Hamilton County Department of Education: Policy Changes to Include and Empower Parents

This petition is to inspire the Hamilton County School Board to empower and include parents, by making the following policy changes;

1. A daily or weekly report to parents on what is taught in their children's classrooms and in assemblies.

2. A daily or weekly notification for parents on what is assigned as homework and projects, for all grades, k-12.

3. A quarterly forum with the principal of their child's school, to discuss issues, policy changes, and for collective problem-solving.

4. An introductory meeting, at the beginning of each school year, to explain curriculum, expectations, the chain of command.

These meetings are to include;
(A) Hard copies of syllabi for every class.
(B) Information for web sites for texts books, the school, and for the DOE.
(C) Explanation of school policies.
(D) School phone numbers.
(E) Sign-up sheets for specific volunteer opportunities for parents that are directly related to academic achievement.
(F) Schedule for all school board meetings.
(G) List of all legislative and school board changes that are applicable to education, for the current and following year.
(H) Information on tutoring and other agencies that support students academically, medically, and emotionally.
(I) Comparative reports for the state, county, and individual schools. With all information provided in writing.

5. A parent's advisory board, with a representative on the school board, and as representation for individual's issues at specific schools and with the DOE. Self-selected by parents.

6. Respectable three-day response times for all communication from parents, by DOE officials, school board members, and principals, to include recommendations for how to follow the chain of command, if an agreement was not made.

7. Three-day prior notices for school board meetings, and all other decision-making meetings related to education, via e-mail, texts, hard copies, or phone calls.

8. Hard copy evaluations reports for all standardized tests, as soon as those reports are available to the DOE. Reports from quarterly math and language arts evaluations for students.

9. Three-minute comment time, per parent, at school board meetings, without prior approval or filtering, regardless of how many parents want to speak, until every parent is heard.

10. To be exempt from limits on speaking publicly about any meetings with school officials or any other issues related to public school, that do not violate an individual child's right to privacy.