Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy

The Title 1 Parent Involvement Policy of Swanton Local Schools was developed and written in cooperation with the Title 1 staff and parents representing Swanton Elementary School. The Swanton Local School District recognizes the great importance of parent/family/community involvement in increasing student success. A School-Wide program enables the Title 1 teacher to have more flexibility in meeting the educational needs of the students. Responsibility for student success and achievement is shared by the teachers. Agreement for each student shows the team effort to help each student achieve Ohio’s high standards.

It was decided that the parents of the Swanton Local Schools Title 1 children would be informed of the many changes in the law by scheduling a flexible number of meetings which may include but aren’t limited to:

1. A required annual Fall meeting held on or before November 30th of each school year. Parents will be invited by letter and/or in person, or by telephone, if need be, to attend individual building meetings. At the annual fall meeting, parents will be provided with an explanation of the year’s programs and curriculum, including how Title 1 funding is used, how their child was selected, types of asseements used, and expectations for performance improvement and growth in order to increase the probability of their child’s success on the ODE Achievement Tests. The current Parent/Community Involvement Policy will be made available and suggestions invited. The program will include a parent educational session related to Title 1 reading, math, parenting, or a topic of interest identified by parents.
2. A second meeting of a similar nature to #1 above, if a substantial number of parents were unable to attend that required meeting.
3. Family activity nights for Title 1 families, Title 1 staff, and any other interested staff members will be scheduled during the year.

Parents lacking literacy skills or whose native language is not English will have Title 1 and other information relayed to them in an understandable format.

We will continue to refine and enlarge our parent involvement through the use of resource centers, materials available for home use, parent training workshops, and access to information via the District Web Page in order to insure that our parents become full partners in their children’s education.

Timely information regarding Title 1 programs, school performance profiles, student assessment results, school curriculum, state testing expectations, and notification of regular meetings may be provided in the following ways:

1. Parent/Teacher Conferences
2. Survey
3. Phone Calls
4. Newsletters
5. Progress Reports
6. Parent Workshops
7. Note Home
8. Annual Review

The requirements for the annual assessment will include an annual evaluation of the parent involvement policy. The identification of barriers to greater participation by parents will be reviewed by the Title 1 staff and parents as may be needed. Procedures for revision and response to parental concerns will be handled on an as needed basis at individual buildings.

The school parent compact was developed with the cooperation of Title 1 parents and teachers. The suggested compact format offered by the State was revised to meet the needs of our students and parents. Additional information outlines the responsibility of parents, staff, and students in order to enable students to meet performance standards, identifies the ways in which parents will be responsible for supporting their children’s education, and stresses the importance of ongoing communication between parents and teachers.

Effective parent involvement and partnerships among school, parents and the community will be accomplished by publishing a quarterly newsletter. We will continue to promote our conference days to encourage parent-school  communications and display an “open door” communication attitude for our parents, students, and staff. Parent-teacher conferences will be helds on regularly scheduled conference days. The Title 1 teachers involved in reading/math programs will consult with regular classroom teachers and parents on student progress. Title 1 teachers will be readily accessible to parents, and respond promptly to parent recommendations.

This policy will be reviewed annually for the purpose of informing parents, receiving parental input, making revisions, and officially adopting it at each Title 1 building.

Community is very important, and frequent communication regarding student progress will be encouraged between school and home. If there is significant concern about a student’s progress, or there will be a significant change in a progress grade card, teachers are encouraged to talk with parents promptly, especially before the progress report is sent home.

Parent Resources – URLs | Vocabulary