District Parent Involvement Policy

The Randolph County School System recognizes the importance of implementing programs, activities, and procedures for the involvement of parents of children enrolled in its schools. This involvement shall include, but not limited to, input into the planning design, and implementation of the various school programs. Procedures shall be established to ensure that the consultation is organized, systematic, ongoing, informed, and timely in relation to decisions about the program.

It shall be the intent of all parent involvement activities to encourage and support the efforts of the home, school and community in improving the educational opportunities of children by helping them succeed in the regular program of the school system, attain grade level proficiency, and improve achievement in basic and more advanced skills.

We therefore, affirm and ensure the right of parents of children participating in activities funded by Title I, IASA shall be involved in the joint development of the LEA plan. Parents shall be afforded opportunities for involvement in the process of school review and improvement through the use of parent surveys, membership on committees, school advisory councils, and membership on school improvement teams, community meetings and parent workshops to collaboratively participate in:

    - The design and implementation and evaluation of the Randolph County School System Plan including parental involvement activities as stipulated under section 1112 of the Act;
    - The development and revision and parental involvement policy to insure the implementation of activities that are beneficial to all parents as stipulated under section 1112 of the act;
    - The decision regarding how funds from minimum 1% reservation are allotted for parental involvement activities as mandated in section 114 and 115 of the Act. Revised: 8/15/2011
    - Ensuring that expectations of parents set at the system level are clearly established and distributed to parents of participating students when they are enrolled in Title I funded activities. The system-wide Title I office assists in coordination of and provides technical assistance to ensure the effective planning and implementation of parental activities.Other Title I staff members (i.e. paraprofessionals) and other appropriate support personnel within and outside (RESA) the Randolph County School System may be called upon to provide assistance.

The Title I system-wide parent involvement office will assist and provide to parents in understanding to the extent applicable or feasible the following areas of concern:

    - National Educational Goals, ESEA
    - Content standards and student performance standards;
    - School improvement and corrective action process;
    - State and local assessment;
    - Components of a school-wide program;
    - Requirements for Title I, Part A;
    - Ways parents can monitor their children’s progress and work with educators to improve the performance of their children, and
    - Ways parents can participate in decisions relating to the education of their children
    - Technology

Programs, activities and procedures that are developed to encourage parental involvement shall have the following goals:

    - To inform parents of their child’s participation in school programs, the reason their child is participating in the program, and specific methods and instructional objectives of the program.
    - To support the efforts of parents, including training parents, to maximum extent practicable, to work with their children in the home to obtain the instructional objectives of the various programs and understand the program’s requirements.
    - To train teachers, administrators, to build a partnership between home and school.
    - To train teachers, administrators, and other staff members to work effectively with parents of participating children.
    - To consult with parents on an ongoing basis concerning the manner in which the school and parents can better work together to achieve a program’s objectives.
    - To ensure opportunities to the extent practicable for the full participation of parents who lack literacy skills or whose native language is not English.
   - Whenever feasible and applicable, parent involvement activities shall be a coordinated effort among Title I, Early Intervention Program, Head Start, Pre-Kindergarten Program and onsite school meetings (faculty, Open House)
    - Additionally, to the extent feasible and applicable, system-wide Title I parent involvement activities will include community-based roles for the faith communities, the academic communities, and the business communities encouraging the formation of partnerships between the schools that will include a role for parents and other opportunities such as life skills training, family crisis intervention, and community education opportunities.

To ensure effective involvement of parents and to support the partnership between school and home, Title I shall provide assistance to participating parents in ways that include:

    - Weekly Couriers/Folders
    - Monthly Newsletters
    - Parent Workshops
    - Recruitment of parents to serve on various school committees
    - Flexible meeting time for parent meetings
    - Field Trips
    - Provide Transportation
    - Childcare Services
    - Home Visits
    - Family Literacy
    - Student Support Team (SST)

Title I shall annually survey parents to ascertain the effectiveness and appropriateness of the system-wide Parent Policy. Areas to be evaluated shall include identifying barriers to greater parent participation by parents in Title I activities (with particular attention to low income parents, Limited English Proficient (LEP) parents, minorities, parents with disabilities and parents with low literacy). The finding of such evaluation shall be used to design strategies for more effective parental involvement and to revise as necessary, the parent involvement policy.