GENERAL EXPECTATIONS FOR ALL SCHOOLS

The Knox County Board of Education understands the value and importance of, and encourages the
highest level of, engagement by parents and families at the school and the system level. The Knox County
School System (KCS) is governed by the statutory definition of parent and family involvement as cited in
the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Under that act, a school system is required to develop a parent
and family engagement policy, which is to be incorporated into the district’s plan, establishing KCS’
expectations and objectives for meaningful parent and family involvement. The plan is to describe how
KCS will:

1. Involve parents and family members in jointly developing the district’s plan and the development
   of support and improvement plans;
2. Provide the coordination, technical assistance, and other support necessary to assist and build the capacity of KCS schools in planning and implementing effective parent and family involvement
   activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance, which may include
   meaningful consultation with employers, business leaders, philanthropic organizations, or
   individuals with expertise in effectively engaging parents and family members in education;
3. Coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement strategies, to the extent feasible and
   appropriate, with other relevant federal, state and local laws and programs;
4. Conduct with the meaningful involvement of parents and family members, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parent and family engagement policy in improving the
   academic quality of KCS schools, including identifying:
   • Barriers to greater participation of parents, with particular attention to parents who are
     economically disadvantaged, disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited
     literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background;
   • The needs of parents and family members to assist with the learning of their children,
     including engaging with school personnel and teachers; and
   • Strategies to support successful school and family interactions;
5. Use the findings of such evaluation to design evidence-based strategies for more effective parental involvement, and to revise, if necessary, the parent and family engagement policies described in this section;
6. Involve parents in the activities of schools, which may include the establishment of a parent
   advisory board comprised of a sufficient number and representative group of parents or family
   members served by KCS to adequately meet the needs of the populations served for the purposes
   of developing, revising, and reviewing the parent and family engagement policy; and
7. Incorporate elements of Tennessee Department of Education 2013-2014 Parent Involvement
   Standards (results of 2009 TN Senate Bill No 293): 

• Standard One: Welcoming All Families into the School Community. Families are active
  participants in the life of the school, and feel welcomed, valued, and connected to each other,
  to school staff, and to what students are learning and doing in class.
• Standard Two: Communicating. Families and school staff engage in regular, meaningful
  communication about student learning.
• Standard Three: Supporting Student Success. Families and school staff continuously work
  together to support students’ learning and healthy development both at home and at school,
  and have regular opportunities to strengthen their knowledge and skills to do so effectively.
• Standard Four: Speaking Up for Every Child. Families are informed and enabled to be
  advocates for their own and other children, to ensure that students are treated fairly and have
  access to learning opportunities that will support their success.
• Standard Five: Sharing Power. Families and school staff are equal partners with equal
  representation in decisions that affect students and families and together inform, influence, and
  create policies, practices, and programs.
• Standard Six: Collaborating with Community. Families and school staff work together
  with community members to connect students, families, and staff to expanded learning
  opportunities, community services, and civic participation.

KCS and its individual schools, to the extent practicable, shall provide opportunities for the informed
participation of parents and family members (including parents and family members who have limited
English proficiency, parents and family members with disabilities and parents and family members of
migratory children), including providing information and school reports in a format and, to the extent
practicable, in a language such parents understand.

TITLE I SCHOOLS

Parents and family members of children receiving Title I services shall be involved in the decisions
regarding how Title I funds reserved for parent and family engagement are allotted for parental
involvement activities. These funds shall be used to carry out activities and strategies consistent with
KCS’ parent and family engagement policy, including not less than one of the following:

1. Supporting schools and nonprofit organizations in providing professional development for district and school personnel regarding parent and family engagement strategies, which may be provided jointly to teachers, principals, other school leaders, specialized instructional support personnel, paraprofessionals, early childhood educators, and parents and family members.
2. Supporting programs that reach parents and family members at home, in the community, and at
   school.
3. Disseminating information on best practices focused on parent and family engagement, especially best practices for increasing the engagement of economically disadvantaged parents and family members.
4. Collaborating, or providing sub-grants to schools to enable such schools to collaborate, with
   community-based or other organizations or employers with a record of success in improving and
   increasing parent and family engagement.
5. Engaging in any other activities and strategies that KCS determines are appropriate and consistent with its parent and family engagement policy

Each Title I school shall jointly develop with, and distribute to, parents and family members of
participating children a written parent and family engagement policy, agreed on by such parents, that shall describe the means for carrying out the requirements of subsections C-G listed above. Parents shall be notified of the policy in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, provided in a language the parents can understand. Such policy shall be made available to the local community and updated periodically to meet the changing needs of parents and the school.
Each Title I school shall:

1. Convene an annual meeting, at a convenient time, to which all parents of participating children
   shall be invited and encouraged to attend, to inform parents of their school’s participation under
   this part and to explain the requirements of this part, and the right of the parents to be involved;
2. Offer a flexible number of meetings, such as meetings in the morning or evening, and may
   provide, with funds provided under this part, transportation, child care, or home visits, as such
   services relate to parental involvement;
3. Involve parents, in an organized, ongoing and timely way, in the planning, review, and
   improvement of Title I programs, including the school parent and family engagement policy and
   the joint development of the school-wide program plan;
4. Provide parents of participating children:
   • Timely information about programs,
   • 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
   • 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 such suggestions as soon as practicably possible.
5. Jointly develop with parents 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 Tennessee’s high standards. The compact shall:
   • Describe the school’s responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in a
     supportive and effective learning environment that enables the children served to meet the
     challenging State academic standards, and 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 and
     positive use of extracurricular time, and
   • Address the importance of communication between teachers and parents on an ongoing basis through, at a minimum – parent-teacher conferences, children’s progress reports, reasonable access to staff, opportunities to volunteer and participate in child’s class and observation of classroom activities, and 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.