Title I Family Compact

Purpose of this Policy and Compact 

Efforts will be made to clearly articulate the school’s intentions to engage with and involve parents/caregivers in the educational process.  

Crestwood Elementary School is a Title I school within Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) and utilizes the Title I grant to improve student achievement and help all students meet the objectives of the FCPS Program of Studies and the Virginia Standards of Learning. A partnership with families is essential to meeting this goal.  

Under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, schools that receive Title I funds are expected to collaborate with families to develop and maintain a parent and family engagement policy that describes the school’s approach to involve families in students’ learning and includes a compact expressing the partnerships among staff, caregivers, and students to reach high academic goals for every student.  

Crestwood Elementary School jointly developed this policy and compact with members of the school community and adopted it for the 2024-2025 school year. Several of the provisions specifically address state or federal expectations for the policy and compact.  

This policy and compact is distributed to all caregivers in a language that families can understand. Caregivers have opportunities to provide comments and feedback on the policy and compact through parent coffees, PTA meetings and family engagement events. Comments are submitted with the school’s policy and compact to FCPS central offices and the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). This policy and compact are made available to the broader school community through the school website.

Building Capacity for Engagement

Efforts will be made to ensure parents/caregivers are actively involved in the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the school’s Title I program, including the following: 

• Provide family members a voice in decision-making on committees, such as PTA meetings, conferences, and Principal’s Coffees. 
• Engage caregiver input when developing the School Improvement and Innovation Plan (SIIP), Comprehensive Needs Assessment, the Title I Parent and Family Engagement Policy and Compact and plans for use of Title I family engagement funding.  
• Seek feedback from families on programs within the SIIP, offer multiple methods for caregivers to submit comments about programs they may not find satisfactory, and submit any such comments with SIIP to FCPS central offices.  
• Invite family members to help in organizing and executing a variety of school events to build collective ownership, such as Fall Festival, Fall Clean-up, Bike Rodeo, Walk to School Day, all Family Engagement Workshops (Literacy, Math, Science, STEAM), Movie Night, Turkey Trot and International Festival. 
• Provide opportunities for caregivers to volunteer within the school in various ways, such as mentoring, tutoring, assist in the library shelving books and reading to students, cafeteria assistance and classroom support activities. 
• Encourage families to take part in the annual evaluation of the division-level Title I parent and family engagement policy in order to identify:  
  • barriers to greater family participation,  
  • ways to help family members be better able to assist in student learning, and  
  • strategies to support successful school and family interactions.  

Effective Communication with Parents

Efforts will be made to ensure parents/caregivers receive meaningful communication in a timely manner, including the following:

• Use multiple methods of communication to families such as newsletters, flyers, backpack letters, News You Choose, Twitter, PTA Facebook, Talking Points, phone calls, student agendas and emails. 
• Encourage all caregivers to attend an annual meeting Back to School Meeting on September 5, 2024 to share information about Title I services, explain Title I grant requirements, and inform families of their right to be involved in the school.  
• Share school and student performance data with families in ways that seek their ideas about how to improve performance toward Virginia’s challenging academic standards, such as PTA meetings, SOL Planning Night, Civic Association meetings, Parent/Community Coffee. 
• Provide opportunities throughout the year for families to better understand the school’s goals for students and find ways to improve student learning by planning academic content workshops in reading, math and science. 
• Maintain resources for caregivers to review student assignments and ongoing communication about student work, in the weekly take home folder and Schoology. 
• Provide ongoing feedback on student progress through quarterly progress reports that show specific areas of proficiency and areas for continued growth.  
• Hold parent-teacher conferences for all students at least annually in the fall and more often, as needed. 

Shared Responsibilities for High Academic Achievement

Efforts will be made to ensure parents/caregivers receive materials, training, and benefits from school partnerships with social and academic services, community organizations, businesses, including the following:

