2023-2024 Glen Forest Elementary School Title I Parent & Family Engagement Policy & Compact

Purpose of this Policy and Compact

Efforts will be made to clearly articulate the school’s intentions to engage with and involve parents/caregivers in the educational process.

Glen Forest Elementary is a Title I school within Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) and utilizes the Title I grant to improve student achievement and help all students meet the objectives of the FCPS Program of Studies and the Virginia Standards of Learning via synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities. A partnership with families is essential to meeting this goal.

Under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, schools that receive Title I funds are expected to collaborate with families to develop and maintain a parent and family engagement policy that describes the school’s approach to involve families in students’ learning and includes a compact expressing the partnerships among staff, caregivers, and students to reach high academic goals for every student.

Glen Forest Elementary jointly developed this policy and compact with members of the school community and adopted it for the 2023-2024 school year. Several of the provisions specifically address state or federal expectations for the policy and compact.

This policy and compact is distributed to all caregivers in a language that families can understand. Caregivers have opportunities to provide comments and feedback on the policy and compact through Parent Liaison communications (verbal & written), through the GFES website, and replies to eNotify and News You Choose emails. Comments are submitted with the school’s policy and compact to FCPS central offices and the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). This policy and compact are made available to the broader school community through the school website.

Building Capacity for Engagement

Efforts will be made to ensure parents/caregivers are actively involved in the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the school’s Title I program, including the following:

• Provide family members a voice in decision-making on committees, such as SIIP and PTO virtual meetings.
• Engage caregiver input when developing the School Improvement and Innovation Plan (SIIP), Comprehensive Needs Assessment, the Title I Parent and Family Engagement Policy and Compact and plans for use of Title I family engagement funding.
• Seek feedback from families on programs within the SIIP, offer multiple methods for caregivers to submit comments about programs they may not find satisfactory, and submit any such comments with SIIP to FCPS central offices.
• Encourage families to take part in the annual evaluation of the division-level Title I parent and family engagement policy in order to identify:
  • Barriers to greater family participation,
  • Ways to help family members be better able to assist in student learning
  • Strategies to support successful school and family interactions.

Effective Communication with Parents

Efforts will be made to ensure parents/caregivers receive meaningful communication in a timely manner, including the following:

• Use multiple methods of communication to families such as school marquee, school webpage, email messages such as eNotify and NewsYouChoose, telephone calls by parent liaisons, monthly calendar of school events and school Twitter and Facebook. Multiple languages used in all methods as possible.
• Encourage all caregivers to attend an annual meeting on Back to School Night and PTO meetings through the school year to share information about Title I services, explain Title I grant requirements, and inform families of their right to be involved in the school
• Share school and student performance data with families in ways that seek their ideas about how to improve performance toward Virginia’s challenging academic standards, such as Back to School Night, grade-level curriculum nights, monthly parent connection meetings, parent-teacher conferences, parent workshops, PTO monthly meetings and principal’s email. 
• Provide family workshops throughout the year for families to better understand the school’s goals for students and find ways to improve student learning.
• Maintain resources for caregivers to review student assignments and ongoing communication about student work, such as monthly parent connection meetings, parent-teacher conferences, educational supports for parents, and principal bi-monthly newsletters. 
• Provide ongoing feedback on student progress through quarterly progress reports that show specific areas of proficiency and areas for continued growth.
• Hold parent-teacher conferences for all students at least annually in the fall and more often, as needed. (Virtual Meetings or In School)

Shared Responsibilities for High Academic Achievement

Efforts will be made to ensure parents/caregivers receive materials, training, and benefits from school partnerships with social and academic services, community-based organizations, and businesses, including the following:

