The Board of Education believes that positive parental involvement is essential to student achievement, and thus encourages such involvement in school educational planning and operations. Parental involvement may take place either in the classroom, during extra-curricular activities, or at school and district-sponsored events. However, the Board also encourages parental involvement at home (e.g., planned home reading time, informal learning activities, and/or supervised homework time, etc.). The Board directs the Superintendent of Schools to develop a home-school communications program in an effort to encourage all forms of parental involvement.
Title I Parental Involvement – District Level Policy
Consistent with the parent involvement goals of Title I, Part A of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the Board of Education will develop and implement programs, activities and procedures that encourage and support the participation of parents of students eligible for Title I services in all aspects of their child’s education. The Board also will ensure that all of its schools receiving Title I, Part A funds develop and implement school level parental involvement procedures, as further required by federal law.
For purposes of this policy, parental involvement refers to the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities. At a minimum, parental involvement programs, activities and procedures at both the district and individual school level must ensure that parents:
- Play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning;
- Are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school; and
- 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.
The term parents refers to a natural parent, legal guardian or other person standing in loco parentis (such as a grandparent or stepparent with whom the child lives, or a person who is legally responsible for the child’s welfare). District and school level Title I parental involvement programs, activities and procedures will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities, and parents of migratory children.
As further required by federal law, parents of students eligible for Title I services will be provided an opportunity to participate in the development of the district’s Title I plan, and to submit comments regarding any aspect of the plan that is not satisfactory to them. Their comments will be forwarded with the plan to the State Education Department. Parents also will participate in the process for developing a school improvement plan if the school their child attends fails to make adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years and is identified as a school in need of improvement.
The Board, in accordance with the parent involvement goals of Title I, Part A of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), specifically encourages the participation of parents of students eligible for Title 1 services in all aspects of their child’s education.
In furtherance of these beliefs and goals, and with the ultimate goal of providing all families within the District with involvement in their child’s education, the Board of Education will:
- Develop and implement programs, activities and procedures that encourage and support the participation of all parents, including students eligible for Title I services in all aspects of their child’s education.
- Ensure that all of its schools including those receiving Title I, Part A funds develop and implement school level parent involvement practices.
- Ensure that school-level parent involvement programs, activities and procedures provide opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities and parents of migratory children.
Parent participation in development of district wide Title I plan
The superintendent of schools will ensure that all district schools receiving federal financial assistance under Title I, Part A are provided technical assistance and all other support necessary to assist them in planning and implementing effective parental involvement programs and activities that improve student achievement and school performance. As appropriate to meet individual local needs, the superintendent will support the six types of parent involvement outlined by the National Network of Partnership Schools and endorsed by the National PTA:
- Parenting: Help families establish home environments to support children as students.
- Communicating: Design effective forms of school-to-home and home-to-school communications about school programs and children’s progress.
- Volunteering: Recruit and organize parent help and support.
- Learning at Home: Provide information and ideas to families about how to help students at home with homework and other curriculum-related activities, decisions and planning.
- Decision-Making: Include parents in school decisions, develop parent leaders and representatives.
- Collaborating with Community: Identify and integrate resources and services from the community to strengthen school programs, family practices and student learning and development.
Development of school and district level parental involvement approaches
- Building Council Teams/PAC: Every school in the District is required to have a Building Planning Team. A minimum of two (2) parent representatives shall serve on the Building Planning Team for each school. Parent representatives shall be responsible for communicating with their constituencies and for representing parent opinion on the teams.
- Parent Teacher Organizations: Schools will support parent-teacher organizations. Principals will work collaboratively with the parent-teacher organizations of theirschool to develop and sustain parent involvement in their school. This policy in no way eliminates or diminishes an individual parent’s right to make his or her feelings known at any level in the District on any topic of concern, nor does it prevent the District from involving individual parents in other appropriate situations.
- Superintendents PAC: The Superintendent will meet a minimum of three times a year with a Parent Advisory Council, consisting of parent representatives from each of the school buildings.
- Budget Representatives: The Board will seek parent representatives from each of the schools in the District to serve annually on the budget committee.
Building capacity for parental involvement
To build parent capacity for strong parental involvement to improve their child’s academic achievement, the district and its Title I, Part A schools will, at a minimum:
- Assist parents in understanding such topics as the state’s academic content and student achievement standards, state and local academic assessments, Title I requirements, how to monitor their child’s progress and how to work with educators to improve the achievement of their child. To achieve this objective, the district and its Title I schools will:
- Provide workshops on new state standards.
- Provide links on the district website to materials related to state standards, state assessments.
- Provide annual workshops developed by the counseling staff on issues related to children’s social and emotional well-being.
- Provide materials, information, and training to help parents work to improve their child’s academic achievement. To achieve this objective, the district and its Title I schools will:
- Hold parent-teacher conferences in elementary schools, at least annually.
- Provide frequent reports to parents on their children’s progress.
- Provide reasonable access to staff, including opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child’s school and/or class activities.
- Organize a literacy night at the Town of Colonie library.
- Provide building level workshops to support a range of academic support topics which may include: homework help, math strategies, reading strategies, use of instructional technology.
- Utilize the district’s technological resources to provide access to information regarding their child’s overall academic program.
- Utilize the district’s technological resources to provide a means by which parents can easily communicate with teachers.
- Educate its teachers, pupil services personnel, principals, and other staff in understanding the value and utility of a parent’s contributions and on how to:
- Reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners.
- Implement and coordinate parent programs; and
- Build ties between parents and the schools.
The Superintendent is authorized and encouraged to develop parent-friendly materials to communicate to District parents and members opportunities for participation and involvement. The goal of these and all communications is to ensure that information related to school and parent-related programs, meetings and other activities is sent to the parents of students, including those participating in Title I programs, in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats, upon request, and to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.
Coordination of parental involvement strategies
The district will coordinate and integrate strategies adopted to comply with Title I, Part A parental involvement requirements with parental involvement strategies adopted in connection with existing community partners such as Town of Colonie library, Capital Region BOCES, Colonie Youth Center, etc. The District shall demonstrate its compliance with this project by participating both in resource and information sharing as well as in joint initiatives.
Review of district wide parental involvement policy
The Board, along with its superintendent of schools and other appropriate staff will conduct, with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of this parental involvement policy in improving the academic quality of Title I schools, including the identification of barriers to greater participation by parents in activities under this policy, and the revision of parent involvement policies necessary for more effective involvement. To facilitate this review, the district will conduct the following activities:
- Conduct an annual meeting to identify possible barriers to greater participation by parents and brainstorm corresponding revisions of parent involvement policies necessary for more effective involvement.
- The Superintendent of Schools will ensure that all District schools are provided with technical assistance and support to assist them in planning and implementing effective parent involvement policies identifying programs and activities that improve student achievement and school performance.
- All Building Council activities will be evaluated at least every two years and, if warranted, revised. Building administrators will include all necessary constituents of the school community (e.g., administrators, Title I parents, teachers, CSEA) in the evaluation and revision of the work of the Building Council.
Cross-ref: 4010, Equivalence in Instruction
Ref: 20 USC §6318(a)(2), No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (§1118 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act)
8 NYCRR §§100.3
U.S. Department of Education, Parental Involvement, Title I, Part A, Non-Regulatory Guidance, April 23, 2004
Adopted: April 6, 2016