• Hold workshops connecting caregivers to tools and resources, such as Family Literacy Night, Family Science Night, Family Math Night.
• Offer regular opportunities for families to learn directly from school staff about the school’s academic, behavioral, and social programming through parent/teacher conferences, newsletters, family engagement events and Principal Coffees. 
• Encourage participation in family learning events where caregivers learn strategies to support their child’s learning at home and have a chance to practice those strategies with their child, such as a Clinical Health Team Parent Presentations and Workshop on understanding Multi-Tier Systems and Support. 
  • Cafecito after Lunch: Presentation that focused on attendance for kindergarten parents, parents made visual schedules for their students to use as a strategy to support good school attendance
• Provide ongoing access to resources in the school, such as Social worker, family liaisons, and counselors meet individually with families to connect them to local resources for food, housing, clothing, health insurance, vision, etc.
• Provide mentors for students though:
  • Counselor provides Check and Connect with students
  • 5 Students are receiving free tutoring at a local church 1 x per week from October to May
• Provide opportunities to donate and access supplies donated by others, such as:
  • Coats and winter gear are passed out to families in need either at the Food Distribution or on an individual basis
  • School supplies: Passed out to students at Open House and on an individual basis
  • 110 Food packs: Passed out to students at dismissal on a first come, first serve basis
  • Shoes: provided to individual families who reach out for support 
  • Donation by a Woman’s Club of Springfield: pencils, key chains, stickers to pass out as incentives for students
  • Donated thermometers passed out to families on an as-needed basis
• Leverage partnerships with local businesses and organizations to enhance school programs and events, such as :
  • Partnership with local Churches and organizations such as: Grace Church, St. Christopher’s Church, The West Springfield Rotary Club, Woman’s Club of Springfield, Word of Life Church, Summit Church DC, Springfield United Methodist Church
  • Partnership with Food Rescue US and Trader Joe’s: biweekly food distribution to all our families 
  • Partnership with Churches to provide 110 food packs for students every Friday
  • Partnership with local Churches to provide food boxes over long holidays for 25-75 families.
  • Partnership with Springfield Safe Youth Project – After-school program
• Support parents in accessing county and community resources, such as a family Resource Center, Franconia Family Center, school social worker and school counselors. 
  • Meet with parents individually to connect to community resources: ECHO, Family Resource Center, Coordinated Services, Community Services Board, Springfield Resource Center, Food for others, MCCP, Short-term Behavioral Health 
• Offer outreach and training for targeted families, such as:
  • Referral to parenting groups run by the county
  • Referral to ESL classes 
  • Referral to Northern Virginia Family Services

Welcoming All Families

Efforts will be made to ensure that all parents/caregivers are welcomed and provided opportunities to actively engage within the school, including the following:  

• Create a welcoming atmosphere at the school with highly trained bi-lingual office staff, family liaisons/Family Center, PTA. 
• Provide interpretation services for parent-teacher conferences, workshops, and meetings.  
• Translate or provide interpretation of all school documents and communication to make them   accessible in the caregiver’s preferred correspondence language and for those with vision or hearing impairments.  
• Support two-way communication between families and staff through assistance of a parent liaison for conferences and translated videos to support technology use in school and home. 
• Expand access for family participation in informational meetings and learning sessions through increased communication, i.e. Talking. Points, Schoology, eNotify, News You Choose, personal phone calls.

Compact Provisions  

School staff, parents/caregivers, and students must work together to ensure student success.    

The staff will: 

Provide a high-quality curriculum and instruction that enables students to meet challenging academic standard through the following actions:

• Teach all students according to the state’s challenging standards, using approved curriculum resources.
• Provide ongoing professional development and support to all teachers to ensure effective instructional practices are used in all classrooms.
• Access for students to the Advanced Academic Program and resources.
• Training provided to all staff regarding critical and creative thinking strategies.

Provide a supportive and effective learning environment for students through the following actions: 

• Provide clear expectations for student behavior and academic learning.  
• Offer a variety of resources to help students with their learning.  
• Tiered instruction to all students, using multi-tiered systems of support for intervention and enrichment.
• Ongoing professional development in reading and math best practices.

Provide assistance to caregivers in understanding the school’s program through the following actions:

• Hold an annual meeting to present information on the school’s Title I programs, state and division curriculum and assessments, and the school’s state and federal accountability status.
• Provide multiple opportunities for caregivers to ask questions and give input in the Title I program(s).
• Provide resources such as newsletters, videos, presentations to inform caregivers about the importance of consistent attendance.

Build caregivers’ involvement in the school’s Title I program through the following actions:  

• Include caregivers as members of the School Improvement and Innovation Planning (SIIP) Committee and as collaborators in developing the SIIP and plans for the use of Title I family engagement funds.  

The parents/caregivers will:

Demonstrate understanding that participation in my child’s education will help his or her achievement through the following actions: 

• Participate in decisions related to school programs and my child’s education and share my   questions or comments about the programs in my child’s school.  
• Volunteer in my child’s classroom or in school activities, as my schedule allows.  
• Encourage and support my child’s learning at home and at school.  
• Encourage and support my child attending school on a consistent basis.

The student will:

Share the responsibility to improve my academic learning to achieve the state’s challenging standards through the following’s actions: 

• Get enough sleep every night. 
• Come to school on time unless I am sick.  
• Try my hardest and work with my classmates to complete learning tasks. 
• Give my parents all notes and papers from my teacher. 
• Attend school on a consistent basis.