Hancock County Family and Community Engagement Plan

 

The Hancock County School System will take the following actions to involve parents in the joint development of its district wide family engagement plan:

  • Parent representatives from the elementary, middle and high schools, along with school administrators, school board members, and Central office personnel, will be appointed to serve on the District-Wide Family and Community Engagement Advisory Council.
  • Data from current family and community surveys will be analyzed and used to determine what actions or activities are necessary.

 

a.       The Hancock County School System will take the following actions to involve parents in the process of school review and improvement:

  • Each school is required to include parents on the committees for TSIPP
  • Each school is required to include parents on the Family and Community Engagement Advisory Council.
  • Parents are encouraged to give suggestions for improvements.

 

b.      The Hancock County School System will provide the following necessary coordination, technical assistance, and other support to assist Title I, Part A schools in planning and implementing effective parental involvement activities to improve student academic achievement and school performance:

  • The system will provide technical assistance to help coordinate and train school administrators on ways to involve parents and communities.
  • Each school will be required to take part in the Family and Community Advisory Council to develop a Family and Community Plan and a Home and School Compact.
  • Support will be provided to help carry out the family and community activities at each school.
  • School data will be analyzed to help determine parental involvement activities that will contribute to student achievement.

 

c.       The Hancock County School System shall build the schools’ and parent capacity for strong parent involvement by:

  • Providing training for administrators and teachers in parent engagement activities.
  • Include family engagement strategies in faculty meetings.
  • Encourage parents and teachers to attend state or local conferences on family engagement.

 

d.      The Hancock County School System will coordinate and integrate parental involvement strategies under the following other programs: Family Resource, Special Education, Adult Education, Even Start, state funded pilot preschool and voluntary preschool programs, by:

  • Presenting information on parenting issues to the parents of preschool children by Hancock County Family Resource Facilitator.
  • Preschool parents will receive a packet of materials pertaining to Title I and other school issues in the spring before time for Kindergarten registration.
  • Special education through IEP meetings.

 

e.       The Hancock County School System will annually evaluate the Family Engagement Plan at its Family and Community Advisory Committee meeting.  At that time, the district will review Family Resource and other school-related activities.  There are parents on the Family and Community Advisory Committee.

 

                                                   i.      The Hancock County School System shall make a realistic assessment of how services are meeting the needs of parents in the district and how the district has identified barriers to greater participation by parents in parental involvement activities (with particular attention to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency and have limited literacy or are of any racial or ethnic minority background) by using the following strategies.

·        Parents shall be surveyed using the Family Friendly Schools survey (or other appropriate surveys) to determine the barriers to greater participation.

·        Barriers to parent involvement participation will be addressed in Family and Community Engagement meetings.

 

To address the perceived barriers:

·        Title I schools shall use portions of their funds reserved for parental involvement to address the specific needs of their schools.

·        Non-English speaking parents shall be provided with district-wide services to assist them making home to school connections.

·        The Family and Community Engagement Advisory Committee shall review survey results on the involvement of parents in the spring of each year and discuss perceived barriers.

 

                                                 ii.      The Hancock County School System will evaluate the district’s findings of strategies to improve stronger parental involvement in the following manner:

·        Conducting an “Identifying Barriers to Participation” session at Family and Community Advisory Committee meetings.

·        The Family Resource program will survey families they serve in the district to plan for the next year’s program.

 

                                                iii.      The Family and Community Engagement Advisory Council will evaluate the program in the spring of each school year.

 

f.        Hancock County’s Family and Community Engagement Advisory Council consisting of administrators, school representatives and parents will meet regularly to discuss district issues including programs, activities, procedures, and policies.  They will also strategize on how to work with the community and gain support from government and community agencies.

 

 

g.       The Hancock County School System along with parents and teachers have designed improvement strategies for the following areas:

  • Homework

o       Weekly Folders

o       Tutoring

  • Attendance

o       Rewards (quarterly, yearly)

o       Phone messages

  • Discipline

o       Student handbooks

o       Phone contacts

 

6.      Hancock County School System has built into its calendar two days for parent-teacher conferences for each school in which that parents will be given access to all learning materials.

 

7.      Hancock County School System has a website (www.hancockcountyschools.com)with information including the following:

  • Family Engagement Plan
  • School Report Cards/Assessment Data
  • Consolidated Plan
  • Gaggle
  • District Calendar
  • Meetings and Upcoming Activities
  • Link to Individual School Webpages

 

8.      Hancock County School System requires that all Title I schools have developed school level family engagement plans.  The Title I office provides assistance in the development of these plans.

 

9.      Hancock County School System requires that the Title I budget reflect a minimum of 1% of the total budget on parental involvement activities.  The Family and Community Engagement Advisory Committee will determine how the district funds are to be spent.

 

10.  The Hancock County School System requires not less that 95% of the 1% reserved goes directly to the schools.