The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed by President Obama on December 10, 2015, and represents good news for our nation’s schools. This bipartisan measure reauthorizes the 50-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the nation’s national education law and longstanding commitment to equal opportunity for all students. The new law builds on key areas of progress in recent years made possible by the efforts of educators, communities, parents, and students across the country. The previous version of the law, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, was enacted in 2002. NCLB represented a significant step forward for our nation’s children in many respects, particularly as it shined a light on where students were making progress and where they needed additional support, regardless of race, income, zip code, disability, home language or background. The law was scheduled for revision in 2007 and, over time NCLB’s prescriptive requirements became increasingly unworkable for schools and educators. Recognizing this fact, in 2010 the Obama administration joined a call from educators and families to create a better law that focused on the clear goal of fully preparing all students for success in college and careers. The Every Student Succeeds Act can be found on the U.S. Department of Education website at http://www.ed.gov/essa.

ESSA Every Student Succeeds Act

Title I is a part of ESSA. This act provides money to public schools with high numbers of children from low-income families. Title I is designed to ensure that all children have the opportunity to obtain a high quality education and reach grade-level proficiency. Title I programs must be focused on improving student achievement and include strategies to support parent and family engagement. Additionally, ESSA requires school districts to set aside Title I funds to serve homeless and neglected students who do not attend schools participating in Title I. These services are comparable to services provided to children attending a Title I school.

Title I schools are the schools that are given funding from ESSA. Schools are given funding based on the number of children who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Social Circle Primary and Social Circle Elementary Schools are designated as Title I Schoolwide Programs for the 2022-2023 school year.

A schoolwide school is a school in which children from low-income families make up at least 40% of enrollment. In schoolwide programs, Title I funds are used to serve all of the children in the school. The purpose of schoolwide Title I programs is to improve the entire educational program in a school which should result in improving the academic achievement of all students, particularly the lowest-achieving students. The core elements of a schoolwide program are (1)needs assessment, (2) plan and (3) evaluation.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Additional information regarding Title I can be found on the: GA Department of Education website: http://www.gadoe.org/Pages/Home.aspx For more information contact Director of Federal Programs Dr. Juanasha Watkins at juanasha.watkins@socialcircleschools.org or 770-464-2731.

System Level Parent & Family Engagement Plan

Parental and family engagement means the participation of parents in regular, two-way and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities including ensuring that: Parents play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning. Parents are encouraged to be actively engaged in their child’s education at school. Parents are full partners in their child’s education and are included, as appropriate, in decision-making and on advisory committees to assist in the education of their child. The carrying out of other activities, such as those described in ESSA.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT
Some opportunities for parental and family engagement include parent workshops, parent advisory committees, school council, PTO, parent volunteers, school planning meetings and parent-teacher conferences.

PARENT ENGAGEMENT COORDINATOR
Social Circle Primary and Social Circle Elementary Schools share a parent engagement coordinator that coordinates parent activities. For more information, contact your child’s school. If you have any comments or suggestions, always feel free to contact PEC. This coordinator will take your feedback to the leadership team of the school and will provide helpful tips to school staff.

SCHOOL-PARENT COMPACT
Every year students, parents, and school staff sign a compact or agreement. This compact outlines how parents, the entire school staff and students will share the responsibility for improved student achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve the state’s high standards. This compact is revised with parent input at the end of each school year and then distributed to all parents to be signed at the beginning of the next school year.

PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT POLICY
The purpose of the school parent and family engagement policy is to ensure that strong strategies are in place to build the capacity of parents, to engage parents in an effective partnership with the school and to share and support high student academic achievement. The school and parents must jointly develop and agree on the policy. It is revised every year to meet 1 the changing needs of parents. Finally, the policy is distributed to parents in multiple ways. The school district also has a district parent and family engagement policy. It is revised every year and a copy of this document is also distributed to parents in multiple ways.

PARENT SURVEY
At the beginning and end of the school year, schools distribute a parent questionnaire through printed copies or online. The results of this survey are used to review the effectiveness of parent activities. Feedback from these surveys is very important. The school parent and family engagement policy and school activities are developed from feedback parents give on these surveys.

PARENT RESOURCE CENTERS
At each of the primary and Elementary schools parent resource centers available for your use to support you and the education of your children. The goal of all of the parent resource centers is to share the benefits of parent and family engagement and take advantage of available services that lead to the academic success of children. You can contact the PEC at each of these schools or visit the centers daily during school hours.

For more information contact:

- Director of Federal Programs & Student Services, Dr. Juanasha Watkins, at juanasha.watkins@socialcircleschools.org or 770-464-2731
- Parent Engagement Coordinator Mrs. Yolondias Colquitt at yolondias.colquitt@socialcircleschools.org or 770-464-1411 or 770-464-2664

Date: August 31, 2022 

Dear Parents, 
In compliance with the requirements of the Every Students Succeeds Act, Social Circle City Schools would like to inform you that you may request information about the professional qualifications of your student's teacher(s) and/ or paraprofessional(s). The following information may be requested: 

• Whether the student's teacher-
  • has met State qualification and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher provides instruction
  • is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which state qualification or licensing criteria have been waived; and 
  • is teaching in the field of discipline of the certification of the teacher
• Whether the child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications

If you wish to request information concerning your child's teacher's and/or paraprofessional's qualifications, please contact the central office at (770) 464-2731.

Sincerely,

Juanasha Watkins, Ph.D.

Student Services and Federal Programs Director

Click for a downloadable PDF of this notification.