505.8R1 - Parent and Family Engagement Regulation

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

1. Policy Involvement:  The school district will host an annual meeting and invite all parents to attend; and inform parents of their rights and the school 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 school district plan.  The school 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. 

 2. 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.

 3. High Student Academic Achievement:  Each school in the school district will jointly develop with parents and family members a school district-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 district 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 district staff. 

 4. Building Capacity for Involvement: Each school within the school 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

5. School Districts Operating a Schoolwide Program:  Each school district 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 district policy drafting and review, and the joint development of the school district wide 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 school district.