Parent’s Right to Know - “What and When”

Forest J.C. Hertlein, Ph.D.
Federal Programs Manager
TransACT Communications, Inc.
(www.mynclb.com)

A major requirement of No Child Left Behind is to keep parents informed and involved regarding their child’s education.  Parent awareness and involvement is referred to by the U.S. Department of Education as one of the “four pillars” of the NCLB act.  However, recent comments from a variety of sources indicate there is a feeling that schools are “not forthcoming” with all information and options that must be made available to parents.  Due to the multiple “touch-points” in which parent communication is required, districts should evaluate their NCLB parent communication strategy to assure that no notice is overlooked or left unsent.  The following is a discussion of two major NCLB communication requirements relating to highly qualified staff and reporting AYP status.

Highly Qualified Teachers
Initial reports indicate there is wide variation among states regarding the number of staff that currently meet the new federal definition for being highly qualified.   Alaska reports that 16% meet the definition and Colorado identified 86% as highly qualified. Wisconsin reported the highest percentage at 98.6%.

Regardless of a state’s status for collecting and reporting such data, districts that receive Title I funds must inform all parents of children attending schools that receive Title I allocations of their right to inquire about the qualifications of the child’s teachers.  The notice must go to all parents at that school regardless of the program their child is participating in, such as general education, Special Education, or English language development.   The requirement for this notice applies to schools operating schoolwide and targeted assistance programs whether or not adequate yearly progress has been made and regardless of the ability of the school to calculate or report AYP due to enrollment size.  The requirement also applies to schools that receive Title I funds to operate ANY program such as before and after school programs, summer school, or use such funds to pay any portion of a staff member’s salary or to purchase any instructional supplies or technology.  Parents must be informed of their right to request their child’s teacher’s qualifications annually at the beginning of each school year even if 100% of the school’s staff is highly qualified.

Reporting teacher qualifications to parents upon their request applies to all teachers that teach core academic subjects in the school.    These teachers may include those who are otherwise exempt from satisfying the definition of highly qualified IF those staff are providing core academic instruction for any portion of the day.  For example, a health or physical education teacher providing reading instruction through a program such a Success for All must satisfy the federal “highly qualified” requirement if they are providing the only reading instruction a student receives.  Parents have the right to request and receive the qualifications of such teachers and the school must initiate notice to the families of all students who are taught four or more consecutive weeks by any teacher who is not highly qualified. This includes any teacher or substitute who teaches four or more weeks who is part-time, long-term, new, or a veteran employee.  NCLB requires that such notice must be provided in a timely manner.  A definition of timely is not provided so districts should consider adopting written procedures to assure such notice is distributed uniformly throughout the district. 

Although parent notification regarding highly qualified staff applies to schools receiving Title I funds, all teachers must be highly qualified by 2005-06.  Districts must report progress toward meeting this goal and this information must be included on the annual NCLB report card.

Accountability Reporting
There are three levels of accountability reporting required by NCLB to inform parents about state, district, and school performance.   Many state departments of education produce an on-line annual report card from which parents may view performance of schools and districts  from across their state.  NCLB also requires each district to annually prepare and widely distribute a local report card to the community and “to all schools and parents of children attending those schools”.   In addition to the district report card, schools receiving Title I funds that have not made adequate yearly progress for two or more consecutive years, must assure that each parent of a child enrolled in the school receives additional information in a timely manner. 

The parent notification must include:

§ What it means to be to be identified as in need of improvement

§ What are the reasons for this identification

§ What is being done by the school, the district, and the state to change the status

§ How parents can become involved in the improvement process

§ A statement of the parent’s right to request transfer of their child to another school or, if eligible, supplemental educational services

The district should determine the first point of contact for parents who want clarifying information regarding a school’s performance prior to making decisions about transferring their child or supplemental services.  Most districts identify the school as the most logical place for a parent to make initial inquires regarding reasons why the school was identified for improvement. Scores and percentages can be clarified and parent fears and misunderstanding can be addressed.  If a parent wishes to pursue school transfer or supplemental services, the responsibility for follow-up is vital to confirm, plan, and document district and parent decisions.  The communication loop must be managed in a timely and sensitive manner.

It is important for all districts to develop a system to keep track of all the new parental notifications and follow-up that is required. By setting a standardized system early in the process, it will make notification process easier.  The most popular time of year for parental notification is often the beginning of the school year with the first-day packet containing a number and variety of forms.

In order for the NCLB notifications to be more effective, it would be best to consider a communication strategy that does not combine the notices with all of the other forms that must be read and signed.  The best preparation is to become familiar with NCLB notification requirements and timelines (http://www.mynclb.com/pdfs/NCLB_Parent_Notifications.pdf) and to assign responsibility for informing parents to the appropriate level or department. 

It is recommended that a common set of notices be made available throughout the district to meet the NCLB requirement that “information must be in an understandable and uniform format”.  One valuable resource for meeting this requirement is the collection of parent notices available on-line at www.mynclb.com.  The collection is also available in a growing number of languages to assist districts communicate with parents in a language they understand.

If you have any questions or comments, email forest@transact.com or contact CASE at (303) 762-8762.