Jerome Joint School District No. 261

CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION 2420

Parent and Family Engagement

District Policy Development

The District may receive Title I funds only if it conducts outreach consistent with federal law to all parents and

family members and implements programs, activities, and procedures for the involvement of parents and family

members in programs assisted under Title I. Such programs, activities, and procedures shall be planned and

implemented following meaningful consultation with the parents of participating children.

The District shall develop jointly with, agree on with, and distribute to, parents and family members of

participating children a written parent and family engagement policy. The policy will establish the District's

expectations and objectives for meaningful parent and family involvement, and specifically describe how the

District will:

1. Demonstrate Joint Development of Engagement Plan: The District shall involve parents and family

members in jointly developing the District’s Plan; and

2. Coordinate Assistance and Support: The District shall provide the coordination, technical assistance, and

other support necessary to assist and build the capacity of all participating schools within the District in

planning and implementing effective parent and family involvement activities to improve student

academic 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; and

3. Coordinate with Other Programs: The District shall coordinate and integrate its parent and family

engagement strategies to the extent feasible and appropriate, with the District’s other relevant federal,

state, and local programs; and

4. Conduct Annual Program Evaluation: The District shall conduct, with the meaningful involvement of

parents and family members, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of its parent and

family engagement policy in improving the academic quality of all its schools receiving Title I funds,

including identification of:

A. The barriers to greater participation by parents in improvement plan activities (with particular

attention paid to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background);

B. The needs of parents and family members to assist with the learning of their children, including

engaging with school personnel and teachers; and

C. The strategies that will be implemented to support successful school and family interactions.

5. Implement Evaluation Findings: The District shall use the findings of the evaluation performed pursuant

to Paragraph 4, above, to design evidence-based strategies for more effective parental involvement, and

to revise, if necessary, the District’s parent and family engagement policy described herein; and

6. Establish a Parent Advisory Board: The District shall involve parents in the activities of the schools

receiving Title I funds, 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 needs of the population served by the District for the purpose of developing, revising, and

reviewing the District’s Parent and Family Engagement Policy.

School-Level Policy Development

Each Title I school shall jointly develop with, and distribute to, parents and family members of participating

children a written parent and family engagement policy, agreed on by such parents, that shall describe the means

for carrying out the requirements of paragraphs 1 through 4 below. Parents shall be notified of the policy in an

understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, provided in a language the parents can

understand. Such policy shall be made available to the local community and updated periodically to meet the

changing needs of parents and the school. In the event a school has an existing parent and family engagement

policy that applies to all parents and family members, that school may amend its policy, if necessary, to meet the

requirements of this policy. Similarly, if the District has an existing district-level parent and family engagement

policy that applies to all parents and family members in all schools served by the District, it may amend that policy,

if necessary, to meet the requirements of this policy.

1. Parental Involvement: All District schools receiving Title I funds shall:

A. Convene an annual meeting, at a convenient time, to which all parents of participating children

shall be invited and encouraged to attend, to inform parents of their school's programs, to

explain the requirements of this policy, and the right of the parents to be involved; and

B. Offer a flexible number of meetings, such as meetings in the morning or evening, and may

provide, with reserved Title I funds, transportation, child care, or home visits, as such services

relate to parental involvement; and

C. Involve parents, in an organized, ongoing, and timely way, in the planning, review, and

improvement of the District’s and school’s available programs, including the planning, review,

and improvement of the school’s parent and family engagement policy and the joint

development of the schoolwide program plan, except that if a school has in place a process or

procedure for involving parents in the joint planning and design of the school's programs, the

school may use that process or procedure, if such existing process or procedure already includes an adequate representation of parents of Title I qualifying children; and

D. Provide parents of participating children:

I. Timely information about qualifying programs;

II. 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 of the challenging State academic standards; and

III. If requested by parents, opportunities for regular meetings to formulate suggestions

and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their

children, and respond to any such suggestions as soon as practicably possible.

E. If the schoolwide program plan is not satisfactory to the parents of participating children, the

school shall submit any and all parent comments on the plan to the District at the time the school

first makes the plan available to the District.

2. School-Parent Compact to Achieve High Student Academic Achievement: As a component of the school-

level parent and family engagement policy developed under this policy, each school shall jointly develop

with the parents of Title I children a school-parent compact that describes how parents, the entire school

staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and identify

the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve

the challenging state academic standards. Such compact shall:

A. Describe the school's responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a

supportive and effective learning environment that enables the children to meet the challenging

State academic standards, and the ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting

their children's learning; volunteering in their child's classroom; and participating, as appropriate,

in decisions relating to the education of their children and positive use of extracurricular time;

and

B. Address the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis

through, at a minimum:

I. Parent-teacher conferences in elementary schools, at least annually, during which the

compact shall be discussed as the compact relates to the individual child's achievement;

II. Frequent reports to parents on their children's progress;

III. Reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child's

class, and observation of classroom activities; and

IV. 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.

District and School Level Development

1. Empowering Parents: To ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the

school, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement, both the District and each

school within the District:

A. Shall provide assistance to parents of children served by the school or District, as appropriate, in

understanding such topics as the challenging state academic standards, state and local academic

assessments, the requirements of this policy, and how to monitor a child's progress and work with

educators to improve the achievement of their children; and

B. Shall provide materials and training to help parents work with their children to improve their

children's achievement, such as literacy training and using technology (including education about the

harms of copyright piracy), as appropriate, to foster parental involvement; and

C. Shall educate teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals, and other school

leaders, and other staff, with the assistance of parents, in the value and utility of parental

participation, and in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal

partners, to implement and coordinate parent programs, and to build ties between parents and the

schools; and

D. Shall, to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and integrate parental involvement in

programs and activities with other available federal, state, and local programs, including public

preschool programs, and conduct other activities, such as parent resource centers, that encourage

and support parents to more fully participate in the education of their children; and

E. Shall 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; and

F. May involve parents in the development of training for teachers, principals, and other educators to

improve the effectiveness of such training; and

G. May provide necessary literacy training for parents from Title I funds in the event the District has

exhausted all other reasonably available sources of funding for such training; and

H. May pay reasonable and necessary expenses associated with local parental involvement activities,

including transportation and child care costs, to enable parents to participate in school-related

meetings and training sessions; and

I. May train parents to enhance the involvement of other parents; and

J. May 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 who are

unable to attend such conferences at school, in order to maximize parental involvement and

participation; and

K. May adopt and implement model approaches to improving parental involvement; and

L. May establish a districtwide parent advisory council to provide advice on all matters related to

parental involvement in programs supported under Title I; and

M. May develop appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses in parent

involvement activities;

N. Shall provide such other reasonable support for parental involvement activities under this section as

parents may request; and

O. Shall inform parents and organizations of the existence of the program.

2. Accessibility of Information for Parents: In carrying out the parent and family engagement requirements of

this policy, the District and participating schools, to the extent practicable, shall 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 such parents understand.

Cross Reference: 4160 Parents Right to Know Notices

Legal Reference: 20 U.S.C. § 6311 State Plans

20 U.S.C. § 6312 Local Education Agency Plans

20 U.S.C. § 6318 Parental Involvement

Policy History:

Adopted on: 02/27/2007

Revised on: 02/28/2017

Revised on: 07/17/2018