Title I: Fostering Innovation and Excellence

Title I: Fostering Innovation and Excellence 9th Annual Title Programs Conference June 15 – 16, 2011

What Can The District and School Parent Involvement Set-Aside Be Spent On? Brenda Y. Williams Georgia Department of Education Office of School Improvement-Federal Programs Division Title l Parental Involvement 404 463-1956 brwilliams@doe.k12.ga.us

Parental Involvement & The Law The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) Title I, Part A: IMPROVING THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF THE DISADVANTAGED • Sec. 1118 Parental involvement • Sec. 1112 Local educational agency plans • Sec. 1114 Schoolwide programs • Sec. 1115 Targeted assistant schools • Sec. 1116 Academic assessment and local educational agency and school improvement

Parental Involvement Defined Parental involvement is defined as the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, to include and ensuring that------

Parental Involvement Defined • (A) that parents play an integral role in assisting their child's learning; • (B) that parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child's education at school;

Parental Involvement Defined • (C) that parents are full partners in their child’s education and are included, as appropriate, in decision making and on to assist in the education of their child; • (D) the carrying out of other activities, such as those described in section 1118. ESEA Section 9101(32)

Reservation of Funds SEC. 1118. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT. 20 USC 6318. ‘‘(3) RESERVATION.— • ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each local educational agency shall reserve not less than 1 percent of such agency’s allocation under subpart 2 of this part to carry out this section, including promoting family literacy and parenting skills, except that this paragraph shall not apply if 1 percent of such agency’s allocation under subpart 2 of this part for the fiscal year for which the determination is made is $5,000 or less.

Reservation of Funds • (B) PARENTAL INPUT.—Parents of children receiving services under this part shall be involved in the decisions regarding how funds reserved under subparagraph (A) are allotted for parental involvement activities. (A) involve parents in the joint development of the plan under section 1112, and the process of school review and improvement under section 1116; • (C) DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.—Not less than 95 percent of the funds reserved under subparagraph (A) shall be distributed to schools served under this part.

LEA Funding LEAs receiving Title I, Part A allocations in the amount greater than $500,000 or more must reserve at least one percent of LEA allocation for parent involvement activities to include promoting family literacy and parenting skills; and distribute ninety-five percent of the reserve funds to serve identified Title I schools.

LEA Funding LEAs with a Title I, Part A allocation of $500,000 or less must carry out the provisions of section 1118, but are not required to reserve any specific amount from their Title I, Part A allocation to do so. ESEA Section 1118(a)(3)

Title I Parent Involvement Set-Aside School Responsibilities Title I further requires: • Programs, activities, workshops, guidelines, calendars and procedures shall be planned and implemented with meaningful consultation with parents of participating children. — ESEA Section 1108(a)(1) • Thus, Title I schools must consult with parents annually to determine how to spend parent involvement funds in ways that will enhance and further the school’s educational goals.

Parental Input on Parent Involvement Policy Review and Revisions While schools may elect to review/revise the Parent Involvement Policy with parent advisory teams, school councils, parent leadership teams, parent councils, principal’s leadership teams … • All parents of participating children that receive Title l funds must be given the opportunity to review the parent policy to provide comments, suggestions and/or ideas as it relates to activities, programs and funding in schoolwide and targeted assistance schools.

Title I Parent Involvement Set-Aside LEA Responsibilities • LEAs must reserve an equitable share of its parent involvement funds for families of students enrolled in private schools. • LEAs must distribute 95 percent of its remaining parent involvement reservation funds to Title I schools.

The Title I Parent Involvement Set-Aside School Responsibilities • Title I schools must use parent involvement funds for programs and activities that enhance the ability of parents to assist in the education of their children. • Expenditures should be based on a thorough needs assessment and the school’s goals, as identified in its parent involvement policy.

Spending Parental Involvement (PI) Funds: General Guidelines • Relate spending decisions to your parent involvement policy. • 􀂃 Does your budget further your parent involvement goals to increase academic results? • 􀂃 Are your expenditures aligned with clearly defined academic strategies to increase results? • 􀂃 Can you draw a straight line between your PI policy/plan and your spending (expenditures)?

