FILE: IFD
PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT
The Iberia Parish School Board recognizes that parent and family engagement must be a priority of the School Board for children to learn and achieve academic success. Parents and families provide the primary educational environment for children; consequently, parents are vital and necessary partners with the School Board throughout their children's elementary and secondary school careers. The term parent shall refer to any caregiver who assumes responsibility for nurturing and caring for children, and includes parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, foster parents, stepparents, and others. The concept of parent and family engagement shall include programs, services, and/or activities on the school site, as well as contributions of parents outside the normal school setting.
It shall be the policy of the School Board and each public school in Iberia Parish, in meaningful collaboration with parents, teachers, students, administrators, and other educational resources, to establish, develop, and maintain strategies and programs that are intended to enhance the involvement of parents and other caregivers that reflect the needs of students, parents, and families served by the School Board, in accordance with applicable state and federal laws and regulations. As part of the parent and family engagement program, it shall be the responsibility of every school to create a welcoming environment, conducive to learning and supportive for comprehensive family involvement programs that have been developed jointly with parents/families.
DISTRICT LEVEL RESPONSIBILITIES
At the district level, the School Board shall:
Involve parents and family members in the joint development
and amendment of the school district’s plan, which includes components
of the district’s parent and family engagement program, to be submitted
to the Louisiana Department of Education.
Provide coordination of various programs which involve parents,
technical assistance, and other support necessary to assist every
public school in Iberia Parish in planning and implementing effective
parent and family involvement activities to improve student academic
achievement.
Coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies
with other relevant programs that promote parent involvement.
Conduct, with the meaningful involvement of parents and family
members, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of
components and strategies of the School Board's parent and family
engagement program and assess the components' and strategies' usefulness. The
evaluation shall attempt to identify ways of improving the academic
quality of the schools served by the School Board, including identifying
barriers to greater participation by parents in educational and parent
and family engagement activities; particular attention shall be directed
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 Board
and each school shall use findings of such evaluation to design strategies
for more effective parental and family involvement, and to revise,
if necessary, the parent and family engagement policies and procedures.
Distribute to parents and families, in a language the parents can understand, information about the Iberia Parish School Board's parent and family engagement program, as well as provide proper notification to parents about specific services or special programs, as required by state or federal law.
SCHOOL LEVEL RESPONSIBILITIES
As part of the parent and family engagement program, the School Board shall encourage each public school and require those schools receiving federal Title I funds under the jurisdiction of the Iberia Parish School Board to:
Convene an annual meeting, at a convenient time, to which all
parents of participating children shall be invited and encouraged
to attend, to inform parents of their school's educational programs
and to explain components of the parental involvement program, and
the right of the parents to be involved.
Offer a flexible number of engagement meetings at convenient
times to maximize parental participation, and may provide transportation,
child care, appropriate refreshments, and/or home visits, as such
services relate to parental involvement.
Involve parents in an organized, ongoing, and timely way, in
the planning, review, and improvement of parent and family engagement
programs, including the planning, development, review, and improvement
of the school parent and family engagement policy and the joint development
of the school-wide parent and family engagement program plan.
Provide parents, especially those of participating children:
timely information about educational and parent and family
programs;
a description and explanation of the curriculum in use at
the school, the forms of academic assessment used to measure student
progress, and the achievement levels of state academic standards;
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 practicably possible; and,
the School Board’s written Parent and Family Engagement policy.
If the school-wide parent and family engagement program plan is not satisfactory to the parents of participating children, submit any parent comments on the plan when the school makes the plan available to school district level personnel.
SHARED RESPONSIBILITIES
As part of the parent and family engagement program, to build a capacity for involvement, the School Board and each public school under the jurisdiction of the School Board:
Shall provide assistance to parents of children served by the
school or School Board, as appropriate, in understanding such topics
as the state's academic content standards, state and local academic
assessments, and how to monitor a child's progress and work with educators
to improve the achievement of their children.
Shall provide materials and training to help parents to work
with their children to improve their children'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, to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and
integrate parent involvement programs and activities with other outreach
educational programs, such as Head Start, and public pre-school and
other programs, and conduct other activities, such as parent resource
centers, that encourage and support parents in more fully participating
in the education of their children.
Shall ensure that information related to school and parent programs,
meetings, and other activities is sent to parents in a format and,
to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.
May involve parents in the development of training for teachers,
principals, and other educators to improve the effectiveness of such
training.
May provide necessary literacy training from federal and state
funds received if the School Board has exhausted all other reasonably
available sources of funding for such training.
May pay reasonable and necessary expenses associated with parental
involvement activities, including transportation, and/or child care
costs, to enable parents to participate in school-related meetings
and training sessions.
May train parents to enhance the involvement of other parents.
May arrange school meetings, at a variety of times and places,
or conduct in-home conferences between teachers or other educators
who work directly with children, with parents who are unable to attend
such conferences at school, in order to maximize parental involvement
and participation.
May adopt and implement model approaches to improving parental
involvement.
May establish a district-wide parent advisory council to provide
advice on all matters related to parental involvement in programs.
May develop appropriate roles for community-based organizations
and businesses in parental involvement activities.
Shall provide such other reasonable support for parental involvement
activities as parents may request.
Shall provide, to the extent practicable, full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities, and parents of migratory children, including providing necessary information and school reports required in a format, and to the extent practicable, in a language such parents understand.
Statement of Compliance
Each student in grades 4-12 and each parent or guardian of a student in grades 4-12, shall annually sign a Statement of Compliance, in accordance with state law. For students, the Statement of Compliance shall state that the student agrees to attend school regularly, arrive at school on time, demonstrate significant effort toward completion of homework assignments, and follow school and classroom rules. For parents, the Statement of Compliance shall state that the parent or legal guardian agrees to ensure his/her child's daily attendance at school, ensure his/her child's arrival at school on time each day, ensure his/her child completes all assigned homework, and attend all required parent/teacher/principal conferences.
SCHOOL-PARENT COMPACT
Each school shall jointly develop with parents a school-parent compact that outlines how parents, school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and develop a partnership to help children achieve the State's standards. Such compact shall:
Describe the school's responsibility to provide high-quality
curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning
environment that enables the children to meet the State's student
academic achievement standards, and the ways in which each parent
will be responsible for supporting their children's learning, such
as monitoring attendance, homework completion, and television watching;
volunteering in their child's classroom; contributing services outside
the normal school setting; and participating, as appropriate, in decisions
relating to the education of their children, and positive use of extracurricular
time.
Address the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis through, at a minimum:
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;
frequent reports to parents on their children's progress;
reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and
participate in their child's class, and scheduled observation
of classroom activities; and
parental activities and/or contributions away from the school site that enhance academic achievement.
OTHER PROGRAMS
In conjunction with the district services rendered under the School Board’s parental involvement program, the School Board shall maintain contact and communication with social service and health agencies, faith-based institutions, and community groups to support key family and community services and issues. In particular, the Iberia Parish School Board has a strong relationship with and support from community and/or governmental organizations such as Families in Need of Services (FINS), Partners in Education, and District Parent/Teacher Association (PTA). One of the primary goals of these groups is to support, supplement, and assist in improving involvement of parents of children in Iberia Parish public schools.
Revised: January 17, 2018
Ref: 20 USC 6312 (Improving Basic Programs Operated by Local Educational Agencies)
20 USC 6318 (Parent and Family Engagement)
La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §17:235.2
Board minutes, 1-17-18
Iberia Parish School Board