Title I Parent/Guardian Involvement Policy

  • District Report Card for 2020

    Districts must develop jointly with, annually evaluate with, and distribute to parents/guardians of Title I students (or, in the case of School wide programs, all students) a written parent/guardian involvement policy. The policy establishes the district's expectations for parent/guardian involvement, and describes how the district will involve parents/guardians in developing the district/school improvement plan and in reviewing school performance; provide support to assist the Title I program in planning and implementing effective parent/guardian involvement activities to improve student achievement; build the school’s and parents/guardians" capacity for strong involvement; and coordinate and integrate parent/guardian involvement strategies with other programs.

    Suggested Draft of Parent/Guardian Involvement Policy for Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School

    Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School has developed and agreed upon this parent involvement policy in consultation with teachers, principals, program administrators, and parents/guardians/guardians of all students.

    Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School welcomes the participation of parents/guardians in support of student learning and recognizes that parental involvement increases the opportunities for student success. It is the policy of Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School to foster and maintain ongoing communications with parents/guardians concerning their opportunities for involvement, their students’ eligibility for special programs, their students’ educational progress, the professional qualifications of their students’ teachers, and the status of the students’ school. Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School strives to provide such information in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats upon request, and, to the extent practicable, in a language that parents/guardians can understand. To the extent practicable, Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School shall provide full opportunities for the participation of parents/guardians with limited English proficiency, parents/guardians with disabilities and parents/guardians of migratory children, including providing information and school reports in a format and language such parents/guardians understand. Communications with parents/guardians shall, at all times, respect the privacy of students and their families.

    It is the policy of Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School to consult parents/guardians, teachers, principals and program administrators of federally funded programs in the development and revision of the district's consolidated application for federal funds and in the process of school review and improvement. The process of school review includes timely publication and dissemination of the results of its annual progress report to parents/guardians, teachers, principals, and the school community.

    Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School will notify parents/guardians of participating children at the beginning of each school year that they may request and the district will provide information on the professional qualifications of their child's classroom teachers and whether the child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.
    In order to build the capacity of schools and parents/guardians for strong parental performance, Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School will:

    1. Provide assistance to parents/guardians of students served by the School, as appropriate, in understanding such topics as the State's academic content standards and State student academic achievement standards, State and local academic assessments, and how to monitor their child's progress and work with educators to improve the achievement of their students;
       
    2. Provide materials and training to help parents/guardians to work with their students to improve their students’ achievement, such as literacy training and using technology, as appropriate, to foster parental involvement;
       
    3. Educate teachers, pupil services personnel, principals, and other staff, with the assistance of parents/guardians, in the value and utility of contributions of parents/guardians, and in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents/guardians as equal partners, implement and coordinate parent programs, and build ties between parents/guardians and schools;
       
    4. Ensure that information related to district and school parent programs, meetings, and other activities is sent to the parents/guardians of participating students in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents/guardians can understand; and
       
    5. Provide such other reasonable support for parental involvement activities as parents/guardians may request; and
       
    6. Involve parents/guardians in the development of training for teachers, principals, and other educators to improve the effectiveness of such training.

    To ensure the effectiveness of this parent involvement policy, Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School conducts, with the involvement of parents/guardians, an annual evaluation of its parent involvement policy in improving the academic quality of the school, including identifying barriers to greater participation by parents/guardians in activities funded by Title I and Title IIA grant programs. This evaluation will focus particular attention on parents/guardians who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background. Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School will use the findings of this evaluation to design strategies for more effective parental involvement, and to revise, if necessary, the parental involvement policies described herein.

    It is the policy of Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School to involve parents/guardians in the activities by monitoring to assure that the school will:

    1. Convene an annual meeting, at a convenient time, to which all parents/guardians of students shall be invited and encouraged to attend, to inform parents/guardians of their school's participation under Title I and to explain the requirements of Title I, and the right of the parents/guardians to be involved;
       
    2. Offer a flexible number of meetings, such as meetings in the morning or evening, and may provide, with funds provided under Title I, transportation, child care, or home visits, as such services relate to parental involvement;
       
    3. Carry out capacity-building activities for parents/guardians;
       
    4. Involve parents/guardians, in an organized, ongoing, and timely way, in the planning, review, and improvement of programs under Title I, including the planning, review, and improvement of the school parental policy and the joint development of the school-wide program plan under Title I. (If a school has in place a process for involving parents/guardians in the joint planning and design of the school's programs, the school may use that process, if the process includes an adequate representation of parents/guardians of participating students);
       
    5. Provide parents/guardians of students
       
      1. Timely information about programs under Title I;
         
      2. A description and explanation of the curriculum in use at the school, the forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, and the proficiency levels students are expected to meet; and
         
      3. If requested by parents/guardians, opportunities for regular meetings to formulate suggestions and to participate as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their students and respond to any such suggestions as soon as practicably possible.
         
    6. If the school-wide program plan is not satisfactory to the parents/guardians of participating students it will submit any parent comments on the plan when the school makes the plan available to the District School Committee.

    As a component of the school-level parental involvement policy, the school develops a school-parent compact that outlines how parent, the entire school staff, and students share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents/guardians will build and develop a partnership to help students achieve the State's high standards. These compacts, available in the school office and on the Diman Web Site, shall:

    1. Describe the school's responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables the students served under this policy to meet the State's student academic achievement standards, and the ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting their student’s learning, such as monitoring attendance, homework completion, and television watching; and participating, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their students and positive use of extracurricular time; and
       
    2. Address the importance of communication between teachers and parents/guardians on an ongoing basis through, at a minimum -
       
      1. Frequent reports to parents/guardians on their students’ progress; and
         
      2. Reasonable access to staff, and observation of classroom activities.