MARION COUNTY SCHOOLS
Title I County Parent Involvement Policy
1.0 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The major goal of the Marion County Title I program is to encourage greater involvement of parents in the education of their children and promote home-school partnerships that will help students succeed in school.
2.0 PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN POLICIES AND PLANS
This policy represents input from parents and will be available to all parents of Title I students. The county Title1 office will coordinate a county Title I Parent Council consisting of two representatives from each participating school as well as former Title I parents. The county Parent Council will meet to develop and/or review the county parent involvement policy and receive training in the area of parenting and parent involvement.
3.0 PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOL REVIEW AND IMPROVEMENT
The county Title I Parent Council will meet at least four times during the school year and part of each meeting will be for the parent representatives to have the opportunity for input into the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the county Title I program. County and school assessment data will be reviewed by the Parent Council. Title I parents will serve on the Title I Schoolwide Planning Teams.
4.0 COORDINATION AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
The county Title I staff will assist schools in planning and implementing effective parent involvement in the following ways.
4.1 Provide parents and staff information, materials, training on required and effective parent involvement policies and practices.
4.2 Coordinate the county-wide Title I Parent Council and county parent activities.
4.3 Research and model effective parent involvement activities and practices.
4.4 Support schools in implementing MegaSkills for Parents.
4.5 Provide resource materials for parent meetings, workshops, and take-home learning activities.
4.6 County staff will assist Title I schools with training and ideas on reaching hard-to-reach parents and parent involvement activities.
5.0 BUILDING CAPACITY FOR PARENT INVOLVEMENT
To assist effective parent involvement activities and build strong home-school partnerships, our county Title I office will do the following.
5.1 Provide information and, if needed, assistance to schools and parents on the national education goals, state content and performance standards, state and local assessments, parent involvement policies, procedures, and practices, and how parents can assist in their child's education.
5.2 County Title I staff will work with Adult Basic Education and Literacy Volunteers of America and other appropriate community agencies to inform schools and parents of literacy training and parent education.
5.3 The county Title I program will provide staff development opportunities for teachers and other appropriate personnel and will distribute information on ways schools can promote parent involvement
5.4 To the extent feasible and appropriate, the county Title I program will coordinate parent involvement with the local Head Start Agency by providing mutual parent involvement training and information.
5.5 To the extent feasible and appropriate, the county Title I program will provide schools with information on how they can work with business partners and/or other community organizations to learn about Title 1 to encourage them to work with parents.
5.6 The County Title I program will conduct and/or support as needed and reasonable, other activities to assist parents in the education of their children.
5.7 Title I parents with limited English proficiency, literacy difficulties, or other disabilities will be offered the same opportunities as other parents but these opportunities may be structured, adapted, or modified so that these parents may receive the same benefits and services as the other
Title 1 parents.
5.8 The county Title I program will provide information to Title I schools and to the County Parent Council on the district Parent Resource Center.
6.0 EVALUATION OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT
The county Title I Parent Council will have a least one meeting per year for representatives to evaluate the content and effectiveness of the Title I parent involvement plans, procedures, and policies and will use the evaluation to identify successful parent involvement strategies, barriers to parent participation, and make recommendations for improving parent involvement and help revise county plans and policies.
7.0 FUNDING FOR PARENT INVOLVEMENT
The county Title I program will budget a least one percent of its allocation for parent involvement materials and activities and will encourage schools to use part of their allocations for parent involvement activities and materials. Parents will have input into the funding for parent involvement through the county and school planning process. At least 95% of the one per cent of the allocation for parent involvement at the county level will be used for school-based parent activities.
8.0 PARENTS’ RIGHT TO KNOW
8.1 The Marion County Title I program recognizes that parents who have children in Title I schools may request from the county certain information regarding the professional qualifications of their children’s classroom teachers including the following.:
8.11 Whether the teacher has met State qualification and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher provides instruction.
8.12 Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which State qualifications or licensing criteria have been waived;
8.13 The baccalaureate degree major of the teacher and any other graduate certification or degree held by the teacher, and the field of discipline of the certification or degree;
8.14 Whether the child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.
8.2 The county will provide in a timely manner the parents of Title I students the requested information concerning the qualifications of their children’s teacher/s.
8.3 In addition to the information that parents may request concerning the qualifications of their children’s teachers, schools receiving Title I funds in Marion County will provide each individual parent the following information.
8.31 Information on the level of each child’s achievement in each of the State academic required by No Child Left Behind.
8.32 A timely notice when their child has been assigned or has been taught for four or more consecutive weeks by a core teacher who is not highly qualified.
8.4 The notice and information provided to parents shall be in an understandable and uniform format and to the extent practicable in a language that parents can understand.
8.5 The Title I Director will notify parents of students in Title I schools of their right to the above information by providing copies of the County Title I Parent Involvement Policy to schools to be distributed to parents at the beginning of each school year.
Marion County Schools