Spending Parental Involvement (PI) Funds: General Guidelines • Title I schools must use parent involvement funds for programs and activities that enhance the ability of parents to assist in the education of their children. • Expenditures should be based on a thorough needs assessment and the school’s goals, as identified in its parent involvement policy.

Spending Parental Involvement (PI) Funds: General Guidelines • Articulate your intent. • Make sure to document the purpose of every expenditure. • Evaluate spending. • Did the expenditure have the intended impact to increase student achievement of parent involvement?

Spending Parental Involvement (PI) Funds: General Guidelines • Expenditures must: • Be authorized or not prohibited under State or local laws or regulations. • Federal funds may not be used for purchases that would not be allowable in your school district with state or local funds.

Spending Parental Involvement (PI) Funds: General Guidelines • According to OMB A-87, any expenditure must: • Be necessary and reasonable for the proper and efficient performance and administration of the grant award (a cost is generally reasonable if, in nature and amount, it does not exceed that which would be incurred by a prudent/practice person under the similar circumstances at the time the decision was made to incur the cost).

Spending Parental Involvement (PI) Funds: General Guidelines • For example: While federal law permits the purchase of food for parent involvement events, your state or district mayprohibit food purchases with public funds. If so, you may not use federal funds for food purchases.

Spending PI Funds: Specific ExamplesWorkshops and Conferences • Now let’s take a look at some specific expenditures. Workshops and Conferences • Training parent leaders can be an effective use of Title I PI funds, but the Department of Education Department guidance says staff should keep the following guidelines in mind:

Workshops and Conferences • Parents should, whenever possible, attend local or regionally based training opportunities, when they are the same or similar as those being held out-of-state. • Parents who receive this training should be prepared to share information or provide training to other Title I parents. • Be sure all costs are reasonable and necessary, and in compliance with state and local law.

Spending PI Funds: Food Everyone knows that serving food at activities, school programs or events is a helpful way to entice, as well as one of the strategies used to entice parents to Title I meetings and activities. Parent involvement funds may be used to purchase food, but keep these guidelines in mind.

Spending PI Funds: Food Funds may also be used to provide parents transportation childcare and food (at a minimum)at Title I meetings/programs. Funds may not be used to pay parents to attend activities or meetings. Note: Food is defined as light snacks, not a full banquet meal, breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Food Items Defined Food items are defined as light snacks that may be served during maybe served during meal times at parent meetings, workshops, parent, parent trainings, parent events or activities at TA and SW school programs. Light snacks are defined as: cookies, chips, popcorn, muffins, fruit, cake, water, and drinks.

Spending PI Funds: Food • Keep costs reasonable (use your school’s food service). • Link the event to an academic purpose, or parent involvement achievement goal or activity. • Check state and local laws. • Never serve alcohol or alcoholic beverages(wine, beer, mixed drinks, etc. of any kind.

Spending PI Funds:Transportation and Child Care The law allows schools to use parent involvement funds to provide transportation and child care costs to enable parents to participate in school related meetings, training sessions, and facilitate parents’ attendance at parent involvement activities and events. ESEA Section 1118(c)(2)

Spending PI Funds: Family Literacy Family literacy activities are specifically encouraged under the law. Target the events to help parents who lack a high school diploma, or who have low literacy levels, improve their own reading skills and learn to help their children learn to read.

Spending PI Funds: Technology Training • You may use Title I PI funds to provide training to parents so that they can: • Provide materials and trainings to help parents work with their children to improve their children’s achievement, such as literacy training and using technology, as appropriate to foster parent involvement. • Communicate with teachers. • Find and review school-related information online. • Access their children’s grades.

Spending PI Funds • Funds may be used to hire a full-or part-time parent liaison. • Schools may use PI funds to purchase books or other instructional supplies for families to use at home together during the school year or over the summer.

Pooling PI Funds • Title I schools may consolidate funds for joint activities, such as a parent resource center or a parent liaison that serves multiple schools. • However: • An LEA may not require a school to spend its funds for any particular activity, including a districtwide activity or staff person.

