Board Policy 2111 - PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Last Revised April 15, 2019

The Board of Education recognizes and values parents and families as children's first teachers and decision-makers in education. The Board believes that student learning is more likely to occur when there is an effective partnership between the school and the student's parents and family. Such a partnership between the home and school and greater involvement of parents and family members in the education of their children generally result in higher academic achievement, improved student behavior, and reduced absenteeism. This policy shall serve as the District policy, as well as the Parent and Family Engagement policy for each school in the District.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA), defines the term "parent" to include a legal guardian or other person standing in loco parentis (such as a grandparent or stepparent with whom the child lives, or a person who is legally responsible for the child’s welfare).

In accordance with statute and the State Board of Education Parent and Family Involvement policy, the term “family” is used in order to include a child’s primary caregivers, who are not the biological parents, such as foster caregivers, grandparents, and other family members and responsible adults who play significant roles in providing for the well-being of the child.

In cultivating partnerships with families and communities, the Board establishes the following expectations and objectives for meaningful parent and family engagement:

1. Relationships with Families

   1. cultivating school environments that are welcoming, supportive, and student-centered;4

   2. providing professional development for school staff that helps build partnerships between families and schools;2,3,4

   3. providing family activities that relate to various cultures, languages, practices, and customs, and bridge economic and cultural barriers; 2,3

   4. providing coordination, technical assistance, and other support to assist schools in planning and implementing family involvement activities.3
      

2. Effective Communication

   1. providing information to families to support the proper health, safety, and well-being of their children;

   2. providing information to families about school policies, procedures, programs, and activities;2,3,4

   3. promoting regular and open communication between school personnel and students' family members;1,4

   4. communicating with families in a format and language that is understandable, to the extent practicable; 2,3

   5. providing information and involving families in monitoring student progress;3

   6. providing families with timely and meaningful information regarding Ohio's academic standards, State and local assessments, and pertinent legal provisions;2,3,4

   7. preparing families to be involved in meaningful discussions and meetings with school staff.2,3,4
      

3. Volunteer Opportunities

   1. providing volunteer opportunities for families to support their children's school activities;1,3

   2. supporting other needs, such as transportation and child care, to enable families to participate in school-sponsored family involvement events. 3,4
      

4. Learning at Home

   1. offering training and resources to help families learn strategies and skills to support at-home learning and success in school; 1,2,3,4

   2. working with families to establish learning goals and help their children accomplish these goals.1

   3. helping families to provide a school and home environment that encourages learning and extends learning at home. 1,2,3,4
      

5. Engaging Families in Decision Making and Advocacy

   1. engaging families as partners in the process of school review and continuous improvement planning;3,4

   2. engaging families in the development of its District-wide parent and family engagement policy and plan, and distributing the policy and plan to families.2,3,4
      

6. Collaborating with the Community

   1. building constructive partnerships and connecting families with community-based programs and other community resources;2,3,4

   2. coordinating and integrating parent and family engagement programs and activities with District initiatives and community- based programs that encourage and support families' participation in their children's education, growth, and development.2,3,4

Implementation

The Superintendent will provide for a comprehensive plan to engage parents, families, and community members in a partnership in support of each student's academic achievement, the District's continuous improvement, and individual school improvement plans. The District's plan, as well as each school's plan, will provide for annual evaluation, with the meaningful engagement of parents and families, of the plan's content, effectiveness and identification of barriers to participation by parents and families with particular attention to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background; the needs of parents and family members to assist with the learning of their children (including engaging with school personnel and teachers); and the strategies to support successful school and family interaction. Each school plan will include the development of a written school-parent compact jointly with parents for all children participating in Title I, Part A activities, services, and programs. The compact will outline how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve the State’s high standards. Evaluation findings will be used in the annual review of the Parent and Family Engagement policy and to improve the effectiveness of the District plan. This policy will be updated periodically to meet the changing needs of parents, families, and the schools.

Board Policy 2261.01 - PARENT PARTICIPATION IN TITLE I PROGRAMS

Last Revised April 15, 2019

In accordance with the requirements of Federal law, programs supported by Title I funds must be planned and implemented in meaningful consultation with parents and family members of the students being served.

