In support of strengthening student academic achievement, the Charter High School for Architecture & Design (CHAD) receives Title I, Part A funds and therefore must jointly develop with, agree on with, and distribute to parents and family members of participating children a written parent and family engagement policy that contains information required by Section 1116(b)(1) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended. The policy establishes the school’s expectations and objectives for meaningful parent and family involvement and describes how the school will implement a number of specific parent and family engagement activities.
CHAD agrees to implement the following requirements as outlined in Section 1116 of the ESEA, as amended:
• Involve parents, in an organized, ongoing, and timely way, in the planning, review, and improvement of programs under Title I, Part A, including the planning, review, and improvement of the school parent and family engagement policy and the joint development of the schoolwide program plan under Section 1114(b)(2) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended.[§1118(c)(3)]
• Update the school parent and family member policy periodically to meet the changing needs of parents and the school, distribute it to the parents and family members of participating children, and make the parental involvement policy available to the local community. [§1118(b)(1)]
• In carrying out the parent and family engagement requirements of this part, local educational agencies and 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 required under Section 1111 of the ESEA, as amended, in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language such parents understand. [§1116(e)(4)]
• If the schoolwide program plan under Section 1114(b)(2) of the ESEA, as amended, is not satisfactory to the parents of participating children, submit any parent comments on the plan when the school makes the plan available to the district. [§1118(c)(5)]
• The school district will be governed by the following definition of parental involvement and expects that its Title I, Part A schools will carry out programs, activities, and procedures in accordance with this definition:
o Parent Involvement means the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, including ensuring—
▪ that parents play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning;
▪ that parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school;
▪ that parents are full partners in their child’s education and are included, as appropriate, in decision making and on advisory committees to assist in the education of their child; and
▪ the carrying out of other activities, such as those described in section 1116. [§8101(39)]
Required Parent and Family Engagement Policy Components
Joint Development
The Charter High School for Architecture and Design will take the following actions to involve parents and family members in an organized, ongoing, and timely manner in the planning, review, and improvement of Title I, Part A programs, including opportunities for regular meetings, if requested by parents, to formulate suggestions and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their child and respond to any such suggestions as soon as practicably possible.
Annually, parents are invited to participate in key decision making processes regarding the comprehensive plan, the schoolwide plan, federal programs expenditures, policy development, staff development programs, parent trainings, and the parent compact.
Annual Title I, Part– A Meeting
The Charter High School for Architecture and Design will take the following actions to conduct an annual meeting, at a convenient time, and encourage and invite all parents of participating children to attend to inform them about the school’s Title I, Part A program, the nature of the Title I, Part A program, the parents’ requirements, the school parent and family policy, the schoolwide plan, and the school-parent compact.
• Back to School Night
• Spring Meeting
• Parent Resource Liaison
• CHAD Website
Communications
The Charter High School for Architecture and Design will take the following actions to provide parents of participating children the following:
• Timely information about Title I, Part A programs.
• Flexible number of meetings, such as meetings in the morning or evening, and may provide with Title I funds, transportation, home visits, as such services relate to parental involvement.
• 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.
• 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.
• Information related to the school and parent and family member programs, meetings, and other activities, is sent to the parents of participating children in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats upon request and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.
• School Website
• Mailing and/or Handbook
• Distribution of Copies at Back to School Night and Subsequent Parent Meetings
School-Parent Compact
The Charter High School for Architecture and Design will take the following actions to jointly develop with parents of participating children a school-parent compact that outlines how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve the state’s high standards.
• Review and Feedback at Spring Meeting
• Parent Survey
• Ongoing Parent Feedback
• Annual Parent Meeting / Back-to-School Night
Reservation of Funds
The Charter High School for Architecture and Design will involve the parents of children served in Title I, Part A schools in decisions about how the 1 percent of Title I, Part A funds reserved for parental and family engagement is spent. (Only applicable to districts with an allocation of $500,000 or more.)
• Funds reserved under this section by the district agency shall be used to carry out activities and strategies consistent with the district’s parent and family engagement policy, including not less than 1 of the following:
(i) Supporting schools and nonprofit organizations in providing professional development for local educational agency and school personnel regarding parent and family engagement strategies, which may be provided jointly to teachers, principals, other school leaders, specialized instructional support personnel, paraprofessionals, early childhood educators, and parents and family members.
(ii) Supporting programs that reach parents and family members at home, in the community, and at school.
(iii) Disseminating information on best practices focused on parent and family engagement, especially best practices for increasing the engagement of economically disadvantaged parents and family members.
(iiii) Collaborating, or providing subgrants to schools to enable such schools to collaborate, with community-based or other organizations or employers with a record of success in improving and increasing parent and family engagement.
(v) Engaging in any other activities and strategies that the local educational agency determines are appropriate and consistent with such agency’s parent and family engagement policy.
• Back to School Night
• Spring Meeting
• Parent Advisory Committee
• Student Feedback
Coordination
The Charter High School for Architecture and Design will coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies under Title I, Part Awith parent and family engagement strategies, to the extent feasible and appropriate, with other relevant Federal, State, and local laws and programs.
• Federal Programs Coordinator
• Family Engagement Liaison
• School Leadership Team
• Counseling Department
Building Capacity of Parents and Family Members
The Charter High School for Architecture and Design will build the parents’ capacity for strong parent and family engagement to ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership between the school, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement through the following:
• Providing parents and family members with a description and explanation of the curriculum in use at the school, the forms of academic assessments used to measure student progress, and the proficiency levels students are expected to meet.
• Providing parents and family members materials and training to help parents to 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
• Providing assistance to parents of participating children, as appropriate, in understanding such topics as the following:
o The challenging State academic standards.
o The State and local academic assessments.
o The requirements of Title I, Part A.
o How to monitor a child’s progress.
o How work with educators to improve the achievement of their children.
• Parent Workshops/Trainings
• Back-to-School Night Meeting
• Website – Notices
• Parent Book for Incoming 9th Grade Students – SUCCEEDING IN HIGH SCHOOL (Adegboyega-Edun2011)
Building Capacity of School Staff
The Charter High School for Architecture and Design will, with the assistance of its parents, educate its teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals, other school leaders, and other staff on how to reach out to, communicate, and work with parents as equal partners, in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and how to implement and coordinate parent programs and build ties between parents and schools.
• Staff “Book Club” – A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS: PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIPS (Dyches, Carter, Prater 2012)
• Professional Development
The Charter High School for Architecture and Design will provide other reasonable support for parental involvement activities under Section 1118 as parents may request.
• Parent Workshops/Trainings
• Back-to-School Night Meeting
• Website – Notices
• Practical Tools for Positive Parenting and Proactive School Partnership
• Parent Resource Area
Adoption
This school-based parent and family member engagement policy has been developed jointly and agreed on with parents of children participating in Title I, Part A programs.
This policy was adopted by the Charter High School for Architecture and Design on August 13, 2018 and will be in effect for the period of 2018/2019. The school district will distribute this policy to all parents of participating Title I, Part A children on or before September 28, 2018.