Pooling PI Funds • Parents at all participating schools must be consulted and agree to the consolidation of funds. • The expenditure must target the needs of the Title I students at the Title I schools.

What is Never Allowable? • Alcohol • Entertainment, parties, awards programs, gifted programs • Cash, high-value prizes, awards, incentives, gifts, tokens • Never pay a parent to attend a school event

Spending PI Funds in Targeted Assistance Program • In a Title I targeted assistance program, Title I funds may only be used for activities for the TA Title I students and their families. For example: A Title I-funded parent information center may only serve parents of Title I students.

Spending PI Funds in Targeted Assistance Program • Title I funds may pay for a speaker at a meeting for allparents, as long as the speaker is specifically addressing an identified need of the Title I program to increase or support academic achievement goals.

Spending PI Funds in Targeted Assistance Program • However, A targeted assistance school that pays for a speaker using Title I PI funds (or any Title I funds) would need to be prepared with strong documentation regarding that expenditure, as well as a rationale for why other funding streams in the school were not used.

Spending PI Funds in TargetedAssistance Programs • Supplement not supplant: • Title I targeted assistance programs must steer clear of any spending (parent involvement or otherwise) that might raise a presumption of supplanting: 1. Was the activity or service funded with state or local funds service funded with state or local funds in previous years?

Spending PI Funds in TargetedAssistance Programs • Supplement not supplant: 2. Is a similar activity or service being provided to parents of non-Title I students with state or local funds? 3. Is the activity or services required under federal, state, or local law?

Spending PI Funds in TargetedAssistance Programs If the answer to any of these three questions is yes, you risk a supplanting finding by an auditor or monitor. Ask yourself: • Had federal funds not been available, would the activity or service have been provided with nonfederal funds?

Spending PI Funds in TargetedAssistance Programs • Supplement not supplant: You may be able to rebut a supplanting finding if, for example, districtwide budget cuts forced the elimination of an activity – but you must have contemporaneous documentation showing the decision was made without regard to the availability of federal funds.

Spending PI Funds inSchoolwide Programs • All parents in a schoolwide program school may participate in parent involvement activities. • Nevertheless, PI activities in a schoolwide program should target the particular academic needs of the parents of the lowest-achieving students so that they may better assist in the education of their child. (Education Department Title I, Part A Parental Involvement Non-Regulatory Guidance)

Proof of Documentation Anyone who has enjoyed a visit from the Georgia Department of Education monitoring staff or US Department of Education understands that it is not enough to comply with Title I’s parent involvement requirements – you must have paperwork (written documentation) as proof that the activity actually happened.

Proof of Documentation • This also applies when the auditors visit and scrutinize how Title I funds are being spent. Questions that the auditors raise in many instances can be addressed by appropriate documentation …when funds have been properly expended. What should you keep?

Types of Documentation • What should you keep as documentation? • Dated meeting sign-in sheets that identifies signatures of parents, students, and other community stakeholders • Dated meeting agendaswith activity listed on agenda • Dated meeting minutes/notes • Dated parent comments and suggestions • Dated invitations, flyers, information brouchures, newsletters, newspaper articles, activity, pictures, calendars, timelines, rubrics, handbooks, webpage, phone logs, emails, templates,…..etc.

Types of Documentation • Copies of receipts for food expenditures and any funds/tokens distributed to parents a. documentation to support activity (invitations, sign-in sheets, flyers, annual meeting agenda, policy/plan, parent evaluations/surveys, meeting minutes, schoolwide/TA plans

Best Practices • Conduct a thorough needs assessment. • Survey all parents – not just selected parents;. • Clearly connect parent involvement goals, activities, and funds. • Evaluate the effectiveness of your PI spending. • Maintain documentation for activities that were paid for using the PI set-aside.

Resources Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind), Section 1118 http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg2.html#sec1118 Education Department Title I, Part A Parental Involvement, Non-Regulatory Guidance http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/parentinvguid.doc Education Department Title I Fiscal Issues, Non-Regulatory Guidance http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/fiscalguid.doc

Title I: Fostering Innovation and Excellence