Parent Involvement

How Can Parents Be Involved?

Parents are very important in their child's education, we invite and encourage parents to become involved in their child's school.  They are encouraged to participate in their child’s education by reading to their child and attending events (conferences and meetings) sponsored by the school and the Title I program.  

There are many ways to be involved such as reviewing the school's Parent Involvement Policy and Home-School Compact, brainstorming/planning parent involvement activities and workshops, becoming a member of the school's parent/teacher organization, or volunteering at school.  

Of course direct involvement with your child’s educational program provides the strongest support.  Grades are accessible at PowerSchool Parent Portal.  

School, family and community partnerships can take many forms. In our district, we value and encourage parental involvement at all levels of participation. Below is Joyce Epstein’s “Six Types of Parent Involvement Model” from Johns Hopkins University, which outlines what meaningful parental involvement looks like.  

1. PARENTING: Helping families to develop home environments that support learning. Each month newsletters are shared with parents that provide guidance on the upcoming curriculum and ways that parents may support their child. 

2. COMMUNICATING: Providing information and designing more effective forms of communications between school and home.  On a regular basis, phone calls, emails, and text are shared with parents by the principal, teachers, and school.  We encourage parents to communicate with their child’s teacher and the building principal.  South Madison has an open door policy for parents. 

3. VOLUNTEERING: Recruiting and organizing parental help and support.  In a normal year, a range of volunteer activities are offered to parents.  For the 2020-2021 school year, we regret that these opportunities are limited to protect students and staff by providing a closed campus environment. 

4. LEARNING AT HOME: Providing information and ideas to parents about how to help students at home with homework and other curriculum-related activities.  The parent curriculum newsletter mentioned previously provides ideas for parents to help students with their work.  In addition, parents have access to the PowerSchool Parent Portal, teacher newsletters, and the school newsletter. Finally, the district website provides a range of video tutorials for students and parents on a range of instructional tools.

5. DECISION MAKING: Including parents in school decisions, and developing parent leaders and representatives.  Parent involvement is critical to the success of our school and programs.  We encourage parent involvement in decision making through the parent club, participation in the Title I annual meeting, and completion of programming surveys.  Of course, feedback is always welcome. 

6. COLLABORATING WITH COMMUNITY: Identifying and integrating resources and services from the community to strengthen school programs and family.  Beyond parent involvement, the community plays an important role in the success of our students.  A specific partnership is with the Pendleton Public Library.  Each South Madison student has access to a public library card through the One Card program.  The library provides a wonderful resource for reading materials and a range of programming for your child and for you.


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