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Inner Harbour School Parental and Guardian Involvement Policy

July 2007

The Inner Harbour School and its parents/guardians (hereinafter referred to as "Legal Guardians") have jointly developed a parental involvement policy to:

• Encourage greater involvement of parents/guardians in the education of our children
• Support and secure an effective partnership among students, faculty, program administration, parents, legal guardians, and the community.
• Provide Inner Harbour students and families with a helpful, respectful and therapeutic learning environment that encourages emotional growth and high academic achievement; and
• Comply with the Title I requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 regarding the establishment of a parental involvement policy (section 1118)

Part I. GENERAL EXPECTATIONS

Inner Harbour School has a Title I targeted assistance program and agrees to implement the following statutory requirements:

Consistent with section 1118, Inner Harbour School will work to ensure that the required school level legal guardian involvement policy meets the requirements of section 1118 of the ESEA, and includes, as a component, a school-legal guardian compact consistent with section 1118(d) of the ESEA.

Inner Harbour School will notify legal guardians of the policy in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, in a language that the legal guardians can understand. The policy will be distributed to legal guardians, made available to the local community and updated periodically to meet the changing needs of the legal guardians and the school.

In carrying out the Title I, Part A, parental involvement requirements, to the extent practicable, the school will provide full opportunities for the participation of legal guardians with limited English proficiency, exceptionalities, and legal guardians of homeless and migratory children, including providing information and school reports required under section 1111 of the ESEA in an understandable and uniform format.

The Inner Harbour School will be governed by the following statutory definition of legal guardian involvement and will provide, to the extent practicable, reasonable support for legal guardian activities in accordance with this definition:

Legal guardian involvement means the participation of legal guardians in regular, two way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning, emotional growth and other school activities, including ensuring:

• Legal guardians play an integral role in assisting their child's learning
• Legal guardians are encouraged to be actively involved in their child's education and emotional growth.
• That legal guardians are partners in their child's education and are included, as appropriate, in advisory committees to assist in the education of their child,
• The carrying out of other activities, such as those described in section 1118 of the ESEA.

PART II. DESCRIPTION OF HOW INNER HARBOUR SCHOOL WILL IMPLEMENT REQUIRED SCHOOL PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT POLICY COMPONENTS

Inner Harbour School will take the following actions to involve legal guardians in the joint development of its school parental involvement policy plan under section 1118 of the ESEA through:

• Soliciting input through the use of legal guardian surveys and evaluations
• Providing opportunities for the school advisory council to advise on matters related to legal guardian involvement programs at Inner Harbour School.
• Convene an annual fall meeting to inform legal guardians of Inner Harbour School's participation in the Title I program, its requirements and their right to be involved.

Offer legal guardian meetings to involve legal guardians in the Inner Harbour School will take the following actions to involve legal guardians in the process of school review and improvement under section 1116 of ESEA by:

• Providing legal guardians with information regarding classroom teacher qualifications
• Conducting workshops on understanding their rights under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

Providing legal guardians with timely information about the Title I program, forms of assessments used, the proficiency levels students are expected to meet, the individual child's assessment results along with an interpretation of the results, and a description and explanation of the curriculum in use.

Inner Harbour School will hold an annual fall meeting to inform legal guardians of the school's participation in Title I, targeted assistance program. The school will offer a flexible number of additional legal guardian involvement meetings so that as many legal guardians are able to attend. Since this school is unique in its program, all legal guardians will be invited and encouraged to be involved through multiple and flexible means such as:

• Including meeting dates in the student/legal guardian handbook
• Announcements on the school's web page
• Letters and/or emails when applicable

Inner Harbour School will provide each legal guardian an individual student report about the performance of their child on the State assessments in at least math, language arts and reading through:

• Reports mailed to legal guardians
• Progress reports
• Computer generated reports

Inner Harbour school will take the following action to provide each legal guardian timely notice when their child has been assigned or has been taught for four (4) or more consecutive weeks by a teacher who is not highly qualified within the meaning of the term in section 200.56 of the Title I final Regulations (67 Fed. Reg. 7170, December 2, 2002) by:

• Letters to legal guardians

Inner Harbour School will take the following action to help legal guardians work with their children to improve academic achievement, child and adolescent development, and supporting children with exceptionalities through:

• Monthly newsletters
• Offering monthly trainings in the areas of child and adolescent psychosocial development.
• Monthly meetings, to the extent practicable, with the student, legal guardian, therapist and teacher.
• Legal guardian and teacher conferences

PART III DISCRETIONARY SCHOOL PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT POLICY COMPONENTS

Inner Harbour School will implement the following discretionary legal guardian involvement components:

A school legal guardian advisory council to provide advice on matters related to legal guardian involvement in Title I, Part A Targeted Assistance programs.

Establishing appropriate roles for community-based organizations and businesses, including faith based organizations, to participate in our legal guardian involvement activities.

To further build legal guardian capacity for involvement in supporting their children's academic achievement and emotional growth, Inner Harbour may involve legal guardians in the following discretionary activities:

Training legal guardians to enhance participation of the involvement of other legal guardians.

Arranging meetings with flexibility to meet the needs of legal guardians in order to maximize their involvement and participation in their children's education.

PART IV. ADOPTION

This School Parental Involvement Policy has been developed jointly with, and agreed on with, Inner Harbour School legal guardians as evidenced by surveys, minutes of advisory meetings, and attendance records.



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Signature of Principal

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