6.11—PARENTAL/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT - DISTRICT The Pea Ridge School District understands the importance of involving parents and the community as a whole in promoting higher student achievement and general good will between the district and those it serves. Therefore, the district shall strive to develop and maintain the capacity for meaningful and productive parental and community involvement that will result in partnerships that are mutually beneficial to the school, students, parents, and the community. To achieve such ends, the district shall work to 1. Involve parents and the community in the development of the long range planning of the district; 2. Give the schools in the district the support necessary to enable them to plan and implement effective parental involvement activities; 3. Have a coordinated involvement program where the involvement activities of the district enhance the involvement strategies of other programs such as Head Start, HIPPY, Parents as Partners, Parents as Teachers, ABC, ABC for School Success, area Pre-K programs, and Even Start; 4. Explain to parents and the community the State’s content and achievement standards, State and local student assessments and how the district’s curriculum is aligned with the assessments and how parents can work with the district to improve their child’s academic achievement; 5. Provide parents with the materials and training they need to be better able to help their child achieve. The district may use parent resource centers or other community based organizations to foster parental involvement and provide literacy and technology training to parents. 6. Educate district staff, with the assistance of parents, in ways to work and communicate with parents and to know how to implement parent involvement programs that will promote positive partnerships between the school and parents; 7. Keep parents informed about parental involvement programs, meetings, and other activities they could be involved in. Such communication shall be, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand; 8. Find ways to eliminate barriers that work to keep parents from being involved in their child’s education. This may include providing transportation and child care to enable parents to participate, arranging meetings at a variety of times, and being creative with parent/teacher conferences; 9. Find and modify other successful parent and community involvement programs to suit the needs of our district; 10. Train parents to enhance and promote the involvement of other parents; 11. Provide reasonable support for other parental involvement activities as parents may reasonably request.

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To ensure the continued improvement of the district’s parental/community involvement program, the district will conduct an annual review of its parental involvement policies to examine their affect on promoting higher student achievement. The review shall be done by a committee consisting of parents and other community members, certified and classified staff, and member(s) of the administration. This policy shall be part of the school’s Title I plan and shall be distributed to parents of the district’s students and provided, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand. Notes: If any school in your district receives Title I aid, NCLB requires you to have a district policy covering parental involvement for the parents of students served under the program. Because your district is required to “develop jointly with, agree on with, and distribute to parents of participating children a written parent involvement policy,” this model policy is designed to be a starting point to be used in the development of your final policy. The NCLB Act requires the basics of the introduction and the last two paragraphs as well as items-#1 – 7 and #11. Items #8 – 10 are proposed in the act, but not mandatory. Act 603 of 2003 along with several subsequent amendments (A.C.A. §§ 6-15-, 1702, 1703, and 1704) requires each district to develop a parental involvement plan (rather than a policy) in collaboration with parents. The law is very detailed, and full of “shalls” going far beyond the requirements of this policy required by NCLB. Be sure to have the law handy when working out the details of your district’s parental involvement plan. The US DOE has correctly opined that this policy (and policy 6.12) are of no use unless accompanied by an implementation plan. Consequently, the ADE’s ACSIP office requires districts to have such a plan. Act 1423 of 2013 requires each school to place a parent friendly summary of the parent involvement plan as a supplement to the student handbook. The parent has to sign a receipt acknowledging receipt of the summary and return the signed form to the school where the student is enrolled.

Legal References:

20 U.S.C. § 6318 (a)(2),(A),(B),(D),(E) (NCBL Act of 2001, Section 1118) 20 U.S.C. § 6318 (e)(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(8),(9),(10),(11),(13),(14) (NCBL Act of 2001, Section 1118)

Date Adopted: May 17, 2004 Last Revised: July 18, 2013

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PART I. GENERAL EXPECTATIONS The Pea Ridge School District will implement the following statutory requirements: The school district will put into operation programs, activities and procedures for the involvement of parents in all of its schools with Title I, Part A programs, consistent with section 1118 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Those programs, activities and procedures will be planned and operated with meaningful consultation with parents of participating children. Consistent with section 1118, the school district will work with its schools to ensure that the required schoollevel parental involvement policies meet the requirements of section 1118(b) of the ESEA, and each include, as a component, a school-parent compact consistent with section 1118(d) of the ESEA. The school district will incorporate this district-wide parental involvement policy into its LEA plan developed under section 1112 of the ESEA. In carrying out the Title I, Part A parental involvement requirements, to the extent practicable, the school district and its schools 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 section 1111 of the ESEA in an understandable and uniform format and, including alternative formats upon request, and, to the extent practicable, in a language parents understand. If the LEA plan for Title I, Part A, developed under section 1112 of the ESEA, is not satisfactory to the parents of participating children, the school district will submit any parent comments with the plan when the school district submits the plan to the State Department of Education. The school district will involve the parents of children served in Title I, Part A schools in decisions about how the 1 percent of Title I, Part A funds reserved for parental involvement is spent, and will ensure that not less than 95 percent of the one percent reserved goes directly to the schools. The school district will be governed by the following statutory definition of parental involvement, and expects that it’s Title I schools will carry out programs, activities and procedures in accordance with this definition: Parental involvement means the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, including ensuring: (A) that parents play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning; (B) that parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school; (C) that parents 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; (D) the carrying out of other activities, such as those described in section 1118 of the ESEA.

