ABA - Parent Involvement

1. PURPOSE AND PHILOSOPHY

The Nebo School District Board of Education joins the Utah Legislature in recognizing the importance of parental participation in the educational process in order for students to achieve and maintain high levels of performance. The Board encourages parents to provide a home environment that values education and to send their children to school prepared to learn. 

Under Utah Code Ann. § 53E-2-303, the Board is required to adopt a policy on parental involvement in the schools of the District. Requirements and procedures for parent involvement are found throughout numerous District policies. Together with those policies, the Board hereby adopts this policy in accordance with § 53E-2-303 to provide for building consistent and effective communication among parents, teachers, and administrators. 

This policy is also adopted, as required by Utah Code Ann. § 53G-7-223, to address the District’s communication and assistance to students learning English, their parents, and their families. 

2. TITLE I OF ESSA

Title I of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is a federal education grant program aimed at providing all children “a fair, equitable, and high-quality education.” 20 USC § 6301. It was originally passed in 1965 under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and was subsequently amended numerous times, notably in 2001 by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and in 2015 by ESSA. 

In order for the District to receive Title I funds, it must develop a plan that includes provisions for parent and family engagement. 20 USC § 6312. Therefore, the District has developed, and will maintain, a Title I Parent and Family Engagement Policy (Plan) consistent with the requirements of Title I. The Plan must meet the parent engagement requirements found in 20 USC § 6318.  

3. TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING SERVICES

Parent Identification

Upon student enrollment and periodically through a student’s education, schools will offer a survey to identify parents who need language access services and the languages in which they may need assistance. The survey will be translated into the most commonly known languages spoken in the district and will be included in the standard enrollment packet provided to all district parents.

Schools must determine within thirty (30) days of a student’s enrollment the primary language spoken by the parent of each student enrolled in the school, and if such language is not English, whether the parent requires language services in order to communicate effectively with the school or district.

Schools will maintain an appropriate and current record of the primary language spoken by a student’s parents, and such record will be available to the district.

Access to Information 

All parents must have access to information about their student’s education in a language they can understand; this includes the right to translated documents and the provision of a language interpreter for meetings and conversations. 

Schools must communicate information to parents in a language they can understand about any program, service, or activity that is called to the attention of parents who are proficient in English.

Parents should have access to these services even if they speak some English and/or their student can speak or read English.

All language assistance services must be free to the parent and provided by appropriate and competent staff, or through appropriate and competent outside agencies (see subsection 6.3 below).

Vital information that must be translated upon request includes:

School/Program registration, enrollment, and selection;

Fee schedule and fee waiver information;

Grades, report cards, progress reports, academic standards, and graduation;

School rules and student discipline;

Attendance, absences, and withdrawal;

Parent permission for activities and programs;

School closures;

Opportunities to access programs or services; 

Student/Parent handbooks;

Parent-teacher conferences;

Grievance procedures and notices of nondiscrimination; 

Special education and related services for students with disabilities:

Section 504 information;

McKinney-Vento services; and

The district’s language access plan and related services or resources available.

Interpretation Services

The district will provide interpretation services when requested by a parent and when interpretation services are necessary to meaningfully communicate with parents regarding important information about their student’s education or school or classroom activities. 

Requests for interpretation services should be submitted with as much notice as possible to the following:

For special education students and their parents, to the district’s Special Education Department; and

For all other students and their parents, to the district’s Legal Department.

Interpreter services are available for school community council meetings, board meetings, and parent engagement activities.

Such interpretation services may be provided either at the location where the parent is seeking to communicate or by electronic means, such as telephone or video conferencing. 

Upon three days’ notice that such services are required, the district will provide interpretation services at public meetings organized or sponsored by the district (e.g., board meetings).

Translation of Vital District Documents

The district will identify vital documents which are distributed or electronically communicated to all or substantially all parents containing important information regarding a student’s education, including but not limited to the information described in subsection 3.2.5 above.

