Title I is a component of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that provides financial assistance to schools to close the achievement gap for children from low-income families. Funds are used for a variety of purposes including hiring staff, purchasing resources, and providing professional development for educators.
The District will collaborate with parents/guardians and other family members to help students participating in Title I programs reach their full academic potential and to improve the District’s overall academic quality. As part of its collaboration, the District will conduct outreach, plan and implement programs, activities, and procedures for parent/guardian and family member engagement, and consult meaningfully with parents/guardians and family members.
District-Wide Parent and Family Engagement
To facilitate parent/guardian and family participation, the District will:
- Involve parents/guardians and family members in jointly developing and reviewing its Title I Plan, and its support and improvement plans. If the parents/guardians or family members indicate that the Title I plan is not satisfactory, the District will submit their comments to the State Education Department along with the plan;
- Improve student academic achievement and school performance through coordination, providing technical assistance, and giving support necessary to assist and build the capacity of all participating schools in planning and implementing effective parent/guardian and family engagement activities, which may include meaningful consultation with employers, business leaders, and philanthropic organizations or individuals with expertise in effectively engaging parents/guardians and family members in education;
- Coordinate and integrate parent/guardian and family engagement strategies and activities with other relevant federal, state, and local programs; (UPK and Head Start)
- Conduct with the meaningful involvement of parents/guardians and family members an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parent/guardian and family engagement policy in improving the academic quality of its Title I schools. The evaluation will include identifying:
1.Barriers to greater participation by parents/guardians and family members in Title I 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; 2.The needs of parents/guardians and family members to assist with their child's learning, including engaging with school personnel and teachers; 3.Strategies to support interactions; (Parent/guardian conferences, Open Houses, AIS Progress Notes, Report Cards, AIS Resources, Leveled Literacy Intervention, Humanities Night, STEAM Night, Community Night, Promise Zone, Social Workers and Guidance, Parent/Guardian Workshops and distribution of parent/guardian and training materials);
- Use the evaluations finding’s to design evidence-based strategies for more effective parent/guardian and family member engagement and to revise the policy if needed;
- Involve parents/guardians in Title I activities, which may include establishing a parent/guardian advisory board comprised of a sufficient number and representative group of parents/guardians or family members served by the District to adequately represent the students’ needs, to develop, revise, and review the parent/guardian and family engagement policy; (PTA Presentation, Title 1 Committee). Parents/guardians may also be involved in the process to develop a comprehensive “support and improvement” plan if the school their child attends is identified by the state as needing this plan.
- Involve parents/guardians and family members in decisions regarding how it spends funds reserved for parent/guardian and family engagement activities.
School-Level Parent and Family Member Engagement
The Board directs each school receiving Title I funds to develop a building-level parent/guardian and family member engagement plan with that school’s parents/guardians and family members. In addition to the content included above, each school building-level plan will:
- Describe how to convene an annual meeting at a convenient time to inform parents/guardians and family members of their school’s participation in Title I programs, to explain Title I requirements, and to identify the right of the parents/guardians and family members to be involved. All parents/guardians and family members of these children will be invited and encouraged to attend the meeting;
- Offer flexibility in scheduling meetings and may provide transportation, child care, or home visits related to parent/guardian and family member engagement using Title I funds;
- Involve parents/guardians and family members in an organized, ongoing, and timely way in planning, reviewing, and improving Title I programs, including this policy or a school improvement plan;
- Provide parents/guardians and family members with timely information about programs, a description and explanation of the curriculum in use, the forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, the achievement levels of the challenging state academic standards, and if requested by parents/guardians or family members, opportunities for regular meetings to formulate suggestions and to participate in decisions relating to their child’s education. The District will respond to any suggestions as soon as practicably possible;
- Develop a compact jointly with parents/guardians and family members that outlines how they, school staff, and students will share responsibility for improved student academic achievement. The compact will also detail the means by which the school and parents/guardians and family members will build and develop a partnership to help all children achieve the state’s standards;
- Have a compact which:
1.Describes the school’s responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment to enables these students to meet the challenging state academic standards;
2.Describes the ways in which each parent/guardian or family member will be responsible for supporting the child’s learning, volunteering in the child’s classroom, and participating as appropriate in decisions relating to the child’s education and positive use of extracurricular time;
3.Addresses the importance of communication between teachers and parents/guardians or family members on an ongoing basis through, at a minimum:
(a)Parent/guardian or family member-teacher conferences in elementary schools at least annually during which the compact will be discussed as it relates to the individual child’s achievement; (b)Frequent reports to parents/guardians or family members on the child’s progress; (c)Reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child’s school activities such as Open Houses, parent/guardian conferences, Humanities Night, STEAM Night, Community Night; (d)Ensuring regular two-way, meaningful communication between family members and school staff, and to the extent practicable, in a language that family members can understand.
