FY19 Parent and Family Engagement Plan DeKalb County School District Level
School Year 2018-2019

Revision Date: July 26, 2018

In support of strengthening student academic achievement, DeKalb County School District receives Title I, Part A funds and therefore must jointly develop with, agree on with, and distribute to parents and family members of participating children a written parent and family engagement policy that contains information required by Section 1116(a) (2) of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The policy establishes the LEA’s expectations and objectives for meaningful parent and family engagement and describes how the LEA will implement a number of specific parent and family engagement activities, and itis incorporated into the LEA’s plan submitted to the Georgia Department of Education.

The DeKalb County School District agrees to implement the following requirements as outlined by Section 1116:

 Theschool district will put into operation programs, activities, and procedures forthe engagement of parents and familymembers in all of its schools with Title I, Part A programs. Theseprograms, activities, and procedures will be planned and operated with meaningful consultation with parents and family members of participating children.

 Consistent with Section 1116, the school district will work with its schools to ensure that the required school-level parent and family engagement policies meet the requirements of Section 1116(b) of the ESSA, and each include as a component a school-parent compact consistent with Section 1116(d) of the ESSA.

 In carrying out the Title I, Part A parent and family engagement requirements to the extent practicable, the school district and its schools will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, limited literacy, disabilities, of migratory children, who are economically disadvantaged, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background, including providing information and school reports required under Section 1111 of the ESSA in an understandable and uniform format including alternative formats upon request and, to the extent practicable, in a language parents understand.

 If the LEA plan for Title I, Part A, 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.

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 The school district will be governed by the following definition of parent and family engagement expects that its Title Ischools will carryout programs, activities, and procedures in accordance with this definition in Section 8101 of the ESSA:

Parent and family engagement means the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, including ensuring:

A. Parents play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning
B. Parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school
C. 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. Other activities are carried out, such as those described in ESEA

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THE DISTRICT WILL IMPLEMENT REQUIRED DEKALB PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT POLICY COMPONENTS

DEKALB COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT

VISION
Inspire our community of learners to achieve educational excellence.

MISSION
Ensure student success, leading to higher education, work, and life-long learning.

MOTTO
Inspire, Achieve and Excel. _____________________________________________________

Goal Area I: Student Success with Equity and Access Improve student’s mastery of academically rigorous learning standards

The DeKalb County School District will increase the percentage of students scoring at the Developing Learner level or above on the Georgia Milestones Literature End of Grade (EOG) Assessment and/or End of Course (EOC) Assessment.

The DeKalb County School District will increase the percentage of students scoring at the Developing Learner level or above on the Georgia Milestones Math End of Grade (EOG) Assessment and/or End of Course (EOC) Assessment.

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JOINTLY DEVELOPED

The __DeKalb County School District________ will take the following actions to involve parents in the joint development of its Parent and Family Engagement Plan and the process of school review and improvement under for ESSA:

Parents will be provided opportunities to be involved in the development and review of the District Parent Engagement Plan, CLIP and Title I School-Wide/Targeted Assistance Plan through:

-	District Parent and Community Stakeholder Input Meeting
-	School Title l Stakeholder (formerly called Pre-Planning) Meeting. -	Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) Meeting
-	Communication with parents via the website and various forms of media.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

The __DeKalb County School District________ will provide the following coordination, technical assistance, and other support necessary to assist and build capacity of all Title I, Part A schools in planning and implementing effective parent and family engagement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance, which may include meaningful consultation with employers, business leaders, and philanthropic organizations, or individuals with expertise in effectively engaging parents and family members in education:

DCSD will provide support and technical assistance to all its Title I schools in planning and implementing effective parental involvement practices inclusive of school Parent and Family Engagement Plan, school-parent compacts, and all Title I PFE through:

- Central Office Support for Parent and Family Engagement– (Title l Director, OFP Coordinators, District Parent Liaisons and Administrative Support).
- Six (6) District-Wide Parent Centers that support Parent and Family Engagement - Local Parent Centers as funded by schools---School Level Parent Liaisons.
- Title l Technical Support and Work Sessions.
- Title l Compliance and Instruction Principal’s Summit (Ed Camp) - Title I participation in Principal meetings to share Title l updates - Building School Staff Capacity for district and local schools

ANNUAL EVALUATION

The __DeKalb County School District________ will take the following actions to conduct, with the meaningful involvement of parents and family members, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of this parent and family engagement policy in improving the academic quality of its Title I, Part A schools. The evaluation will include identifying barriers to greater participation by parents in 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

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minority background). The evaluation will also include identifying the needs of parents and family members to assist with the learning of their children, including engaging with school personnel and teachers and strategies to support successful school and family interactions. The school district will use the findings of the evaluation about its parent and family engagement policy to design evidence-based strategies for more effective parental involvement, and to revise, if necessary, its parent and family engagement policies.

