Barcroft Title I School-Family Partnership Principles

The Barcroft Elementary School community is committed to partnering with families in the education of their children in accordance with the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), most recently reauthorized as the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA), along with the National PTA Standards, and Arlington Public Schools Family Engagement Policy, and Policy Implementation Procedures (PIP).

Goals. To ensure that all students in Barcroft Elementary School improve achievement and meet state and local standards, a partnership between school and family is essential. Our school believes in a shared responsibility of families and school staff for supporting students’ intellectual, personal, social, and emotional development to help them achieve their full potential. Families are significant stakeholders who engage in their child’s education to the maximum extent feasible and the school is committed to working with families in the following ways. Welcome All Families. Families feel welcomed, valued, and connected to each other and the school.

Create a family-friendly, respectful, and helpful school climate that uses physical spaces that create a welcoming atmosphere and encourage connections among families.
Offer flexible opportunities for input and engagement, such as varied meeting times and online and in-person options, and remove barriers to family participation by providing services such as language translation, transportation, and childcare that facilitate family engagement, as necessary and practicable.

Share Responsibility in School Decision Making and Advocacy. Parents are full partners in the decisions that affect children and families.

Establish a Building Advisory Committee (BAC), which will assist staff in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the schoolwide program and family engagement guidelines at the school.
Conduct an annual family engagement meeting to review the Title I schoolwide program and family engagement guidelines and inform students’ families about ESSA regulations.
Invite and consider parent input regarding the schoolwide plan and school-family partnership principles.
Coordinate with districtwide efforts through APS Engage to seek family input in the annual revision of the APS Handbook and accompanying Acknowledgement, which describes the roles and responsibilities of staff, parents, and students in striving for academic success.

Communicate Effectively. Communication between home and school is regular, two-way and meaningful.

Provide timely information concerning plans for the school year through a variety of methods and languages to encourage family engagement.
Distribute these school-family partnership principles on the school website.
Report student progress quarterly on district report cards and offer opportunities for dialogue in parent-teacher conferences.
Inform families of services provided, using multiple methods of communication.
Inform families about APS curricula, the Virginia Standards of Learning, and state and local assessments and benchmarks, and assist families in understanding them.
Welcome and invite families’ voices in decision-making processes that affect children by creating opportunities for open dialogue.

Advocate for Every Student and Support Student Success. Sharing of resources and information is promoted and supported to assist in the reinforcement of student learning at home.

Provide opportunities for families to learn how to support their children in demonstrating that school is an important priority within the family.
Provide services of trained staff to coordinate and support the development of strong, sustained family engagement programs that encourage families to participate in the education of their children.
Assist families in providing support for their child’s learning such as: skill practice activities and games linked to school learning.
Build the capacity of teachers, families and school staff to work together through school-wide integration of strategies that promote genuine partnerships.

Collaborate with Community. Family and community volunteers are welcome in the school, and their support and assistance are sought.

Encourage family participation in the school.
Seek opportunities to utilize community resources to strengthen school, family and student learning.
Collaborate with other federal and state programs in the school such as Head Start, Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI), and Montessori to coordinate transitioning to Kindergarten.

Last Revised (11/2/2022)

References

APS Policy I-11.1 Family and Community EngagementAPS

Policy Implementation Procedure (PIP) I-11.1 PIP-1 Family and Community Engagement

APS FACE Policy and PIP At A Glance

VDOE Sample School Parent and Family Engagement Policy