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COMMITTEE REPORT
April 13, 2000
H. 4672
Introduced by Reps. Townsend, Allen, Barrett, Clyburn, Gamble, Gourdine, Hamilton, Hayes, Hinson, Jennings, Koon, Maddox, Martin, W. McLeod, Rice, Riser, Sandifer, Stille, Stuart, Taylor, Wilder and Wilkins
S. Printed 4/13/00--H.
Read the first time February 23, 2000.
To whom was referred a Bill (H. 4672), to amend Title 59, Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1976, relating to education, by adding Chapter 28 so as to enact the "Parent Involvement in their Children's Education Act", etc., respectfully
That they have duly and carefully considered the same, and recommend that the same do pass with amendment:
Amend the bill, as and if amended, by striking all after the enacting words and inserting:
/ SECTION 1. The General Assembly finds that:
(1) parental involvement influences student development and learning and, therefore, should be viewed as an essential component of the public education system;
(2) parental involvement and momentum for parental participation is evident for early childhood and elementary schools but declines in middle and high schools;
(3) there does not appear to be an accountability mechanism in place to ensure support for parental involvement opportunities;
(4) there is no structured system to enable, support, and sustain parental involvement at the various levels of state, district, or school responsibility;
(5) barriers and challenges cited in research and expressed by educators and parents can be overcome through a variety of proven approaches identified in the research; and
(6) there is no state system for providing professional development to teachers and school staff in working with parents and diversity of families, and there is no system for monitoring and assessing parental involvement efforts and results.
SECTION 2. Title 59 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 59-28-100. This chapter may be cited as the 'Parental Involvement in their Children's Education Act'.
Section 59-28-110. It is the purpose of the General Assembly in this chapter to:
(1) heighten awareness of the importance of parents' involvement in the education of their children throughout their schooling;
(2) encourage the establishment and maintenance of parent-friendly school settings; and
(3) emphasize that when parents and schools work as partners a child's academic success can best be assured.
Section 59-28-120. The Governor shall require state agencies that serve families and children to collaborate and establish networks with schools to heighten awareness of the importance of parental influence on the academic success of their children and to encourage and assist parents to become more involved in their children's education.
Section 59-28-130. The State Board of Education shall:
(1) require school and district long-range improvement plans required in Section 59-139-10 to include parental involvement goals, objectives, and an evaluation component;
(2) recognize districts and schools where parental involvement significantly increases beyond stated goals and objectives; and
(3) establish criteria for staff training on school initiatives and activities shown by research to increase parental involvement in their children's education.
Section 59-28-140. The State Superintendent of Education shall:
(1) design parental involvement and best practices training programs in conjunction with higher education institutions and the pre-K through grade 12 education community, including parental program coordinators, which shall include:
(a) practices that are responsive to racial, ethnic, and socio-economic diversity, and are appropriate to various grade-level needs;
(b) establishment and maintenance of parent-friendly school settings;
(c) awareness of community resources that strengthen families and assist students to succeed; and
(d) other topics appropriate for fostering partnerships between parent and teacher;
(2) work collaboratively with the Commission on Higher Education to incorporate parental involvement training into teacher preparation and principal preparation programs consistent with the training provided in subsection (1) of this section.
Section 59-28-150. The State Superintendent of Education shall:
(1) promote parental involvement as a priority for all levels from pre-K through grade 12, with particular emphasis at the middle and high school levels where parental involvement is currently least visible;
(2) designate a Department of Education staff position whose specific role is to coordinate statewide initiatives to support school and district parental involvement;
(3) collect and disseminate to districts and schools practices shown by research to be effective in increasing parental involvement at all grade levels;
(4) provide parental involvement staff development training for district and school liaisons, as needed;
(5) provide technical assistance relating to parental involvement training to districts and schools;
(6) sponsor statewide conferences on best practices;
(7) identify, recommend, and implement ways to integrate programs and funding for maximum benefit to enhance parental involvement;
(8) enroll the Department of Education as a state member of national organizations which promote proven parental involvement frameworks, models, and practices and provide related services to state and local members;
(9) promote and encourage local school districts to join national parental involvement organizations; and
(10) monitor and evaluate parental involvement programs statewide by designing a statewide system which will determine program effectiveness and identify best practices and report evaluation findings and implications to the General Assembly, State Board of Education, and Education Oversight Committee.
