Title I Part A - Sec. 1116

Parent and Family Engagement

ESEA Section 1116 Parent and Family Engagement covers the requirements for parent and family outreach, programs, activities, and procedures. Each LEA must develop a district parent involvement policy that explains how the district will support the school in their efforts to engage families and outline how the district will support their Title I schools in efforts to build partnerships with families. Each Title I school must develop a school level parent involvement policy jointly with parents that shall describe the means by which the school will support families and include families in their child’s academic learning. Such policy must be updated periodically to meet the changing needs of families and does not require school board approval to be considered compliant with ESSA. A third component is the school/parent compact. Such a compact outlines how the school, parents, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement. The documents are intended to build relationships and capacity and to set clear expectations for family and community engagement. All three documents must be disseminated to parents of students in Title I. The South Dakota Department of Education has developed a toolkit to help with the partnerships between home and school.

LEA Written Policy

A local educational agency may receive funds under this part only if such agency conducts outreach to all parents and family members and implements programs, activities, and procedures for the involvement of parents and family members in programs assisted under this part consistent with this section. Such programs, activities, and procedures shall be planned and implemented with meaningful consultation with parents of participating children.

Each local educational agency that receives funds under this part shall develop jointly with, agree on with, and distribute to, parents and family members of participating children a written parent and family engagement policy. The policy shall be incorporated into the local educational agency’s plan developed under Section 1112, establish the agency's expectations and objectives for meaningful parent and family involvement, and describe how the agency will:

• involve parents and family members in jointly developing the local educational agency plan under Section 1112, and the development of support and improvement plans under paragraphs (1) and (2) of Section 1111(d).
• provide the coordination, technical assistance, and other support necessary to assist and build the capacity of all participating schools within the local educational agency in planning and implementing effective parent and family involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance, which may include meaningful consultation with employers, business leaders, and philanthropic organizations, or individuals with expertise in effectively engaging parents and family members in education
• coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies under this part with parent and family engagement strategies, to the extent feasible and appropriate, with other relevant Federal, State, and local laws and programs
• conduct, with the meaningful involvement of parents and family members, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parent and family engagement policy in improving the academic quality of all schools served under this part, including identifying— (i) barriers to greater 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)
  • the needs of parents and family members to assist with the learning of their children, including engaging with school personnel and teachers
  • strategies to support successful school and family interactions
• use the findings of such evaluation in subparagraph (D) to design evidence-based strategies for more effective parental involvement, and to revise, if necessary, the parent and family engagement policies described in this section
• involve parents in the activities of the schools served under this part, which may include establishing a parent advisory board comprised of a sufficient number and representative group of parents or family members served by the local educational agency to adequately represent the needs of the population served by such agency for the purposes of developing, revising, and reviewing the parent and family engagement policy

School Parent and Family Engagement Policy

Each school served under this part shall jointly develop with, and distribute to, parents and family members of participating children a written parent and family engagement policy, agreed on by such parents, that shall describe the means for carrying out the requirements of subsections (c) through (f). Parents shall be notified of the policy in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, provided in a language the parents can understand. Such policy shall be made available to the local community and updated periodically to meet the changing needs of parents and the school.

Each school policy must describe how the school will do the following:

• Convene an annual meeting to inform parents of the Title I Program and their right to be involved
• Offer a flexible number of meetings may use Title I funds to provide transportation, childcare, or home visits as it relates to parental involvement
• Involve parents in the development of the school parent and family engagement policy and the joint development of the SW plan and in the review of the Title I policy
• Description and explanation of the curriculum being used at the school
• Forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress both state and local
• Achievement levels of the challenging State academic standards
• Provide information to parents on how to monitor a child's progress
• Provide training and materials to staff to build their capacity for parent and family engagement
• Coordinate and integrate parent involvement programs with other federal state and local programs
• Opportunities for regular meetings in decisions relating to the education of their children
• Ensure parents receive information in a language they can understand. A Schoolwide program may accept any comments regarding the SW Plan from parent and families and share with the LEA

Each Title I school must also jointly develop with parents a school-parent compact that outlines how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share responsibility for improving student academic achievement and how the school and parents will build partnerships to support students and help students achieve the states' high academic standards.

The tools on the following pages may be used to help develop the various documents.

REVIEW EXPECTATIONS
During a review, the district and school(s) will be expected to discuss how families are engaged in the schools and what opportunities there are for collaboration. The policies and compacts will be examined to determine if they meet the requirements under ESEA Section 1116. A discussion of how the documents are disseminated to families will be a part of the review. Schools will be asked to explain the Title I annual meeting and what takes place at the meeting.