DCSD evaluation of the Title I Program will be conducted using multiple strategies that include but not limited to:
-	Feedback from parents from District-wide Survey.
-	Collection of parent input during Parent and Stakeholder Input; district and school-level meetings; feedback from parents from District-wide Survey.

RESERVATION OF FUNDS

The __DeKalb County School District________ will involve the parents and family members of children served in Title I, Part A schools in decisions about how the 1 percent of Title I, Part A funds reserved for parent and family engagement is spent and will ensure that not less than 90 percent of the 1 percent reserved goes directly to Title I schools.

DCSD will use Title I Reservation of Fund budget in multiple ways that include: -	Salaries
-	District Parent Facilitators

Supplies/ Resources
-	District-wide Parent Centers
-	District-wide Parent Workshops
-	Title I Continuous Improvement Principal’s Summit/Ed-Camps

Communication
-	Translation of Title I Parent Communications and Documents in top 10 languages
-	Translators for District Parent Meetings (CLIP, Parent and Family Engagement Policy)

Other
-	District-Wide Title I Parent Conference
-	Parent Facilitator’s Travel and Mileage Reimbursement

DCSD	Parents	will	be	given	opportunities	to	be	involved	and	provide	input (recommendations/suggestions for the use of Title I Reservation of Funds during:
-	Title l Parent and Family Engagement District Input Meetings/Trainings
-	Title I School-Level Parent and Family Engagement Community Meetings

COORDINATION OF SERVICES

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The __DeKalb County School District________ will coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies with parent and family engagement strategies, to the extent feasible and appropriate, with other relevant Federal, State, and local laws and programs that encourage and support parents in more fully participating in the education of their children by:

1. Providing support from the Office of Federal Programs (OFP).
2. Providing parents’ access to Parent Centers at the six regional centers and thirty-six school centers.
3. Extending late hours one day a week for Regional Centers to accommodate the needs of the community, parents and stakeholders.
4. Ensuring residential facilities (Homeless, foster care, and N&D) in the school’s attendance area are included in parent and family engagement correspondence and activities
5. Ensuring allocations and equitable services for participating private schools with eligible Title I students

BUILDING CAPACITY OF PARENTS

The __DeKalb County School District________ will, with the assistance of its Title Ischools, build parents’ capacity for strong parental involvement by providing materials and training on such topics as literacy training and using technology (including education about the harms of copyright piracy) to help parents work with their children to improve their children’s academic achievement. Assistance will also be provided to parents in understanding the following topics:

 The challenging State academic standards
 The State and local academic assessments including alternate assessments  The requirements of Title I, Part A
 How to monitor their child’s progress  How to work with educators

The workshops/events, classes, resources will be provided to support parents in helping their student’s academic success include but are not limited to the following:

1. Title l Parental Involvement Conferences (District and Regional). 2. Consolidated LEA Improvement Plan (CLIP) (Annually).
3. Title l Parent and Family Engagement Stake Input Meeting (Annually). 4. Parent workshops (e.g., Georgia Milestone, Infinite Campus, etc.)

BUILDING CAPACITY OF SCHOOL STAFF

The __DeKalb County School District________ will, with the assistance of its schools and parents, educate its teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals, and other school leaders, and other staff in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, implement and coordinate parent programs, and build ties between parents and schools by:

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District and/or schools will building capacity through meetings, workshops, trainings, webinars and resources that will be used to work with parents as equal partners through:
1. District meetings for school administrators, principals and/or designated staff. 2. School staff meetings and trainings.
3. Professional Learning for Title I funded staff.
4. Title I Compliance & Instruction Principal’s Trainings (Summit, Ed-Camp, Ins-services).

Thedistrict and schools will provideinformation related to school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities to parents in a format, to the extent practicable, and in a language that parents can understand.

BUILDING CAPACITY FOR INVOLVEMENT

Involving parents in the development of training for teachers, principals, and other educators to improve the effectiveness of that training
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
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 districtwide 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

ADOPTION

The DeKalb County School District Parent and Family Engagement Policy/Plan has been developed jointly and agreed on with parents of children participating in Title I, Part A programs, as evidenced by stakeholder feedback during the Title I Stakeholder Meeting, Comprehensive Needs Assessment Meeting and communications with parents via school/district websites and various forms of media.

This policy/plan was initially distributed for parents and stakeholder input June 28, 2018. It was revised with parent feedback information July 26, 2018. This policy/plan will be in effect for the period of August 2018-August 2019. DCSD will distribute, make this policy available, and/or providephysical or electronic access to all parents of participatingTitle I, Part A children on or before August 30, 2018.

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