**KB-R - IMPLEMENTATION OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT COMPONENTS** **Last Updated Date:** 07/08/2014 **Adoption Date:** 11/27/2012 1.   The South Hadley School District will take the following actions to involve parents in the joint development of its district wide parental involvement plan under section 1112 of the ESEA:  1. Convene one or more meetings with Title 1 parents to gather input on the Title 1 parental involvement plan on an annual basis; 2. Distribute the Title 1 parental involvement plan to all Title 1 parents; 3. Regularly review the parental involvement plan with building administrators and Title 1 teachers to ensure its implementation. 2.   The South Hadley School District will take the following actions to involve parents in the process of school review and improvement under section 1116 of the ESEA:  1. Convene meetings with Title 1 parents to review progress and improvement of the Title 1 students and the Title 1 Program; 2. Communicate with parents to review progress of individual Title 1 students and the Title 1 Program; 3. Share progress of the Title 1 Program with the School Committee and the individual school councils as they develop plans for the district and/or schools. 3.    The South Hadley School District will provide the following necessary coordination, technical assistance, and other support to assist Title I, Part A schools in planning and implementing effective parental involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance:  1. Title 1 teachers will meet at least twice a year with their building principals and the director of the Title 1 Program to review and plan effective parental involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance. 2. Title 1 Parent Programs will be communicated in a variety of ways and in a timely manner to ensure that parents are advised of those activities. 4.   The South Hadley School District will take the following actions to conduct, with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of this parental involvement policy in improving the quality of its Title I, Part A schools.  The evaluation will include identifying barriers to greater participation by parents in parental involvement activities (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 school district will use the findings of the evaluation about its parental involvement policy and activities to design strategies for more effective parental involvement, and to revise, if necessary (and with the involvement of parents) its parental involvement policies. 1. Title 1 parents, working with school staff, will design an instrument to survey parents regarding the content and effectiveness of the parental involvement policy.  The survey will be distributed to all Title 1 parents and the results collated and reported by Title 1 parent representatives and school staff. 2. Survey results will be used to review the parental involvement policy and procedures and recommendations will be made to the administration for review and/or implementation. 5.   The South Hadley School District will build the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong parental involvement in order to ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the schools involved, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement through the following activities specifically described below:  a.    The South Hadley School District will, with the assistance of its Title I, Part A schools, provide assistance to parents of children served by the school district or school, as appropriate, in understanding topics such as the following by undertaking the actions described in this paragraph -- - the State’s academic content standards; - the State’s student academic achievement standards; - the State and local academic assessments including alternate assessments; - the requirements of Part A; - how to monitor their child’s progress, and; - how to work with educators. (1)  Title 1 parents will be provided with access to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks standards and the Common Core State Standards for the grade level of their child.  During parent conferences, Title 1 teachers will explain to parents how those standards are being implemented in the classroom to improve their child’s achievement. (2)  Parents will be provided with activities and appropriate materials they can use at home to support achievement of these academic standards in literacy and mathematics. (3)  Appropriate websites that provide information that will assist in supplementing instruction will be distributed to parents. b.  The South Hadley School District will, with the assistance of its schools, provide materials and training to help parents work with their children to improve their children’s academic achievement such as literacy training, and using technology, as appropriate, to foster parental involvement by:       (1)  Sending newsletters to parents to provide strategies parents can implement at home to improve their children’s academic achievement; (2)  Communicating to parents how they can help their children to support the work done in the classroom with the Title 1 teachers.  This communication will be in school        newsletters in a Title 1 column or in a communication notebook the child takes home;   (3) Holding a Title 1 parent program to demonstrate the intervention software used by Title 1 students in school so that parents better understand the potential of that software.  Websites that parents can use with their children at home will also be distributed. c.  The South Hadley School District will, with the assistance of its schools and parents, educate its teachers, student services personnel, principals and other staff in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to implement and coordinate parent programs and build ties between parents and schools by taking the following actions:  (1)  Building principals will work with their school councils to review parent involvement practices in each building and make recommendations for possible improvement. (2)  Building principals will work with their teachers to ensure that communication exists between the school community and parents.  This will include strategies to build ties between parents and schools as partners in the education of children. (3)  District level administration and building principals will review and revise as necessary the District Improvement Plan to ensure communication with parents and to build ties between parents and schools. d.  The South Hadley School District will take the following actions to ensure that information related to the school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities, is communicated to the parents of participating children in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats upon request, and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand:  (1)  District administrators and building principals will review practices currently in place to communicate with parents and make recommended improvements in timeliness and clarity as necessary to ensure parents are aware of all activities available to them within the South Hadley School District. (2)  Building principals will discuss with teachers the procedures needed to ensure timely and effective communication regarding parent activities.