If the parents/guardians or family members believe that the building-level parent/guardian and family engagement plan is not satisfactory, the school will submit their comments when it makes the plan available to the District.
To ensure effective involvement of parents/guardians or family members and to support a partnership among the school involved, parents/guardians or family members and the community, and to improve student academic achievement, the District and each school will:
- Provide assistance to parents/guardians or family members of children served by the District or school understand topics such as the challenging state academic standards, state and local academic assessments, the requirements of this part, and how to monitor a child’s progress and work with educators to improve the achievement of the children;
- Provide materials and training to help parents/guardians or family members to work with the children to improve their achievement, such as literacy training and using technology (including education about the harms of copyright piracy), to foster parent/guardian and family member engagement; (Promise Zone, Literacy information, free books)
- Educate teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals, and other school leaders, with the assistance of parents/guardians or family members, in the value and utility of parent/guardian or family member contribution, and in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents/guardians or family members as equal partners; implement and coordinate parent/guardian or family member programs; and build ties between parents/guardians or family members and the school; examples: STEAM Night, Community Night
- Coordinate and integrate, to the extent feasible and appropriate, parent/guardian and family member engagement programs and activities with federal, state, and local programs, including public preschool programs that encourage and support parents/guardians and family members in more fully participating in the education of the children; (Head Start, UPK, Leveled Literacy Intervention, Promise Zone);
- Ensure that information related to school and parent/guardian and family member programs, meetings, and other activities is sent to the parents/guardians or family members of participating children in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents/guardians or family members can understand;
- Provide other reasonable support for parent/guardian and family member engagement activities as parents/guardians or family members may request.
In addition, the District and each school may:
- Involve parents/guardians or family members in developing training for teachers, principals, and other educators to improve the effectiveness of this training;
- Provide necessary literacy training from funds received under this part if the District has exhausted all other reasonably available sources of funding for the training;
- Provide resources to enable parents/guardians and family members to participate in school-related meetings and training sessions;
- Train parents/guardians or family members to enhance the involvement of other parents/guardians or family members;
- Arrange school meetings at a variety of times or conduct in-home conferences between teachers or other educators who work directly with participating children and/or with parents/guardians or family members who are unable to attend these conferences at school to maximize parent/guardian and family engagement and participation;
- Adopt and implement model approaches to improving parent/guardian and family engagement;
- Establish a district-wide parent/guardian and family member advisory council to provide advice on all matters related to parent/guardian and family member engagement in supported programs; and
- Develop appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses in parent/guardian and family member engagement activities.
In carrying out the parent/guardian and family member engagement requirements, the District and its schools to the extent practicable will provide opportunities for the informed participation of parents/guardians and family members (including parents/guardians and family members who have limited English proficiency, parents/guardians and family members with disabilities, and parents/guardians and family members of migratory children), including providing information and school reports in a format and to the extent practicable in a language they understand.
Procedures for Filing Complaints/Appeals
The District will disseminate to parents/guardians and family members of children in Title I programs and to appropriate private school officials or representatives, adequate information regarding the District's written complaint procedures for resolving Title I issues. Procedures include:
- Notifying the Title I Coordinator in writing of the violation which must contain supporting evidence, the corrective action desired and a signature.
- Investigative action must be taken within 10 business days.
- All parties will be notified at the end of the investigation.
Comparability of Services
The District will ensure equivalence among its schools of the same grade span and levels of instruction with regard to teachers, administrators, and auxiliary personnel as well an equivalence in providing curriculum materials and instructional supplies in Title I programs. Funds will be distributed based on the poverty rates and number of qualifying students in each building.
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as reauthorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 20 USC §§ 6318 and 6321 34 CFR Parts 74-86, 97-99, and 200