Annual Title I Update

Annual Title I Update 2023-24

Please Share Your Thoughts!
Call: 360-618-6210

Karl Olson, [email protected]
Director, Categorical Programs

Arlington Public Schools is a Title I District
Eagle Creek Elementary and Kent Prairie Elementary both participate in the Title I Program. Title I, Part A is part of the Every Student Succeeds Act. Its goal is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on challenging state academic standards.

Our Title I schools qualify for federal grant money which we use for additional staffing, parent involvement, staff development, and extended school day opportunities to help us meet that goal. This update is intended to provide you with important information about this law and your child’s education.

Please contact the principal if you would like more information about Title I activities or parent participation at your child’s school.

District and School Report Card Information

Are you interested in knowing how your child’s school did on state assessments? How different groups of children performed compared to other schools? You can find out by going to washingtonstatereportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us. The Report Card contains information about test results as well as other statistics about the school. To find results for Arlington Public Schools, use the box for the School or District Name under the line reading I want to see data for a school or school district, type in the name of the school or district, and press go.

Citizen Complaints

If you believe that the law that applies to federal programs like Title I has been violated, you have the right to file a complaint. First contact your child’s school. If you can’t reach a solution, you can file a Citizen Complaint through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Information on how to do this is attached.

Right to Request Teacher and Paraeducator Qualifications
All parents and guardians have the right to request information regarding the professional qualifications of your child’s teacher(s) or instructional paraeducators. If you request this information about your child’s teacher, the district will provide you with the following:

1. Whether the teacher has met Washington teacher certification requirements for the grade level and subjects in which the teacher provides instruction;
2. Whether the teacher is teaching under an emergency or other provisional status for which Washington qualifications or certification has been waived;
3. The college major of the teacher and any graduate degree or certificate; and
4. Whether your child is receiving Title I services from paraprofessionals, and if so, whether those paraprofessionals meet state/federal requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
If you request this information about your child’s instructional paraeducator, the district can provide information about the paraeducator’s professional qualifications as required by ESSA.

If you would like to request this information, please contact Karl Olson, (360) 618-6210.

Parent Involvement Policy
TITLE I PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

The Board recognizes that parent and family engagement helps students participating in Title I programs achieve academic standards. To promote parent and family engagement, the Board adopts the following policy, which describes how the District will involve parents and family members of Title I students in developing and implementing the District’s Title I programs.

District-Wide Parent and Family Engagement
The District will do the following to promote parent and family engagement:

 

 

A. The District will involve parents and family members in jointly developing the District’s Title I plan. Each year the District will hold an annual meeting and invite families in all of its Title I schools to review the District Parent and Family Engagement Policy. Families will have the opportunity to submit feedback in writing as well as participate on a District committee to review parent input and make recommendations for revisions.

B. The District will provide the coordination, technical assistance, and other support necessary to assist and build the capacity of all participating schools within the District in the planning and implementing of effective parent and family involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance.

C. The District will conduct, with the meaningful involvement of parents and family members, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of this policy in improving the academic quality of all Title I schools. At that meeting, the following will be identified:

     1. Barriers to greater participation by parents in Title I activities;

     2. The needs of parents and family members to assist with the learning of their children, including engaging with school personnel and teachers; and

     3. Strategies to support successful school and family interactions.

The District will use the findings from the annual evaluation to design evidence-based strategies for more effective parental involvement and to revise this policy if necessary.

The District will facilitate removing barriers to parental involvement by doing the following: To the extent possible, Parent and Family Engagement events will be held in conjunction with other building events and childcare will be available at no cost if appropriate. Title I staff will be available to meet with parents at mutually convenient times during building conferences.

D. The District will involve parents of Title I students in decisions about how the Title I funds reserved for parent and family engagement are spent. The District must use Title I funds reserved for parent and family engagement for at least one of the reasons specified in 20 U.S.C. § 6318(a)(3)(D).

E. The District and each of the schools within the District providing Title I services will do the following to support a partnership among schools, parents, and the community to improve student academic achievement:

     1. Provide assistance to parents of Title I students, as appropriate, in understanding the following topics:

         a. Washington’s challenging academic standards;

         b. State and local academic assessments, including alternate assessments;

         c. The requirements of Title I;

         d. How to monitor their child’s progress; and

         e. How to work with educators to improve the achievement of their children.

     2. Provide materials and training to help parents work with their children to improve their children’s academic achievement, such as literacy training and using technology, as appropriate, to foster parental involvement. Each year, the Title I staff at the building will conduct a parent survey to identify the topics and/or activities that are of high interest to parents and will use the information gathered to design Parent and Family Engagement events. Parents will have the opportunity to meet with classroom and Title I staff during fall and spring conferences and/or may schedule a conference at a mutually convenient time.

     3. Educate teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals, and other school leaders, and other staff with the assistance of parents, in the value and utility of contributions of parents and how to do the following:

         a. Reach out, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners;

         b. Implement and coordinate parent programs; and

         c. Build ties between parents and the school.

     4. Coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies, to the extent feasible and appropriate, with similar strategies used under other programs, such as:

         a. Head Start;

         b. Even Start;

         c. Learning Assistance Program;

         d. Special Education; and

         e. State-operated preschool programs.

     5. Ensure that information related to the school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities, is sent to the parents of participating children. The information will be provided in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats upon request, and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.

Information regarding the Title I program will be available on the District website, building websites of Title I schools, in the District calendar and within a Title I brochure that will be distributed to all families of participating students. To the extent possible, this information will be made available in other languages.

 

School-Based Parent and Family Engagement Policies
Each school offering Title I services will have a separate parent and family engagement policy, which will be developed with parents and family members of Title I students. Parents and family members will receive notice of their school’s parent and family engagement policy in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.

Each school-based policy will describe how each school will do the following:

A. Convene an annual meeting at a convenient time, to which all parents of Title I students will be invited and encouraged to attend, to inform parents of their schools’ participation under Title I, to explain the requirements of Title I, and to explain the rights that parents have under Title I;

B. Offer a flexible number of meetings, such as meetings in the morning or evening;

C. Involve parents, in an organized, ongoing, and timely way in the planning, reviewing, and improving of Title I programs; and

D. Provide parents of Title I students the following:

    1. Timely information about Title I programs;

    2. A description and explanation of the curriculum in use at the school, the forms of academic assessment used to measure student progress, and the achievement levels of the challenging state academic standards; and

    3. If requested by parents, opportunities for regular meetings to formulate suggestions and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children, and respond to any suggestions as soon as practicably possible.

Each school-based policy will include a school-parent compact that outlines how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve state standards. The compact must do the following:

A. Describe the school’s responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables Title I students to meet Washington’s challenging academic standards and describe the ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting their children’s learning, volunteering in their child’s classroom, and participating, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their children, including the positive use of extracurricular time; and

B. Address the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis through the following:

    1. Annual parent-teacher conferences in elementary schools, during which the compact will be discussed as the compact relates to the individual child’s achievements;

    2. Frequent reports to parents on their children’s progress;

    3. Reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child’s class, and observation of classroom activities; and

    4. Ensuring regular two-way, meaningful communication between family members and school staff, and, to the extent practicable, in a language that family members can understand.

Adopted
November 26, 2007
Last Revised
May 29, 2018
Last Reviewed
May 29, 2018