All school community council notifications and agendas should be printed in the school’s major languages in order to effectively communicate with parents and encourage their participation.

Any information posted or issued by the district for parents should contain a notice in appropriate language(s) that free translation and/or interpretation services are available and how to request a free translation or interpretation of the document.

When translation of a document otherwise required to be translated is unavailable or cannot be done, such as in an emergency situation, the school or district will provide an attached notice to parents in appropriate language(s) that free translation and/or interpretation services are available and how to request a free translation or interpretation of the document.

If the district is unable to translate a vital document due to resource limitations or if a small number of families require the information in a language other than English such that document translation is unreasonable, the district will still provide the information to parents in a language they can understand, such as through competent oral interpretation.

Translation of Student-Specific Documents

The district will take reasonable steps to provide parents, in a language they can understand, a translation of any document that contains individual, student-specific information regarding, but not limited to, their student’s: 

health; 

safety; 

legal or disciplinary matters; and

entitlement to public education, eligibility for special education services, placement in the English Language Development Program (ELD), extended learning programs, accelerated courses such as Advanced Placement, or any other nonstandard academic program.

Requesting Services

District Employee Requests

Employees needing translation and interpretation services should contact their immediate supervisor. 

Employee should request the type of service (either translation or interpretation) that will provide the greatest understanding to the parent requester.

Parent Requests

Parents needing translation or interpretation services should contact the main office of their student’s school. 

Parents should feel free to request services to assist them in understanding their student’s assignments and accompanying materials.

Parents needing translation or interpretation services to access district level services should contact the district’s Legal Department.

Translators/Interpreters

The district will take reasonable steps to use interpreters who have demonstrated language proficiency through certification or who are employed by a particular vendor or service contracted to provide interpretation services.

Interpreters and translators utilized by the district will at a minimum have knowledge in both languages of any specialized terms or concepts to be used in the communication at issue and be trained on the role of an interpreter and translator, the ethics of interpreting and translating, and the need to maintain confidentiality.

It is not sufficient for the staff merely to be bilingual. For example, a staff member who is bilingual may be able to communicate directly with parents in a different language but may not be competent to interpret in and out of that language, or to translate documents.

The district should not rely on or ask students, siblings, friends, or untrained school staff to translate or interpret for parents.

Parents may voluntarily choose to decline the district’s offer of an interpreter and choose instead to rely on an adult friend/companion or relative for language and interpretation services, but school staff may not suggest this as an alternative to providing appropriate language and interpretation services.

Students and other minor children under the age of 18 may not serve as interpreters for school staff and parents during any formal or informal meeting or process.

The district will facilitate staff access to appropriate interpretation and translation services in order to communicate with parents consistent with federal and/or state law, board policy, and these procedures.

In the event of an impromptu phone call or visit by a parent who needs an interpreter, district staff should use a language bank, resource line or online service to communicate with parents.

Notification to Parents of Available Services

District staff and parents will be annually notified of these procedures and the accompanying board policy. 

Staff will be regularly provided written guidance regarding how and when interpretation and translation services should be accessed, and such guidance will be updated as needed to reflect available services.

Parents will also be annually notified regarding the process for filing complaints through the district’s nondiscrimination policy and procedure if they believe that such services have not been appropriately provided. 

The district will take steps to ensure that, at the time of enrollment, information regarding available interpretation and translation services and the district’s complaint process is provided to any parent(s) when there is reason to believe that the student’s parent(s) may have limited English proficiency (e.g., results of home language survey, a parent’s request for an interpreter). The district will take reasonable steps to provide information required by this section in the primary language spoken predominantly in the home.

Training

All school administrators, particularly those who have the most interaction with the public such as registrars and enrollment staff, certificated staff and other appropriate staff as determined by the superintendent, will receive guidance on meaningful communication with parents, best practices for working with an interpreter, how to access an interpreter or translation services in a timely manner, language services available within the district and other information deemed necessary to implement these procedures.