| Roane County Schools |
| Bylaws & Policies |
2111 - PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN THE SCHOOL PROGRAM
The Roane County Board of Education believes that parent involvement at early childhood, middle and adolescent levels is absolutely fundamental to a healthy system of public education. Strong partnerships between homes and schools are needed if quality education is to be provided to all children. Parents and teachers, by fostering a sense of cooperative responsibility, can reinforce each other’s efforts. Parents, as their children’s first and most enduring teachers, can complement their children’s school learning and behavior by serving as collaborators in the educational process. The resulting home-school partnerships can have positive effects on parent, teacher and student attitudes, classroom instruction, and on student achievement.
The County Board shall adopt a policy that provides for parent involvement in the schools. The County policy shall include but not be limited to, the following components:
| A. | develop a mission statement which philosophically defines the County Board’s beliefs regarding parent involvement in the schools | |
| B. | determine goals of a parent involvement program that may include: |
| 1. | increased awareness and understanding of school/County goals | ||
| 2. | increased support for schools | ||
| 3. | increased ownership in the importance of educating children | ||
| 4. | improved student achievement | ||
| 5. | improved staff morale | ||
| 6. | improved school-home-community relations and | ||
| 7. | improved sense of cooperative responsibility for the success of the educational program |
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In establishing goals, each County should recognize its responsibility to form partnerships with all families including parents who work outside the home, divorced parents with or without custody, and families of minority race and language. Also, each County should utilize the information from a needs assessment to establish appropriate goals. |
| C. | provide training for teachers, parents and administrators - - in cooperation with State and local agencies - - that would help realize the goals set forth in the County policy | |
| D. | provide an ongoing, two-way communication system that includes feedback mechanisms for parents and school staff | |
| E. | develop a plan to implement home-school partnerships in each school |
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Parents can be communicators, learners, teachers, advocates/advisors/decision-makers, and supporters. Therefore, the plan could include: |
| 1. | training for parents and school personnel to develop skills in becoming partners in education | ||
| 2. | school activities to involve parents | ||
| 3. | activities for parents to assist their children at home and | ||
| 4. | ideas for parents to become active decision-makers in the educational process |
| F. | conduct yearly an evaluation process to identify/assess the County’s strengths, weaknesses and areas of improvement, revising the County policy, if necessary |
Each County policy regarding parent involvement shall be drafted by a committee consisting of, but not limited to, classroom teachers, parents of school-age children, principals and other school personnel. The committee shall be a representative of a variety of schools and shall include representation from early, middle and adolescent levels.
The Parental Involvement Policy drafted by the committee and approved by the Board follows:
| A. | Goals for fostering parent involvement are: |
| 1. | increasing awareness and understanding of National, State, county and school goals | ||
| 2. | increasing involvement in education decision making | ||
| 3. | increasing support for schools implementing effective parent involvement programs | ||
| 4. | increasing ownership in the importance of educating children | ||
| 5. | improving student achievement | ||
| 6. | improving staff morale | ||
| 7. | improving school-home-community relations | ||
| 8. | improving the sense of cooperative responsibility for the success of the educational program |
| B. | Activities to accomplish the parent involvement goals are: |
| 1. | Each school will convene an annual meeting to inform parents of the school's participation in various educational programs, and inform them of their right to be involved. | ||
| 2. | Offer a flexible number of meetings for the purpose of seeking parent involvement in development educational programs. | ||
| 3. | Parents will be involved in the planning, review, and improvement of existing programs to better educate the students of Roane County Schools. | ||
| 4. | Parents will be provided: |
| a. | timely information about all programs conducted at their child's school | |||
| b. | school performance profiles | |||
| c. | descriptions and explanations of the curriculum in use at the school, and forms of assessment used to measure student progress, as well as proficiency levels, which students are expected to meet | |||
| d. | opportunities to participate at regular meetings to formulate suggestions, share experiences, and participate as appropriate in decisions relating to the education of their children | |||
| e. | timely responses to suggestions that have been offered by parents in meetings as described above | |||
| f. | assistance in such areas as: understanding the National, State and local education goals, State and local assessments, and how to monitor a child's educational program |
| 5. | Roane County Schools shall conduct other activities as appropriate and feasible to assist parent involvement. |
WV Board of Education Policy 2200