Sharon School

Parent Involvement Plan

General

This school parent involvement plan has been jointly developed and agreed upon with parents from across our School Wide Title program. The policy will be reviewed and adjusted periodically to meet the changing needs of parents and the school. The policy will be distributed to parents at the beginning of each school year.

Parental Comments

Comments of parents concerning dissatisfaction with the plan shall be submitted when the plan is submitted to the district and state.

Policy Involvement

An annual Open House for all parents is held each fall. All parents are invited (i.e. personal invitation) and encouraged to attend. Parent involvement money is used to provide a meal for parents and children prior to the Open House. This policy, legal requirements and the parents’ rights to be involved are explained at this meeting. Our plans for communication (i.e. purple folders, agendas, and school website) are also explained. In addition to the Open House, a flexible number of meetings for parents are held as needed throughout the school year. Parents are encouraged to visit teachers between 7:30 and 8:00 each morning. Additional times are available to schedule before/after school, during planning periods, and home visits are possible when transportation is limited.

Parents are involved in an organized, ongoing, and timely way in the planning review and improvement of the School wide Title program, including the school parental involvement policy, through such means as; conferences, meetings, written and oral communications, and frequent parent surveys.

Through such means as the Open House, Parent Teacher Conferences, written/oral communications, local newspaper articles, formal and informal contacts, local report cards, state report cards, parents are provided;

… timely information about our Title program

… information about and interpretation of the school’s and child’s performance;

… a description and explanation of the curriculum, assessment measures and expected

proficiency levels for students,

… opportunities for sharing, experiences, offering suggestions, and, as appropriate,

participating in making decisions as related to the education of their children, and

… timely responses to their suggestions.

Shared Responsibilities For High Student Performance

Sharon School has jointly developed with parents a Student – Parent – School Compact that outlines how parents, the entire school staff and students share the responsibility for improved student achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve the State’s high standards.

The compact describes the schools responsibility to provide high quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables children to meet the State’s student performance standards and describes the ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting his/her child’s learning.

The importance of communication between teachers and parents on an on-going basis is stressed in the compact through such means as encouraging parents to attend parent-teacher conferences during which the compact will be discussed as it relates to each child’s achievement and encouraging teachers to frequently report to parents information regarding their child’s progress. At Sharon School, parents are given reasonable access to staff, are provided opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child’s class, and are encouraged to observe classroom activities when such observations do not hinder the learning environment.

Building Capacity For Involvement

To ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the school, parents, and the community to improve student achievement, Sharon School through such means a written/oral communications, Partners in Education, conferences, workshops, and meetings:

…provides assistance to parents in such areas as understanding the National Education Goals, the State’s curriculum standards and student performance indicators, the State Plan, State and local assessments, parent involvement requirements, and how to monitor a child’s progress and work with educators to improve the performance of their child, as well as information on how they can participate in decisions relating to the education of their child;

… provides materials coordinating necessary literacy training from other sources (i.e. availability of Adult Education classes) and provides training to help parents work with their children to improve their child’s achievement;

… educates teachers, pupil services personnel, the principal and other staff, with the assistance of parents, in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to reach out, communicate with and work with parents as equal partners, implement and coordinate parent programs, and build ties between home and school;

…develops appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses in parent involvement activities including providing information about opportunities for organizations and businesses to work with parents and schools, and encouraging the formation of partnerships between schools and local businesses that include a role for parents;

… conducts other activities, as appropriate and feasible, that are designed to help parents become full partners in the education of their children providing opportunities for parents to learn about child development and child rearing issues;

… ensures, to the extent possible, that information related to school and parent programs, meetings and other activities is sent to the homes of participating children in the language used in such homes (i.e. translations); and

…provides such other reasonable support (i.e. timely response) for parental involvement activities that may be requested by parents.

Accessibility

In carrying out parental involvement requirements, Sharon School, to the extent practicable, provides full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency or with disabilities, including providing information and school profiles in a language and form such parents understand (i.e. translations).