Karen Seay 09.15.2008 1

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT 101 – Writing a compliant policy and compact

We’re all in this together:State Department of EducationDistrictsSchoolsParentsStudents

Karen Seay 09.15.2008 2

LEA Parental Involvement PolicySDE Finding

School Parental Involvement PolicySDE Finding

School-Parent Compact2 SDE Findings

Building Capacity for Involvement Accessibility

Our focus today…

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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 09.15.2008 4

LEA Parental Involvement Policy

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

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LEA Parental Involvement Policy 1st 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 09.15.2008 6

LEA Parental Involvement Policy 2nd 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.

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3. Build the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong parental involvement (see slides #23-29);

LEA Parental Involvement Policy 3rd Element

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LEA Parental Involvement Policy 4th Element

4. Coordinate and integrate parental involvement strategies with other programs, such as Head Start, Reading First, Even Start, etc.;

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LEA Parental Involvement Policy 5th 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;

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LEA Parental Involvement Policy 6th Element

6. Involve parents in the activities of the schools served under Title IA.

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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.

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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.

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School Parental Involvement Policy - Written Parental Involvement Policy

(plan) addresses four areas:

Policy Involvement, School-Parent Compact,

Building Capacity for Involvement, and

Accessibility.

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School Parental Involvement Policy 1st 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;

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School Parental Involvement Policy 2nd 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;

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School Parental Involvement Policy 3rd 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;

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School Parental Involvement Policy 4th 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.

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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.

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School Parental Involvement Policy School-Parent Compact-1st Element

1. Describes the school’s responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive learning environment;

Karen Seay 09.15.2008 20

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;

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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.

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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.

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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 09.15.2008 24

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;

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School Parental Involvement Policy Building Capacity – 2nd 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;

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School Parental Involvement Policy Building Capacity – 3rd 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;

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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;

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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;

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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.

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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

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Links that support the effectiveness of parental involvement in schools on increasing student achievement

http://www.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/parentinvguid.doc - PI Guidance including sample policies

http://www.ed.gov/programs/pirc/index.htm http://www.sedl.org/expertise/family)commu

nity_products.html http://www.sedl.org http://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/fine-f

amily-involvement-network-of-educators