• Hold workshops connecting caregivers to tools and resources, such as Advanced Academic Services, My On, Imagine Learning, online math program, Schoology, ParentVue, etc.
• Offer regular opportunities for families to learn directly from school staff about the school’s academic, behavioral, and social programming through parent-teacher conferences, monthly parent connection meetings and family workshops. 
• Encourage participation in family learning events where caregivers learn strategies to support their child’s learning at home and have a chance to practice those strategies with their child, such as on how to use various software programs at home. 
• Provide ongoing access to resources in the school, such as access to parent liaisons, social worker, and counselors, etc. 
• Provide social/emotional support to students by staff mentors.
• Provide opportunities to access supplies donated by others, such as Capitol Area Food Bank, Hampton Inn Alexandria/Pentagon South, KMPG, Lions Club and Rotary Club. 
• Leverage partnerships with local businesses and organizations to enhance school programs and events, such as Hampton Inn Alexandra/Pentagon South, KMPG, Lions Club and Rotary Club.
• Support parents in accessing county and community resources, such as the Fairfax County Departments of Health, Family Services, and Housing, and summer enrichment camps and programs, including scholarship opportunities.
• Offer outreach and training for targeted families, such as Family Literacy and HIPPY. 

Welcoming All Families

Efforts will be made to ensure that all parents/caregivers are welcomed and provided opportunities to actively engage within the school, including the following:

• Create a welcoming atmosphere at the school with a warm & friendly office staff who greet all visitors with a smile and eye contact, bilingual staff to assist in Main Office and with a customer-first policy.
• Provide interpretation services for parent-teacher conferences, workshops, and meetings.
• Translate or provide interpretation of all school documents and communication to make them accessible in the caregiver’s preferred correspondence language.
• Support two-way communication between families and staff through assistance of a parent liaison for parent-teacher conferences, curriculum nights, and other school sponsored family events.
• Expand access for family participation in informational meetings and learning sessions through multi-level communication platforms (verbal and written) by our parent liaisons in our 3 major languages.

Compact Provisions

School staff, parents/caregivers, and students must work together to ensure a student success.

The staff will:

Provide a high-quality curriculum, synchronous and asynchronous instruction that enables students to meet challenging academic standard through the following actions:

• Teach all students according to the state’s challenging standards, using approved curriculum resources.
• Provide ongoing professional development and support to all teachers to ensure effective instructional practices are used in all classrooms and in Distance Learning
• Provide small and large group instruction.
• Provide differentiated instruction to meet all student needs.

Provide a supportive and effective learning environment for students through the following actions:

• Provide clear expectations for virtual student behavior and academic learning.
• Offer a variety of resources to help students with their learning.
• Teach and review regularly the school motto and then model for students.
• Teach, participate in, and model the Positivity Project character strengths weekly.
• Teach students how to be good digital citizens.

Provide assistance to caregivers in understanding the school’s program through the following actions:

• Hold an annual meeting to present information on the school’s Title I programs, state and division curriculum and assessments, and the school’s state and federal accountability status.
• Provide multiple virtual opportunities for caregivers to ask questions and give input into the Title I programs.
• Provide monthly virtual parent connection meetings.
• Provide and encourage participation in virtual family engagement events.

Build caregivers’ involvement in the school’s Title I program through the following actions:

• Include caregivers as members of the School Improvement and Innovation Planning (SIIP) Committee and as collaborators in developing the SIIP and plans for the use of Title I family engagement funds.
• Provide virtual parent workshops on topics suggested and/or needed by parents.
• Provide regularly scheduled virtual parent connection sessions on a variety of school and community topics to foster families to thrive online during Distance Learning.

The parents/caregivers will:

Demonstrate understanding that participation in my child’s education will help his or her achievement through the following actions:

• Participate in decisions related to school programs and my child’s education and share my questions or comments about the programs used during in my child’s school.
• Encourage and support my child’s learning.
• Participate in  grade level curriculum nights.
• Participate in  grade level presentations as my schedule allows.

The student will:

Share the responsibility to improve my academic learning to achieve the state’s challenging standard through the following’s actions:

• Get enough sleep every night.
• Come to school on time unless I am sick
• Follow the class expectations in school or in Distance Learning.
• Try my hardest and work with my classmates to complete learning tasks.
• Participate regularly during Distance Learning.
• Be a good digital citizen.
• Take full advantage of the education provided to me.
• Give my parents all notes and papers from my teachers.
• Be the best I can be.