The Georgetown County School District has developed jointly with, agreed upon with, and distributed to parents a written parent involvement policy that will address the following six statements:

l. Involve parents in the joint development of the District's plan and the process of school review and improvement through a planning questionnaire, recommendation form, and by working directly on the planning committees. This will be met by:

a) distributing copies of the proposed and final applications, needs assessment, budget, evaluation, state and federal laws and regulations;

b) providing meeting space and staff availability for further regular meetings of parents;

c) offering training programs for parents; and

d) reviewing other reasonable requests.

2. Provide coordination, technical assistance, and support to schools for effective parent involvement, through the parent involvement coordinator, guidance counselors, and Title I coordinator and to improve student achievement and school performance through parenting workshops, home visits, and other methods that may be suggested from parental contacts.

3. Build the school's and parents' capacity for strong parent involvement through:

a) at least one scheduled conference between individual parents and teachers each year;

b) the solicitation of parents' suggestions in the planning, development and operation of the program by sending a planning questionnaire to Title I parents;

c) requesting parental input by discussing the program of the current year, and by allowing input by parents in the planning of the program for the next fiscal year;

d) requiring all parents, students and schools (principals) to sign a promise of commitment (compact) to affirm their responsibilities as a team in accordance with the Georgetown County Board of Education Policy JF-E (1);

e) reporting to each child's parent(s) on the child's progress by sending reports home at the end of each grading period; and

f) providing training for parents on how to help their children academically.

g) providing information, programs and activities for parents in a language and form that they can understand.

4. Coordinate and integrate parent involvement under this program with parent involvement under other programs such as Head Start, the Parents as Teachers Program, the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters, and State-run programs through monthly meetings.

5. Conduct, with the involvement of parents, an annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the parental involvement policy to determine:

a) the effectiveness as to increasing parent participation; and,

b) barriers to participation as noted in section 1118 of the law.

Note: Parents will be given recommendation forms to indicate any barriers to greater parent participation and to determine possible steps to overcome those barriers for the next fiscal year. Minutes of any meetings and a summary of recommendations will be maintained.

6. Involve parents in the activities of the school served under this part.

7. Use such findings to design strategies for school improvement and revise, if necessary, the District and school parental involvement policies.