Title 1 Parental Involvement Policy

At Seventh Ward Elementary, we believe that ongoing involvement of parents is very important to the success of our students’ education.  To meet the Title I Schools requirements, our school must create and support a strong parent-school partnership.  In order to receive Title I funding for our school, programs that support parent involvement must be in place and implemented.  Because Seventh Ward Elementary is a school-wide Title I school, all students benefit from the funding and are considered participants.  As a Title I school, we will plan meaningful activities in which parents and families may participate.

The school will focus its programs and activities on six types of involvement: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making and collaborating with the community.  Through active pursuit of these six areas, we will strive to create the best possible learning environment for our students.  To create and support strong parent-school partnership, this policy will be revised annually, if necessary, in consultation with the school improvement team (SIT).  Through the SIT, parents will be asked to give input into the development and review of the instructional plan and school improvement plan when possible.  This policy shall be distributed to parents through means of the Seventh Ward Elementary Student Handbook each year.  The policy will also be on display in the office.

Annually, Seventh Ward Elementary will convene a Title I Orientation, in conjunction with the Open House curriculum night at the beginning of each school year.  All parents will be invited and encouraged to attend.  The purpose of the meeting will be to inform parents of the school’s participation under Title I and to explain Title I requirements and parents’ rights to be involved.  Teachers will also inform parents regarding the curriculum used in the school, the forms of assessment used to measure student progress, and the proficiency levels students are expected to meet. 

To eliminate any barriers, the school meetings will be scheduled at various times of the day, in order to make parental involvement in such meetings as convenient as possible. 

To the extent feasible and possible, parent meetings will provide full opportunities to participate for the parents with disabilities and limited English.

Parent representatives of the student body, teachers, administrators and community leaders will be used to form the SIT, which will be responsible for the construction and revision of this School-wide Title I Plan.  The SIT will meet twice per year, with additional meetings as deemed necessary for the improvement and benefit of the school.

Seventh Ward Elementary will provide parents with timely and pertinent information regarding parent involvement, their child’s achievement and the school’s performance.  This will include, but is not limited to, the following:

• Yearly Title I and Curriculum Open House meeting
• School performance records and proficiency level expectations distributed at the beginning of each school year through summative test results
• Written communication from teacher including:
  • Weekly take-home folders
  • Nine-week report cards
  • Formal standardized test scores reports
• Oral communication from teacher, including:
  • Phone contacts (goal: contacting 50% of population each grading period)
  • Conference opportunities (at least two opportunities per year)
  • Interaction at after-school functions
• Parent Workshops
• Monthly Newsletters
• Parent Resource Center located in the office and library
• Posting upcoming events on outside marquee and school website
• Suggestions Survey distributed to all parents at the beginning of each year
• Timely responses to parent suggestions through telephone calls, notes and conferences
• Satisfaction Surveys distributed to all parents at the end of each year

The school will coordinate and integrate parent involvement programs and activities with programs such as Head Start, coordinating efforts with the school’s Pre-Kindergarten program.

When appropriate, the school will work to build a partnership with organizations, churches, businesses and other schools in the community.  These partnerships will be informed in order to improve the involvement of the community in the school, through volunteer work or the donation of gifts, and the involvement of the school in the community.  These partnerships can include, but are not limited to, high school volunteers for childcare during Parent Workshops, local restaurants donating gift certificates as incentives for reading programs or as door prizes for workshops, and employees of local businesses volunteering time to come into the school to tutor or help with test proctoring.

The SIT will develop a Parent-Teacher-Student Compact jointly with the parents.  This compact will outline how parents, the school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build a partnership to help students achieve the state’s standards.  The compact shall address the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis.  The compact will be distributed to all parents through the Student Handbook, and will be sent home with each student.  Translations in other languages will be available as needed and to the extent possible.

The school will collect suggestions and comments from parents on an ongoing basis, through the beginning of the year Parent Interest Surveys, ongoing Parent Workshop Evaluations, and the end of year Parent Satisfaction Survey.  This information will be considered in the revision of the Parent Involvement Policy and the Parent Involvement Action Plan for the school.  The school will provide timely responses to suggestions.