To help local education agencies (LEAs) (a.k.a school districts, Charter Schools, etc.) meet the ESSA requirement for regular meetings with the parents of English learners (ELs) (a.k.a. multilingual learners), TransACT’s ESSA ParentNotices Collection includes the notice EL-07 Meeting for Parents of English Learners: Invitation to Participate. LEAs can use this notification to organize these meetings.
Background on this ESSA Requirement
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Title I, Section 1112 describes what must be included in an LEA’s Title I plan to meet the requirements to receive Title I funds. Included in those requirements, as described in Section 1112(e)(3)(C), is outreach districts must implement to engage the parents of ELs in the education of their children. In this section of the law (Section 1112(e)(3)(C)(ii) – Regular Meetings), it says, "Implementing an effective means of outreach to . . ." the parents of ELs ". . . shall include holding, and sending notice of opportunities for, regular meetings."
Shortly after Congress passed ESSA in late 2015, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) informed State education directors that regular meetings are not annual meetings. These meetings must be more than once a year. USED did not provide the exact or minimum number of meetings needed to meet this requirement.
It is also important to note that the required regular meetings are LEA-level meetings. LEAs (this also applies to Title I funded Charter Schools) must include all the parents of ELs in the LEA, not only those parents of English learners attending Title I funded schools or receiving Title I services. It is also important to remember that, since these are LEA-level meetings, Title I schoolwide school meetings typically cannot be used to meet this requirement.
Who We Are
ParentNotices is parent engagement software that school districts and state education departments use to support compliant and equitable parent engagement. ParentNotices subscribers can access over 200 expertly written and translated notices that are legally reviewed where applicable to comply with federal education laws. ParentNotices supports administrators in a compliant parent engagement plan and can serve as evidence of implementation in the event of a state monitoring visit.
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