Section 59-28-160. Each local school board of trustees shall:
(1) consider joining national organizations which promote and provide technical assistance on various proven parental involvement frameworks and models;
(2) incorporate, where possible, proven parental involvement practices into existing policies and efforts;
(3) adopt policies that emphasize the importance, strive to increase, and clearly defined expectations for effective parental involvement practices in the district schools;
(4) provide for all faculty and staff, no later than the 2002-2003 school year, parental involvement orientation and training through staff development with an emphasis on unique school and district needs and after that, on an ongoing basis as indicated by results of evaluations of district and school parental involvement practices and as required by the State Board of Education;
(5) provide incentives and formal recognition for schools that significantly increase parental involvement as defined by the State Board of Education;
(6) require an annual briefing on district and school parental involvement programs including findings from state and local evaluations on the success of the district and schools' efforts; and
(7) include parental involvement expectations as part of the superintendent's evaluation.
Section 59-28-170. (A) Each school district superintendent shall consider:
(1) designating staff to serve as parent liaison for the district to coordinate parental involvement initiatives and coordinate community and agency collaboration to support parents and families;
(2) requiring each school to designate a faculty contact for parental involvement efforts to work collaboratively with the district coordinator and network with other school faculty contacts;
(3) requiring each school principal to designate space within the school specifically for parents which contains materials and resources on the numerous ways parents and schools can and should partner for a child's academic success; and
(4) encouraging principals to adjust class and school schedules to accommodate parent-teacher conferences at times more convenient to parents and, to the extent possible, accommodate parents in cases where transportation and normal school hours present a hardship.
(B) Each school district superintendent shall:
(1) include parental involvement expectations as part of each principal's evaluation;
(2) include information about parental involvement opportunities and participation in the district's annual report; and
(3) disseminate to all parents of the district the expectations enumerated in Section 59-28-180.
Section 59-28-180. Parent involvement influences student learning and academic performance; therefore, parents are expected to:
(1) uphold high expectations for academic achievement;
(2) expect and communicate expectations for success;
(3) recognize that parental involvement in middle and high school is equally as critical as in elementary school;
(4) ensure attendance and punctuality;
(5) attend parent-teacher conferences;
(6) monitor and check homework;
(7) communicate with the school and teachers;
( 8) build partnerships with teachers to promote successful school experiences;
( 9) attend, when possible, school events;
(10) model desirable behaviors;
(11) use encouraging words;
(12) stimulate thought and curiosity; and
(13) show support for school expectations and efforts to increase student learning.
Section 59-28-190. The Education Oversight Committee shall survey parents to determine if state and local efforts are effective in increasing parental involvement. This information shall be used in the public awareness campaign required by the Education Accountability Act to promote the importance of parental involvement. The campaign shall include:
(1) advice for parents on how to help their children be successful in school and the importance of nurturing their children's skills and abilities;
(2) requests to employers, state agencies, entities, community groups, nonprofit organizations, and faith communities that work with children and families to distribute and display parent advice and other pertinent parent information;
(3) promotion of the benefits of increased productivity, loyalty, and sense of community which result from parent-friendly workplace policies;
(4) ideas and encouragement to employers to adopt parent-friendly workplace policies and to provide information on the importance of parents to a child's academic success;
(5) recognition of businesses and employers where parent-friendly policies have been adopted; and
(6) recognition of agencies and faith communities that have supported and increased parental involvement.
Section 59-28-200. The Education Oversight Committee and the State Superintendent of Education shall develop and publish jointly informational materials for distribution to all public school parents and to teachers. The informational materials for distribution shall include:
(1) an explanation of the grade-level academic content standards and advice on how parents can help their children achieve the standards, and the relationship of the standards to the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests (PACT); and
(2) printed information about the standards and advice relative to parental involvement in their children's education for visible display and use in every public school K-12 classroom.
Section 59-28-210. The Education Oversight Committee shall disseminate the informational materials prepared pursuant to Section 59-28-200 to all districts and schools.
Section 59-28-220. The Education Oversight Committee, in cooperation with representatives of the Department of Commerce, the Department of Revenue, and the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, shall develop recommendations for employer tax credits as incentives to:
(1) provide parent-employee release time for parent-teacher conferences or attendance at their children's academic-related events without loss of pay; and
(2) develop workplace policies which enable parents to improve their literacy, assist their children with academics, and become more involved in their child's education as a result of employers working with local school officials.
Recommendations shall be reported to the Senate Finance and Education Committees, House Ways and Means Committee, and the House Education and Public Works Committee no later than January 1, 2001."
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor./
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend totals and title to conform.
RONALD P. TOWNSEND, for Committee.
