Marion School District 60-3 Marion School District Parent Involvement Policy In compliance with the October 20, 1994, Improving America’s Schools Act for Title 1 Programs, Section 1112, the Marion Elementary School District 60-3 will comply with the spirit of the law which states: “Any LEA that receives Title 1 funds shall develop jointly with, agree upon, and distribute to, parents of participating children, a written parent involvement policy that is incorporated into the local educational agency’s plan.” Section 1118: Parent Involvement Part A District Local Educational Agency Policy Guidelines Overview: Each LEA that receives Title 1 funds must have a parent involvement policy. Said policy will describe how the district school and district parents will work together to improve students’ academic achievement. Said policy must be developed with parents and distributed to parents of participating students. Together Everyone Achieves More Marion School District 60-3 The Marion School District, Marion Elementary School, Marion Middle School, and the Marion High School endeavors to promote excellent relations with the families of the district. The district recognizes the importance of working closely with parents/guardians, students, and staff to enable all the children in the district to excel in their academic accomplishments. T LEA Duties Involve parents in the development of the parent involvement plan and the process of school improvement and review Strategies Parents are invited both verbally by letter to aid in the development of the parent involvement plan Parents are invited to a fall meeting to share their input Provide coordination, technical support, and other necessary support to assist participating schools in planning and implementing efficient parental involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance. Written invitations to all parents notifying them of Build the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong parental involvement. Parent/Teacher Conferences Parents phoned and invited to conferences by a teacher Parents are welcomed and encouraged to visit school Kindergarten Round-Up FCLA Family Programs Sonlight Halloween Night Christian Athletes Carnival Continue to create new and innovative programs that include Together Everyone Achieves More Marion School District 60-3 Coordinate parental involvement strategies with parental involvement strategies under programs such as Head Start, Reading First, Early Reading First, Even Start, Parents as Teachers, Home Instruction Program for preschool Youngsters and Staterun preschools. Conduct an annual evaluation of the content and efficiency of the parental involvement policy. Include ways to achieve greater participation of parents (particularly those who are economically disadvantaged, disabled, have limited English proficiency, limited literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background). Use these findings to develop more appropriate strategies to improve parental involvement. Involve parents in the activities of the school. parents/students/school Transition process Special Education referral and placement of student Involving Day Care providers in transition and school programs Parent Open House Incentive to class with greatest % of parents attending Hand out parenting brochures Offer translator services Babysitting services A professional read all material Phone/visit disabled Offer transportation Parental Survey Parents encouraged to attend all school functions Parents invited to help in reviewing and writing parent involvement policy Together Everyone Achieves More Marion School District 60-3 Section 1118: Parent Involvement Part B: School Parent Involvement Policy Guidelines Overview: Each school will develop with and distribute to parents of participating children, a written policy for parent involvement which is agreed upon by such parents. The school level policy needs to be easily accessed and understood by all participating parents, including those with language barriers. The policy is to be made available to the community and reviewed periodically to make necessary changes to meet student and parent needs. The school parent involvement policy requirements for subsections © through (f) are as follows: (c) Policy Involvement – Each school shall Conduct an annual meeting. This meeting should be held at a convenient time and used to inform parents of their rights and the program requirements. Offer meeting at different times and locations, and some of the funds received through Title 1 can be used to provide child care or transportation provided that these services are related to the involvement of parents. Involve parents with ongoing planning, review and improvement of programs (including a review of the school policy and the development of a school wide program plan) Provide parents of children who participate in the program – timely information about the program; a description and explanation of the curriculum, forms of academic assessment and proficiency levels Together Everyone Achieves More Marion School District 60-3 students are expected meet; and if requested, opportunities to meet and discuss discussions related to their child’s education. If parts of the school wide program plan are not satisfactory to the parents, their comments will be submitted with the plan when the plan is provided to the LEA (d) Shared Responsibility for High Student Achievement: Each school will develop with parents a school-parent compact that addresses how the parents, school staff, and students are responsible for improved academic achievement. This compact shall Describe how the school is responsible to provide a high quality curriculum and offer instruction in an environment that assists students to meet the academic achievement standards established by the state. The parent’s role in this process is to be responsible for supporting their child’s learning. Parents contribute to student achievement when they offer a home environment that is conducive to learning; i.e. monitoring television, activities, homework completion. Address the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis. At a minimum, communication should consist ofParent/teacher conferences in elementary schools at least annually; frequent reports to parents on student progress; and reasonable access to staff and opportunities to participate in the classroom. Together Everyone Achieves More Marion School District 60-3 (e) Building capacity for Involvement. To ensure the effective involvement of parents and to encourage partnerships between the school, parents, and the community that work to improve student achievement; each school and LEA – Shall provide information to parents on topics including: the state’s academic content standards; state and district/school level assessments; how to monitor the progress of their child; and how to work with educator’s to improve the academic achievement of their child Shall provide materials and training to assist parents to work with their children to improve achievement. Shall educated teachers and other school staff, with the assistance of parents, on topics including: the value of parents; how to communicate and work with parents as equal educational partners; how to apply and organize parent programs; and how to build ties between parents and schools. Shall to the extent possible, integrate parent involvement programs with Head Start, Reading First, Early Reading First, Even Start, Parents as Teachers, public preschool and other programs; and conduct activities that encourage parents to participate in their child’s education. Shall ensure that information about school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities are sent to parents in a format and language that parents can understand. Together Everyone Achieves More Marion School District 60-3 May involve parents in the training of teachers, principals, and other educators to improve effectiveness. May provide necessary literacy training with funds from this part if the LEA has already exhausted all other available resources for such training. May pay reasonable expenses associated with parent involvement activities, such as transportation and child care costs, to allow parents to participate in school-related meetings and training sessions. May train parents to enhance the involvement of other parents. May arrange school meetings at a variety of time, or conduct in-home conferences between educators who work directly with children and parents who are unable to attend such conferences at school. May accept and apply model approaches to improving parent involvement. May establish a district wide parent advisory council to provide advice on all matters related to parent involvement. May develop roles for community-based organizations and businesses in parental involvement activities. Shall supply other rational support for parental involvement activities as parents may request. Together Everyone Achieves More