Parental Engagement a Top Priority in California

Passed in 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) was a huge win for parent involvement advocates, specifically the stakeholder engagement guideline, as it made parental engagement a top priority in California. The reason it held such appeal, and still does, is because, along with making parental involvement an important goal, it also holds school districts to a higher standard than ever before.

As part of the stakeholder engagement requirement, according to information from Health Happens Here, the California Family Resources organization, it mandates that each district in the state consult with parents in developing its Local Control Accountability Plan. As such, effectively engaging parents in making decisions about the budget is a big responsibility for the various districts within the state and takes a great deal of planning to make sure it’s done properly on all levels.

Based on a report by the organization Families in Schools, parents have a unique opportunity to ensure that the funds do indeed serve who it intends to serve, which are foster children, low-income students and English Language Learners (ELLs). Prior to LCFF, these high-need kids weren’t taken into any type of special consideration and one too many suffered from that as a result.

Since being introduced in 2013, a number of critiques show that the Local Control Funding Formula has indeed brought about more parental involvement in the state. For instance, a 2015 report on EdSource states that in some districts the school climate has improved, parental involvement programs have expanded, and services were added for foster kids in the system.

Finding educational programs that involve parents while supporting an ELL student’s first language, such as The Latino Family Literacy Project, can make a big difference in his or her overall school career and language acquisition success.