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The school district will inform parents and parental organizations of the purpose and existence of the Parental Information and Resource Center in the State. PART II. DESCRIPTION OF HOW DISTRICT WILL IMPLEMENT REQUIRED DISTRICT WIDE PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT POLICY COMPONENTS 1. The Pea Ridge School District will take the following actions to involve parents in the joint development of its district wide parental involvement plan under section 1112 of the ESEA: Parents will be involved in building and district committees and part of the planning. Parents will received copies of the plan during the building Title I meetings and at parent / teacher conferences. 2. The Pea Ridge School District will take the following actions to involve parents in the process of school review and improvement under section 1116 of the ESEA: Parents will have the opportunity to volunteer to serve on the parental involvement committee, as well as, give input for improvement. 3. The Pea Ridge School District will provide the following necessary coordination, technical assistance, and other support to assist Title I, Part A schools in planning and implementing effective parental involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance: Student academic achievement and school performance information will be distributed to every parent district wide. Information will also be given at the annual Report to the Public, published in the newspaper and district website, and distributed at parent teacher conferences. 4. The Pea Ridge School District will coordinate and integrate parental involvement strategies in Part A with parental involvement strategies under the following other programs: Head Start, Reading First, ELLA, ELF, and Literacy Lab 5. Pea Ridge School District will take the following actions to conduct, with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of this parental involvement policy in improving the quality of its Title I, Part A schools. The evaluation will include identifying barriers to greater participation by parents in parental involvement activities (with particular attention 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 district will use the findings of the evaluation about its parental involvement policy and activities to design strategies for more effective parental involvement, and to revise, if necessary (and with the involvement of parents) its parental involvement policies. The evaluation will take place in the spring during Title I meetings and parent meetings. Building principals and parental involvement coordinators will be responsible for the evaluation and follow-up strategies and revisions. The Pea Ridge School District will build the schools’ and parent’s capacity for strong parental involvement, in order to ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the school involved, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement, through the following activities specifically described below: A. The school district will, with the assistance of its Title I, Part A schools, provide assistance to parents of children served by the school district or school, as appropriate, in understanding topics such as the following, by undertaking the actions described in this paragraph: the State’s academic content standards, 20

the State’s student academic achievement standards, the State and local academic assessments including alternate assessments, the requirements of Part A, how to monitor their child’s progress, and how to work with educators. These activities will include opportunities to attend workshops, conferences, and parent classes. B. The school district will, with the assistance of its schools, provide materials and training to help parents work with their children to improve their children’s academic achievement, such as literacy training, and using technology, as appropriate, to foster parental involvement, by providing opportunites at Title I meetings, parent nights, family nights, and parent teacher conferences. C. The school district will, with the assistance of its schools and parents, educate its teachers, pupil services personnel, principals and other staff, in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to implement and coordinate parent programs and build ties between parents and schools, by providing materials in each building’s parental involvement center and also on the school website.

D. The school district will, to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and integrate parental involvement programs and activities with Head Start, Reading First, Early Reading First, Even Start, Home Instruction Programs for Preschool Youngsters, the Parents as Teachers Program, and public preschool 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, by holding parent nights, family nights, and parent teacher conferences. E. The school district will take the following actions to ensure that information related to the school and parentprograms, meetings, and other activities, is sent to the parents of participating children in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats upon request, and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand by providing information in parent communications that include the procedure for having information provided in a format that is understandable. This information is available on parent communication and the district website. PART III. DISCRETIONARY DISTRICT WIDE PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT POLICY COMPONENTS NOTE: The District-wide Parental Involvement Policy may include additional paragraphs listing and describing other discretionary activities that the school district, in consultation with its parents, chooses to undertake to build parents’ capacity for involvement in the school and school system to support their children’s academic achievement, such as the following discretionary activities listed under section 1118(e) of the ESEA. • involving parents in the development of training for teachers, principals, and other educators to improve the effectiveness of that training;

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• providing necessary literacy training for parents from Title I, Part A funds, if the school district has exhausted all other reasonably available sources of funding for that training; • paying reasonable and necessary expenses associated with parental involvement activities, including transportation and child care costs, to enable parents to participate in school-related meetings and training sessions; • training parents to enhance the involvement of other parents; • in order to maximize parental involvement and participation in their children’s education, arranging school meetings at a variety of times, or conducting in-home conferences between teachers or other educators, who work directly with participating children, with parents who are unable to attend those conferences at school; • adopting and implementing model approaches to improving parental involvement; • establishing a district wide parent advisory council to provide advice on all matters related to parental involvement in Title I, Part A programs; • developing appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses, including faith-based organizations, in parental involvement activities; • and providing other reasonable support for parental involvement activities under Section 1118 as parents may request. PART IV. ADOPTION This District-wide Parental Involvement Policy has been developed jointly with, and agreed on with, parents of children participating in Title I, Part A programs, as evidenced by ______________________. This policy was adopted by the Pea Ridge School District on __mm/dd/yy______ and will be in effect for the period of _______. The school district will distribute this policy to all parents of participating Title I, Part A children on or before _________________.

