9250 - PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION

The Board of Education believes that the education of children is a joint responsibility, one it shares with the parents of the school community. To ensure that the best interests of the child are served in this process, a strong program of communication between home and school must be maintained. Current research indicates that a home-school partnership and greater involvement on the part of parents/guardians in the education of their children generally results in higher achievement scores, improved student behavior, and reduced absenteeism.

The Board feels that it is the parents who have the ultimate responsibility for their children’s in-school behavior, including the behavior of students who have reached the legal age of majority, but are still for all practical purposes, under parental authority. During school hours the Board through its designated administrators acts in loco parentis or in place of the parents.

The Board directs the administration to develop necessary regulations to ensure that this policy is followed and the parent/guardian involvement is encouraged by:

1. parent-teacher conferences to permit two-way communication between home and school;

2. open houses in District schools to provide parents with the opportunity to see the school facilities, meet the faculty and sample the program on a first hand basis. Each school in the District shall hold an open house at least annually;

3. meetings of parents and staff members to explain and discuss matters of general interest with regard to child-school, child-home, or child-school-home relationships;

4. meetings of staff members and groups of parents of those students having special abilities, disabilities, needs or problems;

5. consistent school-home communications;

6. provision of opportunities for parent volunteerism;

7. offering of suggestions to parents of ways to assist and encourage their children to do their best.

For the benefit of children, the Board believes that parents have a responsibility to encourage their child’s career in school by:

1. supporting the schools in requiring that the children observe all school rules and regulations, and by accepting their own responsibility for children’s willful in-school behavior;

2. sending children to school with proper attention to their health, personal cleanliness and dress;

3. maintaining an active interest in the students’ daily work and making it possible for the student to complete assigned homework through providing a quiet place and suitable conditions for study;

4. reading all communications from the school, and signing and returning them promptly when required;

5. cooperating with the school in attending conferences set up for the exchange of information on the child’s progress in school.