TO AMEND TITLE 59, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO EDUCATION, BY ADDING CHAPTER 28 SO AS TO ENACT THE "PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN THEIR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION ACT" INCLUDING PROVISIONS TO ESTABLISH A FRAMEWORK FOR ENCOURAGEMENT OF INCREASED PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN, FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT TRAINING FOR EDUCATORS AND SCHOOL STAFF, FOR PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THEIR CHILD'S ACADEMIC SUCCESS, FOR EFFORTS TO INCREASE PARENT-TEACHER CONTACTS, AND FOR EVALUATION OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT EFFORTS; TO AMEND SECTION 59-1-420, RELATING TO THE LENGTH OF THE SCHOOL TERM, SO AS TO ADD TWO ADDITIONAL SCHOOL DAYS TO BEGIN WITH SCHOOL YEAR 2002-2003 AND TO PROVIDE THAT THESE DAYS MUST BE USED FOR FURTHER PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES; AND TO PROVIDE THAT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY SHALL CONSIDER ENACTING EMPLOYER TAX CREDITS TO ENCOURAGE WORKPLACE POLICIES FOR PARENT RELEASE TIME FROM WORK FOR PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES AND PARTICIPATION IN OTHER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. (A) The General Assembly finds that:
(1) parent involvement influences student development and learning and, therefore, should be viewed as an essential component of the public education system;
(2) parent involvement and momentum for parent participation is evident for early childhood and elementary schools but declines in middle and high schools;
(3) there does not appear to be an accountability mechanism in place to ensure support for parent involvement opportunities or to define expectations for parent involvement at the various levels of responsibility or the various grade levels;
(4) there is no structured method to enable, support, and sustain parent involvement at the various levels of state, district, or school responsibility;
(5) barriers and challenges cited in research and expressed by educators and parents can be overcome through a variety of proven approaches identified in the research; and
(6) there is no state system for providing professional development to teachers and school staff in working with parents and diversity of families, and there is no system for monitoring and assessing parent involvement efforts and results.
(B) The General Assembly has therefore determined to enact the provisions of this act in order to:
(1) heighten awareness of the importance of the parent role to be involved in the education of their children and, thereby, influence the academic success of their children;
(2) provide state and local leadership to enable schools to implement parent involvement best practices through adoption of policy and establishment of meaningful partnerships through interactions involving family, school, and the community;
(3) provide parent involvement support, training, and resources to enable teachers and school staff to work with parents in the best interests of their children's education;
(4) encourage and induce parents to become more interested and involved in their children's education and provide greater opportunities for parent-teacher contacts;
(5) encourage employers to adopt workplace policies to enable parents to participate more fully in their children's education and in school activities; and
(6) provide for a statewide system to monitor and evaluate the results of parent involvement efforts, including success in achieving parent involvement expectations, at both the state and local levels and at home.
SECTION 2. Title 59 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 59-28-100. This chapter may be cited as the 'Parent Involvement in their Children's Education Act'.
Section 59-28-300. The Governor shall require state agencies that serve families and children to collaborate and establish networks with schools that the children they serve attend.
Section 59-28-310. The State Board of Education shall:
(1) require school and district long-range improvement plans to include stated goals and objectives for parent involvement and methods for local data collection to support statewide evaluation of parent involvement efforts; and
(2) recognize those districts and schools where parent involvement significantly increases beyond stated goals and objectives, as determined by the state evaluation as defined by law.
Section 59-28-320. The State Superintendent of Education shall:
(1) enroll the Department of Education as a state member of national organizations which:
(a) promote proven parent involvement frameworks, models, and practices;
(b) provide related services to state and local members, such as the National Network of Partnership Schools; and
(c) promote and encourage local school districts to join as local members;
(2) through state leadership, promote parent involvement as a priority for all levels from pre-K through grade 12, with particular emphasis at the middle and high school levels where parent involvement is currently least visible;
(3) designate a Department of Education staff position whose specific role is to coordinate statewide initiatives to support school and district parent involvement;
(4) develop a process for collecting and sharing parent involvement best practices with schools and districts, including practices that are specific to grade levels, and other related elements which support parent involvement, such as the National Parent-Teacher Association standards;
(5) disseminate best practices in various forms including print, video, audio, and workshops to districts and schools, and sponsor annual statewide conference on best practices;
(6) monitor and evaluate parent involvement statewide and report results;
(7) identify, recommend, and implement ways to coordinate statewide conferences and integrate programs and funding for maximum benefit to enhance parent involvement.
