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Parental Involvement Plan

Dothan City Schools (DCS) believes that positive parental involvement is essential to student achievement, and thus encourages such involvement in school educational planning and operations.

DISTRICT LEVEL PLAN

Consistent with the parent involvement goals of Title I, Part A of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Dothan City Schools will:

  • develop and implement programs, activities and procedures that encourage and support the participation of parents of students eligible for Title I services in all aspects of their child's education.
  • ensure that all of its schools including those receiving Title I, Part A funds develop and implement school level parental involvement policies.
  • develop and implement programs, activities and procedures that encourage and support the participation of parents of students who are not eligible for Title I services in all aspects of their child's education.

The ultimate goal of these programs, activities and procedures is to ensure that all families within the district are provided the same opportunities for involvement in their child's education.

The term parents refer to a natural parent, legal guardian or other person standing in loco parentis (such as a grandparent or stepparent with whom the child lives, or a person who is legally responsible for the child's welfare).

District and school level parental involvement programs, activities and procedures will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities and parents of migratory children.

SIX TYPES OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT

Parental involvement may take place during school hours that are authorized by the school principal and/or designee. However, DCS encourages parental involvement at home (e.g., planned home reading time, informal learning activities, and/or homework contracts between parents and children).

The six types of involvement are:

  • Parenting: The first way parents can support their children’s education is by providing a healthy home environment. As an educator, you can help parents by offering parenting workshops, helping their families find needed support programs and government assistance programs, and encouraging them to model pro-education behavior, such as reading to and in front of their children.
  • Communicating: Design effective forms of school-to-home and home-to-school communications about school programs and children's progress.
  • Volunteering: Recruit and organize parent help and support.
  • Learning at Home: Provide information and ideas to families about how to help students at home with homework and other curriculum-related activities, decisions and planning.
  • Decision-Making: Include parents in school decisions, develop parent leaders and representatives.
  • Collaborating with Community: Identify and integrate resources and services from the community to strengthen school programs, family practices and student learning and development.

COMMUNICATION TO PARENTS

The goal of all communications to parents is to ensure that information related to school and parent-related programs, meetings and other activities is sent to the parents of students, including those participating in Title I programs, in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats, upon request, and to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.

The Dothan City Schools’ District Wide Parental Involvement Policy will be made available to all families in written form in each school's main office as well as on the district website.

 

COORDINATION OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT STRATEGIES

1. COMMUNITY AGENCIES AND PROGRAMS

Dothan City Schools will coordinate and integrate strategies adopted in connection with existing community partners. Dothan City Schools shall demonstrate its compliance with this project by participating both in resource and information sharing as well as in joint initiatives.

PARENT REPRESENTATION

1.  BUILDING PLANNING TEAMS

Every school in the district is required to have a Building Planning Team. Parent representatives, (a minimum of two (2), per grade, for grades K-5 and a minimum of three (3), per grade, for grades 6-12), will make up the school’s Building Planning Team. Parent representatives shall be responsible for communicating with their constituencies and for representing parent opinion on the teams.

2.  PARENT TEACHER ORGANIZATIONS

Each school will have a parent organization that centers its work on the six types of parent involvement (parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with community) that is connected to the work of the Building Planning Team. Principals will work collaboratively with the Parent Involvement Specialist of their school to develop and sustain a parent organization in their school.

This policy in no way eliminates or diminishes an individual parent's right to make his or her feelings known at any level in the district on any topic of concern, nor does it prevent the district from involving individual parents in other appropriate situations.

DISTRICT PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT PLAN

1.  DEVELOPMENT

Dothan City Schools will undertake the following actions to ensure parent involvement in the development of this district wide parental involvement plan:

  1. These key results, goals and initiatives will be presented to each school building's Building Planning Team (BPT).
  2. Recommendations from each BPT will be compiled and presented to building administrators and parent organizations within each school building.
  3. The final draft plan, incorporating appropriate recommendations, will then be presented at the district-wide meeting for Parental Involvement Specialist.

2.  ANNUAL EVALUATION

The Dothan City Schools’ Parental Involvement Specialist will conduct, with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parental involvement plan in improving the academic quality of schools. This annual evaluation will include the identification of barriers to greater participation by parents in activities under this policy, and the revision of parent involvement policies necessary for more effective involvement.

SCHOOL LEVEL PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT PLANS

As appropriate to meet individual local needs, the superintendent will assign a school district parent involvement staff person to assist in the development and communication of parent involvement programs and policies throughout the district. The Dothan City Schools’ Parental Involvement Specialist will ensure that all schools are provided technical assistance and all other support necessary to assist them in planning and implementing effective parental involvement programs and activities that improve student achievement and school performance in conjunction with the six types of parent involvement outlined earlier in this policy.

All school level parental involvement plans shall include specifics as to how all school- based staff will implement the six types of parental involvement in order to improve student performance.

Updated May 2024

First page of the PDF file: DCSParentalInvolvementPlan23-24