Title I Parent & Family Engagement Policy

WAYNE PREPARATORY ACADEMY

TITLE I PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT POLICY

 

Preparing Students for Success in an Ever-Changing World

 

The Board of Directors believes that the education of children is an ongoing cooperative partnership between the home and the school. Parents and other family members are their children’s first teachers; therefore, the continued involvement of parents and family members in the educational process is most important in fostering and improving educational achievement. School officials shall strive to support parents and provide parents and family members with opportunities to become involved in the programs offered with Title I by the school. The Board of Directors encourages parents and family members to participate in the design and implementation of the programs and activities in order to increase the effectiveness of the school’s Title I program in helping students meet state and local achievement standards.

A. DEFINITION OF PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

For the purposes of this policy and the Title I program, the term “parent and family engagement” denotes the participation of parents, guardians, and other family members in regular, two-way and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, including ensuring the following:

 

1. parents and family members play an integral role in assisting with their child’s learning;
2. parents and family members are encouraged to be actively involved in their child's education at the school;
3. parents and family members 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
4. the school utilizes activities to support parent and family engagement in the Title I programs.

 

B .Title I Program

The Title I program is a federally supported program that aids educationally and economically disadvantaged children to help ensure they receive an equitable, high-quality, well-rounded education and meet the school’s challenging academic standards. The Title I program provides instructional activities and supportive services to eligible students over and above those provided by the regular school program.

 

C. ANNUAL MEETING

Each year, school officials must invite parents of students participating in Title I programs to a meeting to explain parental rights, discuss the programs and activities to be provided with Title I funds, and solicit input on the Title I program and this policy. In addition, school officials must provide parents and family members a meaningful opportunity to annually evaluate the content and effectiveness of the Title I programs and the parent and family engagement policies and plans. Wayne Prep will hold an annual meeting every fall to inform parents. All parents shall be informed about the parental involvement requirements, school performance, and methods for measuring progress, school facilities and the school-wide Title 1 program. At the end of the year, input is solicited from parents to plan, evaluate, and improve the program the next year. The school improvement team (SIT) will have at least one representative from the parent advisory committee. There will be monthly SIT meetings to discuss and solicit feedback on school-wide programs including Title 1. Agendas and minutes from all Title 1 related meetings are maintained by the Title 1 coordinators and will be made available to parents upon request.

D. PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT EFFORTS

The Board of Directors believes that the involvement of Title I parents and family members in the design and implementation of Title I initiatives will increase the effectiveness of the program. The Board further believes that involving parents and family members in this way will contribute significantly towards keeping them involved in activities throughout the school year.

School principals shall ensure that this school-level parent and family engagement policy and plan is developed with, agreed upon with, and annually distributed to parents and family members of participating students. Such plans will describe the means for carrying out school policy relative to Title I, sharing responsibility for student academic achievement, building the capacity of school staff and parents for involvement, and increasing accessibility for participation of all parents and family members of children participating in Title I programs, including parents and family members who have limited English proficiency, who have disabilities, or who are migratory. The plan must involve parents in the planning and improvement of Title I activities and must provide for the distribution to parents of information on expected student achievement levels and the school’s academic performance.

In addition, school officials and Title I school personnel shall do the following:

1. Involve parents and family members in the joint development of the Title I Program and school support and improvement plan and the process of school review and improvement. WPA involves parents in this effort by electing three parent members to the school’s Board of Directors, electing a parent member to the School Improvement Team (SIT), and inviting parents to serve on committees including Community Relations.
2. Provide coordination, technical assistance, and other necessary support to assist the school in planning and implementing effective parental involvement activities that are designed to improve student academic achievement and school performance; Each year WPA holds two Academic Nights to engage parents in ways that will increase parent understanding of the standards and curriculum being taught in the classroom. During academic night parents are invited into the school to talk with teachers, review curriculum, and to discuss the teaching methods employed for each subject. One night is devoted to Reading/ELA and one to Math.
3. Build the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong engagement by collecting and disseminating information on effective parental techniques;
4. coordinate and integrate parental and family involvement strategies in the Title I program to the extent feasible and appropriate with parental engagement activities established in other federal, state, and local laws and programs such as our EL program;
5. with the meaningful involvement of parents, conduct an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the school parent and family engagement policy and program in improving the academic quality of the school and assisting student to meet the school’s academic standards. This evaluation shall identify the following:

a. barriers to great participation by parents in activities authorized by this section (with particular attention to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background);

b.the needs of parents and family members to assist with the learning of their children, including engaging with school personnel and teachers;

 c. strategies to support successful school and family interactions.

The school will use these findings to design evidence-based strategies for more effective parental involvement, and revise, if necessary, the parent and family engagement policy.

An annual review of this policy will be conducted by the participants of the yearly stakeholder meeting. Parents, Teachers, and Administrators will work together to review the policy and to ensure that the goals of the program and the intent of the policy are aligned.