Section 59-28-330. Each local school board of trustees shall:
(1) ensure that the district and schools join national organizations which:
(a) promote various proven parent involvement frameworks and models; and
(b) provide services to districts and schools, such as the National Network of Partnership Schools;
(2) incorporate, where possible, those practices into existing policies and efforts; and
(3) provide incentives and formal recognition for schools that significantly improve or increase, or both, parent involvement, as determined by the results of the state evaluation as defined by law.
Section 59-28-340. Each school district superintendent and school principal shall:
(1) assure that each school's School Improvement Council and other school decision-making groups are functioning in accordance with state requirements and in the best interest of an inclusive system; and
(2) support implementation of Action Team approaches and other models that support School Improvement Councils and facilitate greater decision-making input and collaboration among parents, the community, and faculty in the school.
Section 59-28-350. Each school district superintendent shall:
(1) designate staff to serve as parent liaison for the district to coordinate parent involvement initiatives and coordinate community collaboration or agency networking, or both, to support parents and families; and
(2) require each school to designate a faculty contact for parent involvement efforts to work collaboratively with the district coordinator and network with other school faculty contacts.
Section 59-28-500. The State Board of Education shall:
(1) require all certified and noncertified school staff persons employed by South Carolina school districts and special schools to complete training in parent involvement best practices which must be provided through newly developed or adapted state model programs, which meet criteria to be established by the State Board of Education;
(2) adopt criteria for the parent involvement training program referred to in (1); and
(3) require this training for teacher and administrator contract renewal, and it shall be considered a part of the criteria necessary for renewal of teacher contracts as provided by law.
Section 59-28-510. The State Superintendent of Education shall:
(1) work with higher education institutions and the pre-K through grade 12 education community, including parent program coordinators, to design the required parent involvement and best practices training programs, which shall address:
(a) parent involvement training, with emphasis on racial, ethnic, and socio-economic diversity, and as appropriate to various grade-level needs;
(b) maintenance of a parent-friendly school setting;
(c) awareness of community resources that strengthen families and assist students to succeed; and
(d) other topics appropriate for fostering partnerships between parent and teacher;
(2) provide parent involvement staff development training for district trainers, as needed;
(3) provide other technical assistance relating to parent involvement training to districts and schools;
(4) advise schools and districts on current effective methods, strategies, and practices used in other states for providing parent involvement training for faculty and staff;
(5) promote collaboration between school districts and schools that enhance and support home and school activities; and
(6) work collaboratively with the State Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education to incorporate parent involvement training into teacher preparation, as a requirement for preservice and student teaching, with the training to be consistent with the parent involvement training required for employed teachers as specified in item (1).
Section 59-28-520. Each local school board of trustees shall provide parent involvement orientation and the training required in Section 59-28-500 through staff development or personnel inservices, with an emphasis on unique school and district needs, for all faculty and staff, at the beginning of the 2001-2002 school year, and after that, on an ongoing basis in three-year cycles.
Section 59-28-700. The Education Oversight Committee shall promote the importance of parent involvement through the public awareness campaign required by the Education Accountability Act and shall include:
(1) advice for parents on how to help their children be successful in school and the importance of nurturing their children's skills and abilities;
(2) requests to employers, state agencies, entities, community groups, nonprofits, and faith communities that work with children and families to distribute and display parent advice and other pertinent parent information;
(3) promotion of the benefits of increased productivity, loyalty, and sense of community which result from parent-friendly work place policies;
(4) encouragement to employers to adopt parent-friendly workplace policies that:
(a) offer the workplace as a site for parent-teacher conferences;
(b) provide recognition awards to parent employees completing diploma and GED programs; and
(c) donate services and goods to schools in the name of both the business and their employees of the month;
(5) recognition of businesses and employers where parent-friendly policies have been adopted; and
(6) recognition of agencies and faith communities that have supported and increased parent involvement in their children's education.
Section 59-28-710. The Education Oversight Committee and the State Superintendent of Education shall develop and publish jointly informational materials for distribution to all parents in the State whose children attend public schools and to all teachers for their use in the classroom and with parents. The informational materials for distribution shall include:
(1) a handbook or multi-media materials, or both, explaining the grade-level academic content standards and advice on how parents can help their children achieve the standards, and the relationship of the standards to the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests (PACT); and
(2) printed information about the standards and advice relative to parent involvement in their children's education for visible display and use in every public school K-12 classroom.
Section 59-28-720. The Education Oversight Committee shall disseminate the informational materials prepared pursuant to Section 59-28-710 to all districts and schools.
