505.8 - Parental Involvement

Parental involvement is an important component in a student's success in school. The board encourages parents to become involved in their child's education to ensure the child's academic success.

The board will:

Annually invite parents of Title I students to provide input on their child’s program and the program in general; Title I parents will be notified of a meeting(s) when this will take place; Title I parents will have a minimum of 2 parent/teacher conferences with the Title I teacher to review their child’s progress;
Provide the coordination, technical assistance and other support necessary to assist participating schools in planning and implementing effective parent involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance by planning on the school calendar parent/teacher conferences and by having principals assist teachers implement effective parent/teacher interaction;
Build the schools' and parents' capacity for strong parental involvement;
Coordinate and integrate parental involvement strategies under Title I with other programs such as Head Start, Reading First, etc.;
Conduct with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parental involvement policy in improving the academic quality of the school served including identifying barriers to greater participation by parents in Title I activities (with particular attention to low-income parents, Limited English Proficient (LEP) parents, minorities, parents with disabilities and parents with low literacy) and use the findings of the evaluation to design strategies for more effective parental involvement and to revise, as necessary, the parental involvement policies; and
Involve parents in Title I activities.

The board will review this policy annually. The superintendent is responsible for notifying parents of this policy annually or within a reasonable time after it has been amended during the school year. It is the responsibility of the superintendent to develop administrative regulations regarding this policy

Approved: 12/21/2020 Reviewed: 3/18/2024 Revised: 11/16/2020

Jen@iowaschool… Sat, 04/09/2022 - 20:30

505.8R1 - Parent and Family Engagement Building Level

To further the interests of student achievement, the superintendent will create necessary rules to engage parents and family members within the district in the following ways on a building-level basis:

Policy Involvement: The district will host an annual meeting and invite all parents to attend; and inform parents of their rights and the district’s requirements under Title I. This meeting will also invite parents to become involved in the planning, review and improvement of a building policy and in developing the district plan. The district will inform parents of:
- programs under this policy,
- curriculum and assessment used for students,
- the opportunity to meet with administration to participate in decisions related to their children’s education,
- a description and explanation of curriculum used in the school forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, and
- achievement levels of the challenging State academic standards.
Accessibility: Provide opportunities for informed participation of parents and family members in understandable formats and languages. This includes participation by parents and family members who may have disabilities, limited English proficiency, and migratory children. Offer a flexible number of meetings during the day, evening and weekends to facilitate parent involvement. The superintendent has discretion to allow schools to provide childcare for families of students during these meetings through Title I funds.
High Student Academic Achievement: Each school in the district will jointly develop with parents and family members a school-parent compact that outlines how parents, staff and students share responsibility for improving student academic achievement; and how a partnership will be built to achieve this. The compact will describe the responsibility of the school to provide high quality curriculum and instruction, and the parents’ responsibility to support their children’s learning. This will also address the importance of communication between schools and parents through parent teacher conferences, regular reports to parents on their children’s progress, and ensuring regular meaningful communication between family and school staff.
Building Capacity for Involvement: Each school within the district will include in their plan ways to achieve the following:
- Assist parents and families to understand topics including academic standards and assessments and how to monitor student progress;
- Provide materials and training to help parents work with students to improve achievement;
- Educate teachers and staff in how to communicate with parents and build ties to foster academic success;
- Coordinate and integrate other federal, state and local programs to support parents in more fully participating in students’ education;
- Ensure information related to programs is sent to parents and families in understandable formats; and
- Provide other reasonable support to encourage parental involvement
Schools Operating a Schoolwide Program: Each school operating a schoolwide program under this policy shall:
- Involve parents on a timely and ongoing basis in the planning, review and improvement of programs, including the parent and family engagement school policy drafting and review, and the joint development of the schoolwide program.
- If the schoolwide program plan is not satisfactory to the parents of the participating children, parent comments will be requested and submitted with the plan to the district.

Approved: 12/21/2020 Reviewed: 11/16/2020 Revised: 11/16/2020

Jen@iowaschool… Sat, 04/09/2022 - 20:32