Title I Parent Involvement Policy
Cotati-Rohnert Park
Administrative Regulation
AR 6020
Instruction
District Strategies for Title I Schools
To ensure that parents/guardians of students participating in Title I programs are provided with opportunities to be involved in their children's education, the Superintendent or designee shall:
1. Involve parents/guardians of participating students in the joint development of the Title I Local Educational Agency (LEA) Plan and the process of school review and improvement
2. Provide coordination, technical assistance, and other support necessary to assist Title Ischools in planning and implementing effective parent involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance.
3. Build the capacity of schools and parents/guardians for strong parent involvement. The Superintendent or designee shall:
a. Assist parents/guardians in understanding such topics as the state's academic content standards and academic achievement standards, state and local academic assessments, the requirements of Title I, and how to monitor a child's progress and work with educators to improve the achievement of their children.
b. Provide materials and training to help parents/guardians work with their children to improve their children's achievement, such as literacy training and using technology, as appropriate, to foster parent involvement.
c. Educate teachers, student services personnel, principals, and other staff, with theassistance of parents/guardians, in the value and utility of parent/guardian contributions and in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents/guardians as equal partners, implement and coordinate parent/guardian programs, and build ties between parents/guardians and the schools.
d. To the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and integrate parent involvement programs and activities with Head Start and other programs, and conduct other activities, such as parent resource centers, that encourage and support parents/guardians in more fully participating in their children's education.
e. Ensure that information related to school and parent/guardian programs, meetings, and other activities is sent to the parents/guardians of participating students in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents/guardians can understand.
f. Provide other such reasonable support for parent involvement activities as parents/guardians may request.
4. Coordinate and integrate Title I parent involvement strategies with Head Start and other programs.
5. Conduct, with involvement of parents/guardians, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parent involvement policy in improving the academic quality of the schools served by Title I
The Superintendent or designee shall:
a. Ensure that the evaluation include the identification of barriers to greater participation in parent involvement activities, with particular attention to parents/guardians who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background.
b. Use the evaluation results to design strategies for more effective parent involvement and, if necessary, to recommend changes in the parent involvement policy
6. Involve parents/guardians in the activities of schools served by Title I The district's Board policy and administrative regulation containing parent involvement strategies shall be incorporated into the LEA Plan and distributed to parents/guardians of students participating in Title I programs.
School-Level Policies for Title I Schools
At each school receiving Title I funds, a written policy on parent involvement shall be developed jointly with and agreed upon by parents/guardians of participating students. Such policy shall describe the means by which the school will:
1. Convene an annual meeting, at a convenient time, to which all parents/guardians of participating students shall be invited and encouraged to attend, in order to inform parents/guardians of their school's participation in Title I and to explain Title I requirements and the right of parents/guardians to be involved
2. Encourage greater parent/guardian participation by offering a flexible number of meetings and/or adjusting meeting schedules to accommodate parent/guardian needs and, to the extent practicable, by providing translation or interpreter services, transportation, and/or child care
3. Involve parents/guardians in an organized, ongoing, and timely way in the planning, review, and improvement of Title I programs, including the planning, review, and improvement of the school's parent involvement policy and, if applicable, the joint development of the plan for schoolwide programs.
The school may use an existing process for involving parents/guardians in the joint planning and design of the school's programs provided that the process includes adequate representation of parents/guardians of participating students.
4. Provide the parents/guardians of participating students all of the following:
a. Timely information about Title I programs.
b. A description and explanation of the school's curriculum, forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, and the proficiency levels students are expected to meet.
c. If requested by parents/guardians, opportunities for regular meetings to formulate
suggestions and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions related to their children's education, and, as soon as practicably possible, responses to the suggestions of parents/guardians.
5. If the schoolwide program plan is not satisfactory to the parents/guardians of participating students, submit any parent/guardian comments when the school makes the plan available to the district.
6. Jointly develop with the parents/guardians of participating students a school-parent compact that outlines how parents/guardians, the entire school staff, and students will share responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents/guardians will build a partnership to help students achieve state standards.
This compact shall address:
a. The school's responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables participating students to achieve the state's student academic achievement standards.
b. Ways in which parents/guardians will be responsible for supporting their children's learning, such as monitoring attendance, homework completion, and television viewing; volunteering in the classroom; and participating, as appropriate, in decisions related to their children's education and the positive use of extracurricular time.
c. The importance of communication between teachers and parents/guardians on an ongoing basis through, at a minimum:
(1) Parent-teacher conferences in elementary schools, at least annually, during which the compact shall be discussed as it relates to the student's achievement.
(2) Frequent reports to parents/guardians on their children's progress.
(3) Reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child's classroom, and observation of classroom activities
7. Build the capacity of the school and parents/guardians for strong parent involvement by implementing the activities described in items #3a-f in the section "District Strategies for Title I Schools" above
8. To the extent practicable, provide full opportunities for the participation of parents/ guardians with limited English proficiency, parents/guardians with disabilities, and parents/guardians of migrant children, including providing information and school reports in a format and language such parents/guardians can understand. If the school has a parent involvement policy that applies to all parents/guardians, it may amend that policy to meet the above requirements. Each school's parent involvement policy shall be made available to the local community and distributed to parents/guardians of participating students in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, provided in a language the parents/guardians can understand.
The principal or designee, jointly with parents/guardians of participating students, shall periodically update the school's policy to meet the changing needs of parents/guardians and the school.
District Strategies for Non-Title I Schools
For each school that does not receive federal Title I funds, the Superintendent or designee shall, at a minimum engage parents/guardians positively in their children's education by helping them develop skills to use at home that support their children's academic efforts at school and their children's development as responsible members of society.
Regulation COTATI-ROHNERT PARK UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT approved: August 14, 2012 Rohnert Park, California