Board Policy

BP 6020

Instruction

Parent Involvement

The Board of Education recognizes that parents/guardians are their children's first and most influential teachers and that continued parental involvement in the education of children contributes greatly to student achievement and a positive school environment.

Parents/guardians can directly affect academic success by reinforcing their children's motivation and commitment to education. The district shall include parent involvement strategies as a component of instructional planning.

Teachers and parents/guardians can better understand and meet student needs if they work together. All of our schools have a duty to communicate frequently with the home and to help parents/guardians develop skills and family management techniques which support classroom learning. Administrators and teachers should keep parents/guardians well informed about school expectations and tell them when and how they can assist their children in support of classroom learning activities. The Board encourages staff training in effective communication with the home.

The Board encourages parents/guardians to serve as volunteers in the schools and to attend student performances and school meetings.

In order to engage parents/guardians positively in their children's education, the Superintendent or designee shall ensure that staff members at each school:

1. Help parents/guardians develop parenting skills and provide home environments that support their children's academic efforts and their development as responsible members of society

2. Inform parents/guardians that they can directly affect the success of their children's learning and provide them techniques and strategies that they may use to improve their children's academic success and help their children in learning at home

(cf. 6154 - Homework/Make-Up Work)

3. Initiate consistent and effective two-way communication between the home and school so that parents/guardians may know when and how to help their children in support of classroom learning activities

(cf. 5124 - Communication with Parents/Guardians)

(cf. 5145.6 - Parental Notifications)

4. Receive training that fosters effective and culturally sensitive communication with the home, including training on how to communicate with non-English speakers and how to give parents/guardians opportunities to assist in the instructional process both at school and at home

(cf. 4131 - Staff Development)

(cf. 4231 - Staff Development)

(cf. 4331 - Staff Development)

5. Encourage parents/guardians to serve as volunteers in the schools, attend student performances and school meetings, and participate in site councils, advisory councils and other activities in which they may undertake governance, advisory and advocacy roles

(cf. 0420 - School Plans/Site Councils)

(cf. 0420.1 - School-Based Program Coordination)

(cf. 0420.2 - School Improvement Program)

(cf. 0420.3 - School-Based Pupil Motivation and Maintenance Program)

(cf. 0420.5 - School-Based Decision Making)

(cf. 1220 - Citizen Advisory Committees)

(cf. 1240 - Volunteer Assistance)

(cf. 1250 - Visitors/Outsiders)

(cf. 6171 - Title I Programs)

School plans shall delineate specific measures that shall be taken to increase parental involvement with their children's education, including measures designed to involve parents/guardians with cultural, language or other barriers which may inhibit such participation.

Legal Reference:

EDUCATION CODE

11500-11506 Programs to encourage parental involvement

LABOR CODE

230.8 Time off to visit child's school

Management Resources:

CDE PROGRAM ADVISORIES

0928.90 Guidelines for the development of policies on parent involvement, SPB: 90/91-3

SBE POLICIES

Parent Involvement in the Education of Their Children, 1994

Policy PALOS VERDES PENINSULA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

adopted: March 8, 2001 Palos Verdes Estates, California