental involvement activities.  At least 95% of these funds must be distributed to Title IA schools.

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy  Written Parental Involvement Policy (plan) is developed jointly with, agreed on with, and distributed to parents of participating children.  Parents are notified of the policy (plan) in an understandable and uniform format and, when practicable, provided in a language the parents can understand.  Policy (plan) is made available to the local community and is updated periodically to meet changing needs of parents and school.

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy -  Written Parental Involvement Policy (plan) addresses four areas: Policy Involvement, School-Parent Compact, Building Capacity for Involvement, and Accessibility.

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy 1 st Element 1. Each Title IA school must convene an annual meeting. Who and when: invite parents of participating children at a convenient time and encourage them to attend; Purpose: to inform parents of their school's participation in Title I, and to explain the program requirements and the right of the parents to be involved;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy 2 nd Element 2. Offer a flexible number of meetings, such as meetings in the morning or evening, and may provide, with Title IA funds, transportation, child care, or home visits, for purposes related to parental involvement;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy 3 rd Element 3. Involve parents in an organized, ongoing, and timely way, in the planning, review, and improvement of the school parental involvement policy and the development of the schoolwide program plan;  Comments, from parents not satisfied with the schoolwide plan, are submitted when the school submits the plan to the district;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy 4 th Element 4. Provide parents of participating children –  Timely information about programs;  Description and explanation of the curriculum; forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, and the proficiency levels students are expected to meet;  opportunities for regular meetings to make suggestions, participate in decisions related to the education of their children, as appropriate.

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy School-Parent Compact  Each Title IA school will jointly develop with parents for all participating children, a school- parent compact that outlines how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and address how the school and parents will partner to help children achieve.

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy School-Parent Compact-1 st Element 1. Describes the school’s responsibility to provide high- quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive learning environment;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy School-Parent Compact-2nd Element 2. Describes ways in which each parent is responsible for supporting their children’s learning, such as  Monitoring attendance, homework completion, and television watching;  Volunteering in their child’s classroom;  And participating, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their child and positive use of extracurricular time;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy School-Parent Compact-3rd Element 3. Addresses the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis through:  Parent-teacher conferences;  Frequent reports to parents on their children’s progress; and  Reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and observe.

Karen Seay School-Parent Compact DID YOU KNOW:  School-Parent Compact are required for all schools – both targeted assistance and schoolwide.  School-Parent Compacts do not need to be signed.

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy Building Capacity  Building Capacity for Parental Involvement – to ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the school involved, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement.

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy Building Capacity – 1st Element 1. Each school and district will provide assistance to parents of children served in understanding the state’s academic content standards, student academic achievement standards, academic assessments, and how to monitor a child’s progress and work with educators to improve achievement;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy Building Capacity – 2 nd Element 2. Each school and district will provide materials and training to help parents to work with their children to improve their children’s achievement;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy Building Capacity – 3 rd Element 3. Each school and district will educate teachers, pupil services personnel, and principals in the value of parental involvement and in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, implement parent programs, and build ties between parents and the school;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy Building Capacity – 4th Element 4. Each school and district will coordinate and integrate parent involvement programs and activities with Head Start, Reading First, Even Start, public preschool and other programs to encourage and support parents in fully participating in their children’s education;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy Building Capacity – 5th Element 5. Each school and district will 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;

Karen Seay School Parental Involvement Policy Building Capacity – 6th Element 6. Each school and district will provide other reasonable support for parental involvement activities as may be requested.

Karen Seay  Each school and district, to the extent practicable, will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities, and parents of migratory children including providing information and reports in a language parents understand. School Parental Involvement Policy Accessibility

Karen Seay Links that support the effectiveness of parental involvement in schools on increasing student achievement  entinvguid.doc - PI Guidance including sample policies entinvguid.doc   unity_products.html unity_products.html   involvement/fine-family-involvement- network-of-educators involvement/fine-family-involvement- network-of-educators