Section 59-28-730. Each local school board of trustees shall:
(1) by school year 2001-2002, establish policies and support actions to increase parent involvement which bring together the teacher, the parent, and the student to discuss the academic progress of the student;
(2) by school year 2001-2002, adopt policies requiring the district and schools to incorporate proven effective practices that enable parents to become more involved in the education of their children;
(3) by school year 2001-2002, identify and promote availability of community resources for schools that strengthen families and support student success; and
(4) by school year 2002-2003, offer parent education, parenting skills, and child development information in comprehensive health courses at middle and high school grades to promote and influence good parenting, particularly for students who are young parents.
Section 59-28-740. Each school district superintendent shall distribute and display information on parental responsibilities for a child's academic success in various places where parents are likely to be.
Section 59-28-750. Each school principal shall designate space within the school building specifically for parents with a lending library of materials related to parental responsibility for their children's success in school; district and school parent handbooks; school dress and behavior codes; agencies which provide services to children and families; parent issues; and guides to best practices for involvement at home and school, study habits, and behavior modifications.
Section 59-28-900. Each local school district superintendent shall encourage principals to accommodate scheduling of parent-teacher conferences at parent convenience and, to the extent possible, accommodate parents in cases where transportation and normal school hours present a hardship to the parent.
Section 59-28-1100. The State Superintendent of Education shall monitor and conduct annual evaluations of school and district parent involvement programs and related components and practices as follows:
(1) design a statewide system to evaluate the effectiveness of parent involvement efforts and its impact on increasing student achievement and to identify best practices;
(2) share evaluation findings and a response to the findings with schools, districts, state and local agencies, higher education institutions for use in teacher preparation programs, and appropriate other state agencies and entities; and
(3) provide an annual report of the evaluation findings and implications to the General Assembly, State Board of Education, and Education Oversight Committee.
Section 59-28-1110. The Education Oversight Committee shall include parent involvement information on the school report card as follows:
(1) for purposes of information, report the capacity that parents are actively involved in their children's education at home and at school; and
(2) develop a method for collecting the related school-level data for the report card.
Section 59-28-1120. The Education Oversight Committee shall:
(1) survey parents annually to determine if state and local efforts are effective in increasing parent involvement with attention to the following:
(a) the extent that their participation and involvement in their children's education at home, at school, or both, is a result of school district and school efforts, the public awareness campaign, or other local and state efforts;
(b) ask parents to identify the opportunities and strategies that have been most effective in involving them in their children's education; and
(c) include open-ended queries inviting parent comments;
(2) develop the survey instrument with input from state and local parent program coordinators.
Section 59-28-1130. Each local school board of trustees shall:
(1) require an annual briefing on district and school parent involvement programs including findings from state and local evaluations on the success of the district and schools' efforts;
(2) adopt policies that emphasize the importance of parent involvement and outline clearly defined expectations for the schools in the district; and
(3) include parent involvement expectations as part of the superintendent's evaluation.
Section 59-28-1140. Each local school district superintendent shall:
(1) include parent involvement expectations as part of each principal's evaluation; and
(2) include information about parent involvement opportunities and participation in the district's annual report.
Section 59-28-1150. Each school principal shall:
(1) include parent involvement expectations as part of each teacher's evaluation; and
(2) include information about parent involvement opportunities and participation in the school's annual report."
SECTION 3. (A) Section 59-1-420 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"Section 59-1-420. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, Beginning with school year 2002-2003, the statutory school term is one hundred ninety ninety-two days annually and at least one hundred eighty days must be used for student instruction and the remaining ten twelve days may be used for preparation of opening and closing of schools, for in-service training, and for teacher planning and preparation time and parent-teacher conferencing. At least No more than three days may be used for the opening and closing of schools and for teacher planning and preparation, and two days may be used in teacher-parent parent-teacher conferences with emphasis upon failing and underachieving students and up to two days may be used for additional parent-teacher conferences. Provided, further, that However, conferences may be held on Saturday at the direction of the local school board."
(B) The provisions of Section 59-1-420 of the 1976 Code, as amended by subsection (A), take effect July 1, 2002.
SECTION 4. The General Assembly shall consider enacting employer tax credits as incentives to:
(1) provide parent employee release time for parent-teacher conferences or attendance at their children's academic-related events without loss of pay; and
(2) develop workplace policies which enable parents to improve their literacy, assist their children with academics, and become more involved in their child's education as a result of employers working with local school officials.
SECTION 5. Except as otherwise stated, this act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
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