1900 Parent and Family Engagement

The Board of Education believes that positive parent and family engagement is essential to student achievement and thus encourages such involvement in school educational planning and operations. Parent and family engagement may take place either in the classroom or during extra-curricular activities. However, the Board also encourages parent and family engagement at home (e.g., planned home reading time, informal learning activities, and/or homework “contracts” between parents, family members and children). The Board directs the Superintendent of Schools to develop a home-school communications program to encourage all forms of parent and family engagement.

Title I Parent and Family Engagement – District Level Policy

This policy is aligned with the parent and family engagement goals of Title I, Part A of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) that encourage and support the participation of parents and family members of students eligible for Title I services in all aspects of their child’s education. The Board will also ensure that all its schools receiving Title I, Part A funds develop and implement school level parent and family engagement procedures, as further required by federal law.

For purposes of this policy, parent and family engagement refers to the participation of parents in regular, two-way, meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities.

At a minimum, parent and family engagement programs, activities, and procedures at both the district and individual school level must ensure that parents and family members:

• Play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning.
• Are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s education at school; and
• 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.

The federal definition of the term “parents” refers 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 Title I parent and family engagement programs, activities and procedures will provide for the informed participation of parents and family members including those whose language is other than English, parents and family members with disabilities, and parents and family members of migratory children.

As further required by federal law, parents and family members of students eligible for Title I services will be provided an opportunity to participate in the development of the District’s Title I, schoolwide/School Improvement Team (SIT) plan, and to submit comments regarding any aspect of the plan that is not satisfactory to them.

Parents and family members also will participate in the process for developing a comprehensive or targeted “School Comprehensive Educational Plan (SCEP)” when the school their child attends is identified by the State as needing improvement. 

Parent and family member participation in development of District wide Title I plan

The Board, along with its Superintendent of Schools and other appropriate District staff will undertake the following actions to ensure parent and family member engagement in the development of the Districtwide Title I plan:

1. Flexible meeting times: Meetings will be held before- and after-school, and during the evening hours.
2. Central location: Meetings will be held at the Felicio Administration Building, which is centrally located and highly accessible in the Brentwood School District; and
3. Surveying parents: Parents will be surveyed by ParentSquare, at), district-wide events (i.e. Community Forums, parent workshops, etc.) and/or e-mail. All correspondence will be in both English and Spanish.

Development of school level parent and family engagement approaches

The Superintendent of Schools will ensure that all district schools receiving federal financial assistance under Title I, Part A are provided coordination, technical assistance and all other support necessary to assist them in planning and implementing effective parent and family engagement programs and activities that improve student achievement and school performance. As appropriate to meet individual local needs, the Superintendent will:

Each spring, Title IA schoolwide plan/School Improvement Team (SIT) plan meetings will be held to monitor progress, including but not limited to a review of parent and family engagement plan effectiveness. 

1. The Coordinator of Funded Programs, Compliance and Chief Information Officer will coordinate the reviews.
2. A bilingual translator will be available at this meeting, if needed/requested; and
3. Notification of these meetings will be sent to parents and community residents. through ParentSquare. All correspondence will be in both English and Spanish.

 

Building capacity for parent and family engagement

To build parent capacity for strong parent and family engagement, the district and its Title I, Part A schools will, at a minimum:

1. Assist parents in understanding such topics as the state’s challenging academic standards, state and local academic assessments, Title I, Part A requirements, how to monitor their child’s progress and how to work with educators to improve the achievement of their child. To achieve this objective the district and its Title I schools will hold:

1. District-wide workshops (focusing on ELA and math skills and test preparation, parenting skills, AIS services);
2. Building-level formal parent/teacher/administrator conferences.
3. Building-level informal parent/teacher/administrator “meet and greet” conferences.
4. Building-based parent/student orientations; and
5. PTA sponsored workshops with guest speakers.

1. Provide materials and training to help parents work to improve their child’s academic achievement such as literacy training and using technology (including education about the potential harms of social media and extended screen time). To achieve this objective, the district and its Title I schools will provide and explore such activities as:

1. Homework/skills workshops for parents and students.
2. Literacy programs in conjunction with the Brentwood Public Library.
3. Creating a District-wide Parent Resource Center to enable parents to assist their children academically, socially and emotionally, facilitated and managed through the Office of Funded Programs.
4. Curriculum-based articles to parents in the Superintendent’s Newsletter.
5. School/community partnerships (i.e., Adelante, Pronto, Youth Enrichment Services (YES), Economic Opportunity Council (EOC), etc.)
6. Educational resources on the District’s Web site (bufsd.org) for parents and children.
7. Opportunities for parents to contact their children’s teachers via e-mail and/or through ParentSquare.
8. Opportunities for teachers to create Websites, linked to the District’s Web site, for parents and children to access homework and other supplemental educational resources; and
9. Information regarding schools in need of improvement, supplemental educational services, public school choice, and other opportunities to promote student achievement on the District’s Website.

1. Educate its teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals and other school leaders, and other staff, with the assistance of parents, in understanding the value and utility of a parent’s contributions and on how to:

1. Reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners;
2. Implement and coordinate parent programs; and
3. Build ties between parents and the schools.

To achieve this objective, the district and its Title I schools will:

• Provide interactive workshops to parents and staff that provide hands-on training.
• Provide activities that celebrate student’s success and events that bring parents, students and staff together for social and community-based programs.

1. Ensure that information related to school and parent-related programs, meetings and other activities is sent to the parents of children 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.

Coordination of parent and family engagement strategies

 

The district will coordinate and integrate strategies adopted to comply with Title I, Part A parent and family engagement requirements with parent and family engagement strategies adopted in connection with other Federal, State, and local programs, including public preschool programs. It will do this by:

• The Superintendent will appoint the Coordinator of Funded Programs, Compliance and Chief Information Officer, and districtwide DASA Coordinator to coordinate and monitor the districts parent and family engagement programs.

Review of district wide parent and family engagement policy

The Board, along with its Superintendent of Schools and other appropriate staff will 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 Title I schools, including the identification of barriers to greater participation by parents in activities under this policy, and the revision of parent and family engagement policies necessary for more effective involvement. To facilitate this review, the district will conduct the following activities:

1. The Coordinator of Funded Programs, Compliance and Chief Information Officer will coordinate the review;
2. A bilingual translator will be available at this meeting; and
3. Notification of this meeting will be sent to parents and community residents both in the mail and by telephone (i.e., ParentSquare). All correspondence will be in both English and Spanish.

Cross-ref: 4010, Equivalence in Instruction

 

Ref: 20 USC §§6318(a) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

8 NYCRR §§100.3(b) (3); 100.4(f); 100.5(d) (4); 149.3(16)

Approved by the Board of Education: 12/13/07

Reviewed and approved by the Board of Education: 06/18/09

Approved by the Board of Education (Annual review): 07/29/10

Approved by the Board of Education: 06/13/19

Reviewed and approved by the Board of Education: 06/12/25

Download the Parent and Family Engagement PDF