This School District Parent Engagement Plan contains specific details regarding the implementation of Board of Education Parent/Family Involvement Policy 4.502.

The Title I Program for the Kingsport City Schools is school site based. Substantial control of Title I resources allocated to the schools resides with the school principal working with teachers and parents as described below. The Board of Education approves the Title I Program each year at an open board meeting. The central administration provides technical assistance and other support necessary to assist schools in the planning and implementation of an effective parent engagement plan. Additionally, the district supports schools in the areas of budgeting and oversight concerning compliance with state and federal regulations.

Parent input into the planning, design and implementation of the Title I Program will be meaningful, organized, systematic, ongoing, informed and timely. The activities parents are involved in will be of sufficient size, scope, and quality to give reasonable promise toward the goal of academic improvement. To ensure that parents of participating children have adequate opportunity to participate, the system shall provide for the following:

District Strategic Activities

1. The Family Engagement Advisory Council will review and revise if appropriate, the Title I District Parent Engagement Plan, using input from the family engagement plans from the individual schools. Parents will be represented on each school’s Family Engagement Team. 

2. The Family Engagement Team for each school will offer substantial technical assistance, support, and coordination to schools in developing and implementing effective parent involvement activities.

3. The Superintendent as well as Board of Education members will support the parent involvement initiative.

4. The Staff Development Department will provide books and other materials on Parent Engagement to schools. Parents will be involved in professional development activities where appropriate.

5. The district will build parent and school capacity for strong parent engagement by visiting, discussing, and training school advisory teams, school/parent liaisons, Title I Family Liaisons, parent groups, and school faculty groups in best practices for parent involvement.

6. The district will coordinate its parent involvement activities with other agencies. We are collaborating with UETHDA - Head Start under the Voluntary Pre- K TN grant program. We intend to jointly engage in parent involvement activities. Additionally, we have These classes coordinate Pre-K parent involvement activities with the regular education K-5 program parent involvement activities.

7. The results of the annual evaluations and other assessment and input data such as parent surveys will be considered in any revisions to the district family engagement plan.

8. Barriers to the engagement of parents who are economically disadvantaged, disabled, limited English proficient, literacy limited, or are from minority backgrounds will be identified and discussed by the Title I Family Liaisons at each school, and improved when possible.

9. Activities and programs at the schools will be planned and implemented with meaningful consultation from parents.

10. The district will involve parents and teachers in designing improvement strategies leading to better student performance in the core academic areas. These strategies will include processes to improve homework completion, improve school attendance, and improve school discipline.

11. The district will establish written policies and/or procedures which allow parents to learn about the course of study for their children and have access to all learning materials.

School Strategic Activities

1. Each Title I school within the district will jointly develop with parents a written parent engagement plan which establishes the school's expectations for parent engagement.

2. Each school plan will describe how parents have been involved in an organized, ongoing, and timely way in the planning and review of the parent engagement plan.

3. Each school plan will address home-school communications describing how parents will be provided timely information about parent engagement programs.

4. Each school plan will describe how the school provides parents with a description and explanation of the curriculum, forms of academic assessment, and proficiency levels students are expected to meet.

5. Each school plan will describe how parents are offered opportunities for regular meetings, if requested, to offer input and be involved in decisions relating to the education of their children.

6. Each school plan will describe how the school, with the involvement of parents, has developed a School- Parent Compact.

7. Each school will distribute the written school level Parent Engagement Plan and to parents and the local community. The distribution should be in an understandable and uniform format, and to the extent practicable, provided in a language the parents can understand.

8. Each school shall periodically update and redistribute the school level plan.

9. Each school shall provide for parent comments not in agreement with the plan to be submitted to the School District.

10. Each school will annually assess through consultation with parents the effectiveness of the parental engagement plan/program and determine what action, if any, needs to be taken to increase the effectiveness of the parent engagement plan.

11. Each school shall convene an annual meeting to which all parents are invited, and during this meeting, will explain the:

1. Title I program
2. Schools eligibility for and its inclusion as a school-wide program
3. Title I Parental Involvement Requirements 
4. Activities sponsored under Title I
5. Curriculum available under Title I
6. Each school will convene meetings (annual and regular) at varying times and take reasonable actions to support parental attendance.

12. Each school committee will keep minutes of each meeting or agenda’s for large meetings and these will remain on file for a period of five years.

13. Each school will have a parent engagement advisory team/committee.

14. Each school team/committee will have parents and school staff as members.

15. Parents on these committees will have input into the planning, design, and implementation of the school Title I Program.

16. Each school team will forward the goal of Title I; that goal being the substantial progress of students toward improving academic performance.

17. Each school will develop with parents a School-parent compact:

1. The compact will outline how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improving student academic achievement and how the school and parents will develop a partnership to help children achieve the State’s academic standards.
2. The compact will describe how parents will be responsible for supporting their child’s learning.
3. The compact will address the importance of ongoing communication between teachers and parents. The goal of this compact is to build a school-parent partnership to assist students to meet high standards.

18. Each school will provide for regular teacher-parent conferencing. At least one parent conference opportunity will be offered during each school year to discuss the child’s progress and placement.

19. Each school will report student progress to parents. Examples are listed below:

1. Report Cards are to be sent home every nine weeks.
2. Mid-term reports are to be sent home every four and one-half weeks.
3. Results of TCAP testing for each student will be sent home each year where possible.
4. The annual Tennessee State Report Card for each school is available online and at the each school site. 
5. For students who experience difficulty mastering any of the required standards in the core academic areas of reading and math (students considered at risk of not scoring at the proficient and advanced levels on TCAP Tests), parents will be notified by the school and effective, timely, additional assistance will be provided for the student by the school.

20. Each school will provide assistance to parents in understanding program information such topics as:

1. State academic content standards.
2. State student academic achievement standards.
3. State and local academic assessments including alternate assessments 
4. How to monitor a child's progress.
5. How to collaborate with educators to improve the achievement of their children.
6. The requirements of parent engagement.

21. Each school will provide materials and training to help parents work with their children to improve their achievement.

22. Each school, with the assistance of parents, will educate teachers, student services personnel, principals, and other staff in the value and utility of parent contributions.

23. Each school will, to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate parental involvement activities with other programs such as Head Start to help parents more fully participate in the education of their children.

24. Each school will provide information to parents in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parent can understand.

25. Each school will provide other reasonable support for parent engagement activities as parents may request.

26. Each school will provide full opportunities for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, disabilities and migrant in school parent engagement activities wherever practicable.