Oyster Bay-East Norwich

The Board of Education believes that positive parent and family engagement is essential to student achievement, and thus encourages such involvement in school educational planning and operations. Parent and family engagement may take place either in the classroom or during extra- curricular activities. However, the Board of Education also encourages parent and family engagement at home (e.g., planned home reading time, informal learning activities, and/or homework “contracts” between parents and children).

Consistent with the parent involvement goals of Title I, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), 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 of Education also will require that all of its schools receiving Title I, Part A funds develop and implement school level parent and family engagement policies, as further required by ESSA.

For purposes of this policy, parent and family engagement refers to the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities so that parents:

• Play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning;
• Are provided with strategies and resources that will help them support their children in academic activities that will increase student engagement and achievement;
• 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 “parent(s)” 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).

School District and school building level Title I parent and family engagement 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, including providing information and school reports required under the law in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language such parents understand. In carrying out the parent and family engagement requirements, the School District and each building shall provide reasonable support for parent and family engagement activities included in each school’s collaboratively developed Parent Involvement Plan.

As further required by ESSA, parents of students eligible for Title I services will be provided an opportunity to participate in the development of the School 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 be provided with an opportunity to participate in the process for developing a school improvement plan when the school their child is attending is identified as low-performing in student performance and school quality, measured annually on multiple indicators.

School District staff will undertake the following actions to provide opportunities for parent and family engagement in the development of the School District-Wide Parent and family engagement Plan:

• Involve parents in the joint development of the Title I Plan. If the plan is not satisfactory to the parents of children participating in Title I programs, the School District will submit any parent comments to the State Education Department along with the School District's plan including, but not limited to, the number of opportunities to meet with school staff, flexible times to accommodate various parent schedules, and the accessibility of the meetings being held in the school their child attends. Further, parents will be surveyed by telephone and by electronic means (if available) to determine availability.
• Provide the coordination, technical assistance, and support necessary to assist participating schools in planning and implementing effective parent involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance including, but not limited to, updated correspondence that complies with NYSED requirements. The Superintendent of Schools or his/her designee will provide such updates to the principals of the designated buildings.
• Build the schools’ and parents’ capacity for strong parent and family engagement through implementing and encouraging participation in appropriate parent and family engagement activities including, but not limited to, providing the Title I teachers with the time, space, and resources necessary to work effectively with parents.
• Coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies under Title I with those of other programs including, but not limited to, Universal Pre-Kindergarten, Parent Teacher Associations, Special Education Parent Teacher Associations and Developmental Adolescent Literacy. 
• Involve parents of children in Title I programs in decisions regarding how funds reserved for parent and family engagement activities are spent.

A­ppropriate staff will conduct, with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parent and family engagement plan 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. The School District will ensure that the LEA Title I Parent and Family Engagement Policy is distributed to all students annually along with the appropriate SEA Parent Involvement Plan and School-Parent-Student Compact. The Policy Plan and Compact will be posted to the School District’s website.

School Level Parent and Family Engagement Plans

The Superintendent of Schools or his/her designee will provide all schools in the School District receiving federal financial assistance under Title I, Part A with the technical assistance and all other support deemed necessary by the principals to assist them in planning and implementing effective parent and family engagement programs and activities that improve student achievement and school performance. As appropriate to meet individual local needs, each designated school will:

• convene an annual meeting, at a convenient time, to inform parents of their school's participation in Title I programs and to explain Title I requirements and the right of the parents to be involved. All parents of children participating in Title I programs will be invited and encouraged to attend the meeting;
• offer multiple meetings with flexible times to accommodate various parent schedules, and the accessibility of the meetings being held in the school their child attends. Further, parents will be surveyed by telephone and by electronic means (if available) to determine availability;
• provide (with funds provided under this provision of law) transportation, child care, or home visits, as such services relate to parent and family engagement;
• involve parents in an organized, ongoing, and timely way in the planning, review, and improvement of Title I programs, including the planning, review, and improvement of the school parent and family engagement policy.
• conduct, with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parent and family engagement policy in improving the academic quality of the Title I schools. The evaluation shall include identifying barriers to greater participation by parents in activities under the policy and using the findings of the evaluation to design strategies for more effective parent and family engagement and, to revise, if necessary, the parent and family engagement policies at the administration and school levels by surveying parents of participating students during a meeting in the fall. This will be conducted by the principals or his/her designees of the designated buildings;
• provide parents of participating children with timely information about programs, a description and explanation of the curriculum in use in Title I programs, the forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, the proficiency levels students are expected to meet, and if requested by parents, opportunities for regular meetings to formulate suggestions and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children and respond to any such suggestions as soon as practicable; and
• develop a school-parent compact jointly with parents that outlines how parents, school staff and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and detail the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help all children achieve the state's standards.

The compact must include:

• a description of the school’s responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables the children served in Title I schools to meet the State's student academic achievement standards;
• a description of the ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting their children's learning, such as monitoring attendance, homework completion, television watching, volunteering in their child’s classroom and participating, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children and positive use of extracurricular time; and
• address the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis including, but not limited to:
  • parent-teacher conferences in elementary schools, at least annually, during which the compact shall be discussed as the compact relates to the individual child's achievement;
  • semester/quarterly reports (as applicable at each building) to parents on their children's progress; and
  • reasonable access to staff, and opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child’s class.

To provide effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the schools involved, parents, and the community in order to improve student academic achievement, each Title I school shall:

• provide assistance to parents of children served by the School District or school, in understanding such topics as the State's academic content standards and State student academic achievement standards, State and local academic assessments, the requirements of this part, and how to monitor a child's progress and work with educators to improve the achievement of their children. The School District will host conferences during the school year at each of its schools to provide this information to parents, students and staff;
• provide materials and training by teachers funded by Title I to help parents work with their children to improve their children's achievement, such as literacy training and using technology, as appropriate; to foster parent and family engagement including, but not limited to, extending invitations to parents to attend conferences geared to reviewing literature content to enable parents to assist their children, if they choose, at home;
• educate teachers, Pupil Services personnel, Principals, and other staff, with the assistance of parents, in the value and utility of contribution 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 including, but not limited to, in-service and out-of-district professional development courses and workshops. In addition, site-based management teams will evaluate ways in which parents and staff can work together more effectively with the objective of improving student performance;
• coordinate and integrate, to the extent feasible and appropriate, parent involvement programs and activities with training for parents; and
• the schools will disseminate information related to school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities to the parents of participating children in a format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand including languages such as Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.

Ref:

20 USCA § 6318 (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001) (§1118 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act)

8 NYCRR §§100.3(b)(3); 100.4(f); 100.5(d)(4); 149.3(16)

Adoption Date: July 9, 2019

Reviewed: October 20, 2020

Adopted: January 24, 2023

Click here to view the 3300 Parent and Family Engagement Policy as a compliant PDF.