Policy 8260

ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY INSTRUCTION
8260 TITLE I PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

The District will collaborate with parents and other family members to help students participating in Title I schools/programs reach their full academic potential and to improve the District's overall academic quality. As part of its collaboration, the District will conduct outreach; plan and implement programs, activities, and procedures for parent and family member engagement; and consult meaningfully with parents and family members.

District-Wide Parent and Family Engagement

To facilitate parent and family participation, the District will:

a) Involve parents and family members in jointly developing this policy, its Title I Plan, and its support and improvement plans. If the parents or family members indicate that the Title I plan is not satisfactory, the District will submit their comments to the State Education Department along with the plan;
b) Improve student academic achievement and school performance through coordination, providing technical assistance, and giving support necessary to assist and build the capacity of all participating schools in planning and implementing effective parent and family engagement activities, 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;
c) Coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies with other relevant federal, state, and local programs;
d) Conduct, with the meaningful involvement of parents and family members, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parent and family engagement policy in improving the academic quality of its Title I schools. The evaluation will include identifying:

1. Barriers to greater participation by parents and family members in Title I activities, 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 their child's learning, including engaging with school personnel and teachers; and

3. Strategies to support successful school and family interactions.

e) Use the evaluation's findings to design evidence-based strategies for more effective parent and family member engagement, and to revise the policy, if needed; 
f) Involve parents in Title I activities, which may include establishing a parent advisory board comprised of a sufficient number and representative group of parents or family members served by the District to adequately represent the students' needs, to develop, revise, and review the parent and family engagement policy; and
g) Involve parents and family members in decisions regarding how it spends funds reserved for parent and family engagement activities.

School-Level Parent and Family Member Engagement

The Board directs each school receiving Title I funds to develop a building-level parent and family member engagement plan with that school's parents and family members. In addition to the content included above, each school building-level plan will:

a) Describe how to convene an annual meeting, at a convenient time, to inform parents and family members of their school's participation in Title I programs, to explain Title I requirements, and to identify the right of the parents and family members to be involved. All parents and family members of these children will be invited and encouraged to attend the meeting;
b) Offer flexibility in scheduling meetings, and may provide transportation, child care, or home visits related to parent and family member engagement, using Title I funds;
c) Involve parents and family members in an organized, ongoing, and timely way in planning, reviewing, and improving Title I programs, including this policy;
d) Provide parents and family members with timely information about programs, a description and explanation of the curriculum in use, the forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, the achievement levels of the challenging state academic standards, and, if requested by parents or family members, opportunities for regular meetings to formulate suggestions and to participate in decisions relating to their child's education. The District will respond to any suggestions as soon as practicably possible; and
e) Develop a compact jointly with parents and family members that outlines how they, school staff, and students will share responsibility for improved student academic achievement. The compact will also detail the means by which the school and parents and family members will build and develop a partnership to help all children achieve the state's standards.
f) Have a compact that:

1. Describes the school's responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment to enable these students to meet the challenging state academic standards;

2. Describes the ways in which each parent or family member will be responsible for supporting the child's learning, volunteering in the child's classroom, and participating, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the child's education and positive use of extracurricular time; and

3. Addresses the importance of communication between teachers and parents or family members on an ongoing basis through, at a minimum:

(a) Parent or family member-teacher conferences in elementary schools, at least annually, during which the compact will be discussed as it relates to the individual child's achievement;
(b) Frequent reports to parents or family members on the child's progress; 
(c) Reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and participate in the child's class, and observing their classroom activities.
(d) Ensuring regular two-way, meaningful communication between family members and school staff, and, to the extent practicable, in a language that family members can understand.

If the parents or family members believe that the building-level parent and family engagement plan is not satisfactory, the school will submit their comments when it makes the plan available to the District.

To ensure effective involvement of parents or family members and to support a partnership among the school involved, parents or family members, and the community, to improve student academic achievement, the District and each school will:

a) Provide assistance to parents or family members of children served by the District or school to understand topics such as the challenging state academic standards, state and local academic assessments, the requirements of this part, and how to monitor a child's progress and work with educators to improve the achievement of the children;
b) Provide materials and training to help parents or family members to work with the children to improve their achievement, such as literacy training and using technology (including education about the harms of copyright piracy) to foster parent and family member engagement; 
c) Educate teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals, and other school leaders, with the assistance of parents or family members, in the value and utility of parent or family member contribution, and in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents or family members as equal partners; implement and coordinate parent or family member programs; and build ties between parents or family members and the school;
d) Coordinate and integrate, to the extent feasible and appropriate, parent and family member engagement programs and activities with federal, state, and local programs, including public preschool programs that encourage and support parents and family members in more fully participating in the education of the children;
e) Ensure that information related to school and parent and family member programs, meetings, and other activities is sent to the parents or family members of participating children in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents or family members can understand;
f) Provide other reasonable support for parent and family member engagement activities as parents or family members may request.

In addition, the District and each school may:

a) Involve parents or family members in developing training for teachers, principals, and other educators to improve the effectiveness of this training;
b) Provide necessary literacy training from funds received under this part if the District has exhausted all other reasonably available sources of funding for the training;
c) Pay reasonable and necessary expenses associated with local parent and family member engagement activities, including transportation and child care costs, to enable parents and family members to participate in school-related meetings and training sessions;
d) Train parents or family members to enhance the involvement of other parents or family members;
e) Arrange school meetings at a variety of times, or conduct in-home conferences between teachers or other educators, who work directly with participating children, with parents or family members who are unable to attend these conferences at school, to maximize parent and family engagement and participation;
f) Adopt and implement model approaches to improving parent and family engagement;
g) Establish a District-wide parent and family member advisory council to provide advice on all matters related to parent and family member engagement in supported programs; and
h) Develop appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses in parent and family member engagement activities.

In carrying out the parent and family member engagement requirements, the District and its schools, to the extent practicable, will provide opportunities for the informed participation of parents and family members (including parents and family members who have limited English proficiency, parents and family members with 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 they understand.

Procedures for Filing Complaints/Appeals

The District will disseminate free of charge to parents and family members of children in Title I programs, and to appropriate private school officials or representatives, adequate information regarding the District's written complaint procedures for resolving Title I issues.

Comparability of Services

The District will ensure equivalence among its schools of the same grade span and levels of instruction with regard to teachers, administrators, and auxiliary personnel, as well as equivalence in providing curriculum materials and instructional supplies in Title I programs.


Policy References:
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as reauthorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015
20 USC §§ 6318 and 6321
34 CFR Parts 74-86, 97-99, and 200


Adopted: 6/22/99
Revised: 9/6/22

Policy 8260