1. The DeKalb County School District will take the following actions to involve parents in the joint development of its districtwide parental involvement plan under section 1112 of the ESEA:

A. Conduct the annually Parental Involvement/Policy meeting.

B. Communicate with parents via the website and various forms of media in a

timely manner.

 

2. The DeKalb County School District will take the following actions to involve parents in the process of school review and improvement under section 1116 of the ESEA:

A. Conduct the Annual Consolidated Local Improvement Plan meeting (CLIP).

B. Provide parents an opportunity to share on-going feedback.

C. Provide interpreters/translators for parents during meetings.

 

3. The DeKalb County School District will provide the following necessary coordination, technical assistance, and other support to assist Title I, Part A schools in planning and implementing effective parental involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance:

A. Central Office Support for Parental Involvement - (Executive Director, Assistant Directors, OFP Coordinators, District Parent Liaisons and Administrative Support).

B. 5 District-Wide Parent Centers that Support Parental Engagement/Involvement.

C. Local Parent Centers as funded by Schools---36 School Level Parent Liaisons.

D. Title I Technical Support and Work Sessions.

E. Principals’ Summit – June, July, or August.

F. Hold monthly Title I Principals meetings to share Title l updates.

 

4. The DeKalb County School District will coordinate and integrate parental involvement strategies in Part A with parental involvement strategies under the following programs: Pre-K (Bright from the Start); Homeless, Neglected, and Delinquent; and other district programs by:

A. Designated staff to support Parental Involvement strategies.

 

5. The DeKalb County School District will take the following actions to conduct, with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of this parental involvement policy in improving the quality of its Title I, Part A schools. The evaluation will include identifying barriers to greater participation by parents in parental involvement activities (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). The school district will use the findings of the evaluation about its parental involvement policy and activities to design strategies for more effective parental involvement, and to revise, if necessary (and with the involvement of parents) its parental involvement policies.

A. Fund and complete a program evaluation as facilitated by the Executive Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Learning and the Office of Federal Programs with the collection of parent input being critical data related to the quality of parental involvement that will be included in program evaluation. The district will continually obtain feedback from parents via the District wide survey on the districts website.

B. Feedback from Parents from Distictwide Parent Survey.

 

6. The DeKalb County School District will build the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong parental involvement, in order to ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the school involved, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement, through the following activities specifically described below:

A. The school district will, with the assistance of its Title I, Part A schools, provide assistance to parents of children served by the school district or school, as appropriate, in understanding topics such as the following, by undertaking the actions described in this paragraph --

? the State’s academic content standards,

? the State’s student academic achievement standards,

? the State and local academic assessments including alternate assessments,

? the requirements of Part A,

? how to monitor their child’s progress, and

? how to work with educators:

The events to support this include the following:

1. Title l Parental Involvement Conferences (District and Regional).

2. Consolidated Local Improvement Plan (CLIP) (Annually).

3. Title l Parental Involvement Policy Meetings (Annually).

4. Flexible Learning Program Meetings (FLP).

5. Parent Workshops (e.g., Georgia Milestone, Infinite Campus, etc.)

6. Districtwide Title l Parent Conference.

 

B. The school district will, with the assistance of its schools, provide materials and training to help parents work with their children to improve their children’s academic achievement, such as literacy training, and using technology, as appropriate, to foster parental involvement, by:

1. Offering parent trainings on instructional resources and tools.

C. The school district will, with the assistance of its schools and parents, educate its teachers, pupil services personnel, principals and other staff, in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to implement and coordinate parent programs and build ties between parents and schools, by:

1. Monthly meetings for school administrators/principals and/or designated staff.

2. Professional Learning for Title I funded staff.

3. Title I Summer Leadership Principals’ Summit.

 

D. The school district will, to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and integrate parental involvement programs and activities with Head Start, Even Start, Home Instruction Programs for Preschool Youngsters, the Parents as Teachers Program, and public preschool and other programs, and conduct other activities, such as parent resource centers, that encourage and support parents in more fully participating in the education of their children, by:

1. Providing support from the Office of Federal Programs (OPF).

2. Providing parents’ access to Parent Centers at the five regional centers and thirty-six school centers.

3. Extending late hours one day a week for Regional Centers to accommodate the needs of the community, parents and stakeholders.

 

E. The school district will take the following actions to ensure that information related to the school and parent- 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:

1. Share parental involvement communications in a variety of languages and formats (e.g., community newspaper, flyers, websites, social media, etc.).

2. Utilize various forms of media to communicate with parents.

3. Translate communications into top ten languages.

4. District Policy will be shared at the Annual Title l Parent Conference.

 

F. Provide other reasonable support for parental involvement activities under section 1118 as parents may request.

1. Plan parental involvement events as parents share ideas and as funds are available to support the ideas.

 

ADOPTION

This districtwide Parental Involvement Policy has been developed jointly with, and agreed on with, parents of children participating in Title I, Part A programs, as evidenced by the majority of parents voting to accept during the October 25, 2014, Districtwide Title I Parental Involvement Meeting.

This policy was adopted by the DeKalb County School District on 10/25/2014 and will be in effect for the period of October 2014 – October 2015. The school district will distribute this policy to all parents of participating Title I, Part A children on or before November 15, 2014.