_______________________________ (Signature of Authorized Official)

_______________________________ (Date)

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6.12—PARENTAL/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT - SCHOOL Pea Ridge Schools understands the importance of involving parents and the community as a whole in promoting higher student achievement and general good will between the school and those it serves. Therefore, Pea Ridge Schools shall strive to develop and maintain the capacity for meaningful and productive parental and community involvement that will result in partnerships that are mutually beneficial to the school, students, parents, and the community. To achieve such ends, the school shall work to 1. Involve parents and the community in the development and improvement of Title I programs for the school; 2. Have a coordinated involvement program where the involvement activities of the school enhance the involvement strategies of other programs such as Head Start, HIPPY, Parents as Partners, Parents as Teachers, ABC, ABC for School Success, area Pre-K programs, and Even Start; 3. Explain to parents and the community the State’s content and achievement standards, State and local student assessments and how the school’s curriculum is aligned with the assessments and how parents can work with the school to improve their child’s academic achievement; 4. Provide parents with the materials and training they need to be better able to help their child achieve. The school may use parent resource centers or other community based organizations to foster parental involvement and provide literacy and technology training to parents. 5. Educate school staff, with the assistance of parents, in ways to work and communicate with parents and to know how to implement parent involvement programs that will promote positive partnerships between the school and parents; 6. Keep parents informed about parental involvement programs, meetings, and other activities they could be involved in. Such communication shall be, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand; 7. Find ways to eliminate barriers that work to keep parents from being involved in their child’s education. This may include providing transportation and child care to enable parents to participate, arranging meetings at a variety of times, and being creative with parent/teacher conferences; 8. Find and modify other successful parent and community involvement programs to suit the needs of our school; 9. Train parents to enhance and promote the involvement of other parents; 10. Provide reasonable support for other parental involvement activities as parents may reasonably request. To help promote an understanding of each party’s role in improving student learning, Pea Ridge Schools shall develop a compact that outlines the responsibilities of parents, students, and the school staff in raising

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student academic achievement and in building the partnerships that will enable students to meet the State’s academic standards. Pea Ridge Schools shall convene an annual meeting, or several meetings at varying times if necessary to adequately reach parents of participating students, to inform parents of the school’s participation in Title I, its requirements regarding parental involvement, and the parents right to be involved in the education of their child. Pea Ridge Schools shall, at least annually, involve parents in reviewing the school’s Title I program and parental involvement policy in order to help ensure their continued improvement. This policy shall be part of the school’s Title I plan and shall be distributed to parents of the district’s students and provided, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand. Notes: If your school receives Title I assistance, NCLB requires you to have a school policy covering parental involvement for the parents of students served under the program. Because your school is required to “develop jointly with, agree on with, and distribute to parents of participating children a written parent involvement policy,” this model policy is designed to be a starting point to be used in the development of your final policy. The NCLB Act requires the basics of the introduction and the last four paragraphs as well as items-#1 – 6 and #10. Items #7 – 9 are proposed in the act, but not mandatory. Act 603 of 2003 along with several subsequent amendments (A.C.A. §§ 6-15-, 1702, 1703, and 1704) requires each district to develop a parental involvement plan (rather than a policy) in collaboration with parents. The law is very detailed, and full of “shalls” going far beyond the requirements of this policy required by NCLB. Be sure to have the law handy when working out the details of your district’s parental involvement plan. The “compact” is also required to be developed jointly with parents of the children served under Title I. The US DOE has correctly opined that this policy (and policy 6.11) are of no use unless accompanied by an implementation plan. Consequently, the ADE’s ACSIP office requires schools to have such a plan. Act 1423 of 2013 requires each school to place a parent-friendly summary of the parent involvement plan as a supplement to the student handbook. The parent has to sign a receipt acknowledging receipt of the summary and return the signed form to the school where the student is enrolled. Legal References:

20 U.S.C. § 6318 (b)(1) (NCBL Act of 2001, Section 1118) 20 U.S.C. § 6318 (c)(1),(2),(3),(4) (NCBL Act of 2001, Section 1118) 20 U.S.C. § 6318 (d) (NCBL Act of 2001, Section 1118) 20 U.S.C. § 6318 (e)(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(8),(9),(10),(11),(13),(14) (NCBL Act of 2001, Section 1118)

Date Adopted: June 10, 2010 Last Revised: July 18, 2013 24