E. BUILDING CAPACITY FOR INVOLVEMENT

1. Parents and students are encouraged to participate in the Fall open house to prepare them for their transition to a new grade level. Teachers and administration schedule parent/student conferences whenever deemed necessary by the school or when requested by the parents. These conferences are held before, during, or after school.
2. Regular and scheduled parent meetings or conferences are held throughout the school year, at various times of the day, to provide continued information, support, and resources for parents. Parents are encouraged to volunteer and attend all school activities. Announcements of such activities are sent home by flyer, posted on the school’s webpage, and posted to all of the school’s social media sites.
3. Parents are encouraged to participate in Wayne Prep’s training activities when appropriate. Trainings shall be provided through workshops, family activities, special events, individual parents conferences, and through educational materials, literature, or webinars through school programs and the media center. The school’s MTSS and IEP committees work with parents to assure parent training is adequate to assist their child with achievement strategies.
4. All school events are advertised by sending home flyers, posting on the schools webpage, posting on social media, and utilizing the school’s Dojo and Remind platform. All school meetings are documented with agendas, minutes, and sign-in sheets that detail the members presents and their affiliation with the school. The hard copies of such documents are kept with the Executive Director and scanned into their respective Google Drives. Copies of the agenda’s or minutes of any public meeting are made available to parents upon request. Summaries and updates are provided in our quarterly newsletter that is sent home as a flyer and by email.
5. All parents are encouraged to attend school functions. Translators will be arranged for parents who speak languages other than English. Whenever possible, meetings are scheduled the parent’s convivence. Transportation and home visit can be arranged, if necessary.
6. Parents of children with limited English proficiency or disabilities are afforded opportunities to participate fully and freely in all education activities at school. Once the need is identified, assistance shall be provided. Whenever possible, information is sent home in native language. Bilingual staff members, parents, ESL instructors and even students are assigned as liaison between home and school, when necessary.
7. Parents are surveyed throughout the year to solicit feedback on all school programs. Parents and others may continuously provide input on any matter concerning our school. Wayne Prep has an open-door policy. Wayne Prep operates as a teacher, parent, community school. Additionally, our Board of Directors provides a privilege of the floor opportunity for anyone who wishes to provide feedback directly to the governing board.
8. A School/Parent Compact defines goals, expectations, and shared responsibilities. Each party of the agreement will receive a signed and dated copy. Compacts will be explained at the Fall open house in each grade level. New parents and students receive the compact during the enrollment process.
9. State and local expectations are shared with parents at the Fall open house and at all Title 1 family nights. School performance results are shared at the Fall annual meeting as well as attached to students’ report cards throughout the year. Results are available on our school’s webpage in both English and Spanish. All students are sent home with interim progress reports, quarterly report cards and special letters, which indicate the student’s progress.
10. Administration conducts consistent reviews to ensure timely reporting out of assessment data to the staff. This ensures the staff has the tools to identify at-risk students and in turn, share this information with parents. On-going staff development initiatives are continually provided to the staff which focuses on effective communication with parents, establish a school/family partnership, ways to involve parents, and suggestions for parents to work with children at home.
11. Classroom teachers and the administration send home notices on a regular basis, such as the Generals Report, calendar of events, weekly information, and progress reports, etc. Our school web page and the PowerSchool Parent Portal are also tools for communication. Our EL instructor is utilized to adapt communications for parts whose primary language is not English.

F. NOTICE REQUIREMENTS School officials and Title I school personnel shall provide effective notice of the following information as required by law. The notice must be in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.

1. EL Program a. Each year the Executive Director or designee shall provide notice of the following to parents of limited English proficient (LEP) children identified for participation in a Title I, Part A-funded language-instruction educational program:

i. the reasons for the child’s identification;

ii. the child’s level of English proficiency;

iii. methods of instruction;

iv. how the program will help the child;

v. the exit requirements for the program;

vi. if the child has a disability, how the language instruction educational program meets the objectives of the child’s individualized educational program (IEP); and

vii. any other information necessary to effectively inform the parent of the program and the parental rights regarding enrollment, removal and selection of an LEP program.

b. If the school has failed to make progress on the annual achievement objectives for EL students, the Executive Director or designee shall notify the parents of such failure no later than 30 days after the failure occurs.

2. System Report Card and School Progress Review

a. Each year, school officials shall disseminate to all parents, and the public a school report card containing aggregate information, including, but not limited to, student achievement (disaggregated by category), graduation rates, performance of the school, and teacher qualifications.

b. Each year, school officials shall disseminate to all parents and the community the results of the LEA’s yearly progress review of the school on the school’s website.

3. Teacher Qualifications

a. Each year, school officials shall notify parents of Title I students of the right to request certain information on the professional qualifications of the student’s classroom teachers and paraprofessionals providing services to the child.

b. The Executive Director or designee of the school shall provide timely notice informing parents that their student has been assigned to or has been taught for at least four consecutive weeks by a teacher who does not meet applicable state certification or licensure requirements at the grade level and subject area in which the teacher has been assigned.

4. Parental Rights and Opportunities for Involvement Each year, the Executive Director or designee of the school shall provide notice to parents of the school’s written parent and family engagement policy, parents’ right to be involved in their child’s school, and opportunities for parents and family members to be involved in the school.

The Executive Director or designee shall develop administrative procedures to implement the requirements of this policy.

Legal References: Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 6301et seq., 34 C.F.R. pt. 200.; 20 U.S.C. 7801(32)

 

Adopted: 3/21/2023