Family School

Family School has a school-wide Title 1 program. This designation is based on the number of families qualifying for free and reduced-price lunches, and provides a variety of academic supports for students. Below you will find the description of this federal program, along with our school district’s Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy.

The purpose of this title is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments. This purpose can be accomplished by —
ensuring that high-quality academic assessments, accountability systems, teacher preparation and training, curriculum, and instructional materials are aligned with challenging State academic standards so that students, teachers, parents, and administrators can measure progress against common expectations for student academic achievement;
meeting the educational needs of low-achieving children in our Nation’s highest-poverty schools, limited English proficient children, migratory children, children with disabilities, Indian children, neglected or delinquent children, and young children in need of reading assistance;
closing the achievement gap between high- and low-performing children, especially the achievement gaps between minority and nonminority students, and between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers;
holding schools, local educational agencies, and States accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students, and identifying and turning around low-performing schools that have failed to provide a high-quality education to their students, while providing alternatives to students in such schools to enable the students to receive a high-quality education;
distributing and targeting resources sufficiently to make a difference to local educational agencies and schools where needs are greatest;
improving and strengthening accountability, teaching, and learning by using State assessment systems designed to ensure that students are meeting challenging State academic achievement and content standards and increasing achievement overall, but especially for the disadvantaged;
providing greater decision-making authority and flexibility to schools and teachers in exchange for greater responsibility for student performance;
providing children an enriched and accelerated educational program, including the use of schoolwide programs or additional services that increase the amount and quality of instructional time;
promoting schoolwide reform and ensuring the access of children to effective, scientifically based instructional strategies and challenging academic content;
significantly elevating the quality of instruction by providing staff in participating schools with substantial opportunities for professional development;
coordinating services under all parts of this title with each other, with other educational services, and, to the extent feasible, with other agencies providing services to youth, children, and families;
affording parents substantial and meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children.

District Title I/Parental Involvement

The Board recognizes that parent involvement is vital to achieve maximum educational growth for students participating in the district’s Title I program. Therefore, in compliance with federal law and Oregon Department of Education guidelines, the district shall meet with parents to provide information regarding their school’s participation in the Title I program and its requirements.

The Board directs the superintendent to ensure that such meetings are held annually and at a convenient time. All parents of participating students shall be invited to attend. Title I funds may be provided for transportation, childcare, home visits or other parental involvement services, as appropriate. The superintendent shall ensure equivalence among schools in teachers, administration and other staff and in the provisions of curriculum materials and instructional supplies.

Parents shall be informed of their right to be involved in the development of the district’s parental involvement policy, Title I plans and school-parent compact.

Parental Involvement Policy

A parental involvement policy shall be developed jointly and agreed upon with parents of participating students. The district shall ensure:

Involvement of parents in the joint development of the district’s overall Title I plan and the process of school review and improvement;
Coordination, technical assistance and other support necessary to assist participating schools in planning and implementing effective parent involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance;
Development of activities that promote the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong parent involvement;
Coordination and integration of parental involvement strategies with appropriate programs as provided by law;
Involvement of parents in the annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the policy in improving the academic quality of schools served under Title I;
Barriers to participation by parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy or are of any racial or ethnic minority are identified;
Findings of annual evaluations are used to design strategies for more effective parental involvement and to revise, if necessary, the requirements of this policy;
Parents are involved in the activities of schools served under Title I.

Title I Plan

As a part of the district’s overall Title I plan, the district shall ensure effective involvement of parents by promoting activities that support a partnership among the school, parents and the community and that promote the improvement of student achievement. Plans may be developed by participating district schools individually or collectively. District schools:

Shall provide assistance to parents of students served by the school in understanding such topics as the state’s academic content standards and state student academic achievement standards, Title I plan requirements, state and local academic assessments and how to monitor a student’s progress and work with educators to improve the achievement of their student;
Shall provide materials and training to help parents work with their student to improve their student's achievement, such as literacy training and using technology, as appropriate, to foster parental involvement;
Shall educate teachers, student services personnel, principals and other staff, with the assistance of parents, in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in 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 school;
Shall coordinate and integrate parent-involvement programs and activities with Head Start, Reading First, Early Reading First, Even Start, the Home Instruction Programs for Preschool Youngsters, the Parents as Teachers Program and public preschool programs and other programs, to the extent feasible and appropriate;
Shall ensure, to the extent possible, that information related to school and parent programs,meetings and other activities is sent to the homes of participating students in a format and in a language the parent can understand;
May provide necessary literacy training from Title I funds received if the district has exhausted all other reasonably available sources of funding for such training;
May pay reasonable and necessary expenses associated with local parental involvement activities, including transportation and child-care costs, to enable parents to participate in school related activities;
May train and support parents to enhance the involvement of other parents;
May arrange school meetings at a variety of times or conduct in-home conferences between teachers or other educators in order to maximize parental involvement and participation;
May establish a districtwide parent advisory council to provide advice on all matters related to parental involvement in Title I programs;
May develop appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses in parental involvement activities;
May adopt and implement model approaches to improving parental involvement, such as EvenStart; and
Shall provide such other reasonable support for parental involvement activities as parents may request consistent with Title I requirements.

School-Parent Compact

A school-parent compact shall be developed for each of the district’s Title I schools. The compact shall:

Describe the school’s responsibility to provide high quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables students to meet the state’s student academic achievement standards;
Describe the ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting their student’s learning;
Stress the importance of ongoing communication between teachers and parents through annual parent-teacher conferences at the elementary school level.

The district shall, to the extent practicable, provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities, parents of homeless students and parents of migratory students. Information and school reports will be provided in a format and language parents understand.

The district’s policy, plan and compact shall be adopted by the Board, reviewed annually and updated periodically to meet the changing needs of parents and the school and distributed to parents of participating students in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.

END OF POLICY