Each year the Superintendent shall work with parents and family members of children served in Title I Programs in order to jointly develop and agree upon a proposed written parent and family engagement policy to establish expectations for the involvement of such parents and family members in the education of their children. The proposed policy shall be reviewed and approved annually by the Board of Education and distributed to parents and family members of children receiving Title I services. The proposed policy must establish the District's expectations and objectives for meaningful parent and family involvement, and describe how the School District will:

1. involve parents and family members in the development of the School District's Title I plans and any State-mandated comprehensive support and improvement plans;

2. provide coordination, technical assistance, and other support necessary to assist and build the capacity of all participating schools in planning and implementing effective parent involvement activities to improve student achievement and school performance, which may include meaningful consultation with employers, business leaders, and philanthropic organizations, or individuals with expertise in effectively engaging parents and family members in education;

3. coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies, to the extent feasible and appropriate, with other Federal, State, and local laws and programs;

4. with meaningful involvement of parents and family members, annually evaluate the content and effectiveness of the parent and family engagement policy in improving the academic quality of schools, including:

   1. identifying barriers to greater parent participation (with particular attention to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background);

   2. the needs of parents and family members to assist with the learning of their children, including engaging with school personnel and teachers; and

   3. strategies to support successful school and family interactions.

5. use the findings of the above-referenced evaluation to:

   1. design evidence-based strategies for more effective parental involvement; and,

   2. revise the parent and family engagement policy, if necessary;

6. involve parents in the activities of the District’s Title I schools, which may include establishing a parent advisory board that may be charged with developing, revising and reviewing the parent and family engagement policy;

7. provide opportunities for the informed participation of parents and family members (including parents and family members who have limited English proficiency and/or disabilities, and parents and family members of migratory children, including providing information and school reports in a format, and to the extent practicable in a language, such parents can understand;

8. conduct meetings with parents including provisions for flexible scheduling and assistance to parents to better assure their attendance at meetings;

9. develop agendas for parent meetings to include review and explanation of the curriculum, means of assessments, and the proficiency levels students are expected to achieve and maintain;

10. provide opportunities for parents to formulate suggestions, interact and share experiences with other parents, and participate appropriately in the decision-making about the program and revisions in the plan;

11. involve parents in the planning, review, and improvement of the Title I program;

12. communicate information concerning school performance profiles and their child's individual performance to parents;

13. assist parents in helping their children in achieving the objectives of the program by such means as ensuring regular attendance, monitoring television-watching, providing adequate time and the proper environment for homework; guiding nutritional and health practices, and the like;

14. provide timely responses to parental questions, concerns, and recommendations;

15. coordinate and provide technical assistance and other support necessary to assist Title I schools to develop effective parent participation activities to improve academic achievement;

16. conduct other activities as appropriate to the Title I plan and State and Federal requirements.
    

The Board will reserve the requisite percent of its allocation of Federal Title I funds to carry out the above-described activities. Parents and family members of children receiving Title I services shall be involved in the decisions regarding how the reserved funds are allotted for parent involvement activities. Reserved funds shall be used to carry out activities and strategies consistent with the Board’s parent and family engagement policy (Policy 2111), including at least one (1) of the following:

1. Supporting schools and nonprofit organizations in providing professional development for the District and school personnel regarding parent and family engagement strategies, which may be provided jointly to teachers, principals, other school leaders, specialized instructional support personnel, paraprofessionals, early childhood educators, and parents and family members.

2. Supporting programs that reach parents and family members at home, in the community, and at school.

3. Disseminating information on best practices focused on parent and family engagement, especially best practices for increasing the engagement of economically disadvantaged parents and family members.

4. Collaborating, or providing subgrants to schools to enable such schools to collaborate, with community-based or other organizations or employers with a record of success in improving and increasing parent and family engagement.

5. Engaging in any other activities and strategies that the Board determines are appropriate and consistent with its parent and family engagement policy.
   

