School-Based Decision Making (SBDM)

Parental Involvement

SBDM Office

Vince Mattox, Director Community, SBDM, and Government Support

Tanya Dailey, Administrative Assistant

KDE Links

Comprehensive School Planning
Comprehensive Planning Tools
School Based Decision Making
SBDM Links and Partners
KDE Performance Reports
Standards and Indicators
SBDM Technical Assistance

Other links

Prichard Committee
Kentucky Association of School Councils
Kentucky Legislature
KY PTA

NCLB (NO Child Left Behind)

Federal information page for parents
The state's information page

Other resources

Open Meetings Certificate of Receipt and Distribution of Written Documentation

New member brochure:
English | Spanish (Español)

Online SBDM training center

District SBDM Membership Training Data

Senate bill 168 information

SBDM sample policies

SBDM related laws and regulations
Format for notice of special called meeting: Acrobat | MS Word

We all say we want parents to be involved in the education of their children, but what do we really mean by this? If we asked 25 individuals, we'd probably get 25 different answers to the question, "What is parent involvement?" For the purpose of this discussion, we will define parent involvement as "the parent or another significant adult, being actively engaged in the education of the child. " By using this definition, we include activities such as reading the child a story in the evening or mentoring a high school student, as well as such things as tutoring in the classroom, attending a football game, or overseeing homework assignments. These activities, as well as many others, promote the educational and emotional growth of our students.

There are many benefits for students, parents, and schools when parents become involved in the education of their children. Benefits for the students include more homework being completed, more positive attitudes toward school resulting in fewer behavior problems, less absenteeism, and the connection between the home and school environment. Benefits for the parents include positive feelings of the school environment, ideas from school personnel on helping their child in areas of concern, and a greater understanding of the instructional program. Benefits for school personnel include increased completion of homework by students, more positive attitudes from students, resulting in less behavior problems, and more support from parents. Finally, research continues to show that increased parent involvement results in increased student achievement! This is the greatest benefit of all to students, parents, and teachers.

There are some general things that schools can do to promote parent involvement, including the following:

• Making school a pleasant place to be (Far too often parents come to school only when there is a problem.)
• Providing homework assignments that enable parents to be helpful without the work becoming a burden (This may be as simple as requiring a signature on homework or a test or students' completing a writing assignment of an incident in the life of their parents.)
• Keeping parents informed (Good communication is a key to increasing parent involvement. Weekly, biweekly, or monthly newsletters are an excellent way to let everyone know what's going on in the school.)
• Sharing experiences with one another (Learning what worked well at another school might be helpful to your school.)
• Showing appreciation for the parents who are involved at the school (This might be as simple as an acknowledgment, in the school newsletter, of those who have volunteered each month at the school.)

There are no magic answers to increasing parent involvement within the schools. Furthermore, what works well at one school may be disastrous at a neighboring school, or the success might be limited initially. What is important is that we continue encouraging parental involvement for the success of all our children.

Last update: 2/20/2004 4:01:46 PM     Printer friendly view