The Superintendent must also assure that each Title I participating school develops a specific written plan, with parental involvement and agreement, which includes provisions regarding the following:

1. Each principal must convene an annual meeting at a convenient time to which all parents of participating children are invited and encouraged to attend to explain the parents' rights to be involved and the school's obligations to develop a parent and family engagement policy.
   

2. Meetings with parents of children receiving Title I services must be scheduled at flexible times with assistance such as child care, transportation, home visits, or similar aid offered to parents to encourage their involvement.
   

3. Parents must be involved in an organized, on-going and timely way in the development, review, and improvement of parent involvement activities, including the planning, review and improvement of the school parent and family engagement policy, and the joint development of the schoolwide program plan, if appropriate.
   

4. Parents of participating students must be provided with:

   1. timely information about the Title I program and the school's parent and family engagement policy;

   2. a description and explanation of the curriculum in use at the school, the forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, and the achievement levels expected;

   3. regular meetings, upon request, for parents to make suggestions, and to participate as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children, and receive responses regarding the parents' suggestions about their student's education as soon as practicably possible.
      

5. If the written plan is not satisfactory to the parents of participating children, the school must submit any parents’ comments when it presents the plan to the Superintendent.
   

6. As a component of the school-level parent and family engagement policy, the principal for each school shall coordinate the development of a school-parent compact jointly with parents of children served under Title I which outlines how the school staff, the parents, and the student will share responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help students achieve the State's high standards. The compact must:

   1. describe the school's responsibility to provide a high quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive, effective learning environment;

   2. describe the ways in which each parent is responsible for supporting their child's learning environment such as monitoring attendance, homework, extra-curricular activities and excessive television watching; volunteering in the classroom; and participating, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children and their positive use of extra-curricular time;

   3. address the importance of parent/teacher communication on an on-going basis through at least annual parent teacher conferences to discuss the child's achievement and the compact; frequent progress reports to the parents on their child's progress; reasonable access to the staff and to observe and participate in classroom activities and regular two-way, meaningful communication between family members and school staff, and, to the extent practicable, in a language that family members can understand.
      

7. Parents of children receiving Title I services must be notified about their school's parent and family engagement policy in an understandable and uniform format, and to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand. These policies must also be made available to the community.
   

8. School-level parent and family engagement policies must be updated periodically to meet the changing needs of parents and the schools.
   

In order to involve parents in the education of their children and to support a partnership among the school, parents and the community for improving student academic achievement, the Superintendent and building principals must include provisions in the School District and school-level parent and family engagement policies regarding:

1. assisting parents of children served under Title I in understanding such topics as the State academic standards, State and local academic assessments, Title I, and how to monitor their child's progress and how to work with educators to improve their child's achievement;

2. providing materials and training to help parents work with their children to improve achievement, such as literacy training and using technology (including education about the harms of copyright privacy);

3. educating teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, school leaders (including principals), and other staff, with the assistance of parents, about the value and utility of contributions of parents, how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, how to implement and coordinate parent programs, and how to build ties between parents and the school;

4. to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordination and integration of parent involvement programs and activities with other Federal, State and local programs (including public preschool programs), and conducting other activities that encourage and support parents more fully participating in the education of their children (e.g., parent resource centers);

5. providing information related to school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities to parents of participating children in a format, and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand;

6. providing such reasonable support for parent involvement activities as parents may request.
   

In order to build the School District's capacity for parent involvement, the Superintendent and building principals may also:

1. involve parents in the development of training for teachers and administrators and other educators to improve the effectiveness of such training;

2. provide necessary literacy training from Title I funds if the District has exhausted all other reasonably available sources of funding for such training;

3. pay reasonable and necessary expenses associated with parental involvement activities to enable parents to participate in school-related meetings and training sessions, including transportation and child care costs;

4. train parents to enhance the involvement of other parents;

5. arrange school meetings at a variety of times, or conduct in-house conferences between teachers or other educators who work directly with participating children, with parents who are unable to attend such conferences at school, in order to maximize parental involvement and participation;

6. adopt and implement model approaches to improving parental involvement in Title I programs;

7. establish a District-wide parent advisory council to provide advice on all matters related to parental involvement programs;

8. develop appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses in parental involvement activities.