Parents

The Lafayette Parish School System recognizes the valuable role the family plays in a child's successful progress through school. Parental and family involvement in school activities is an important factor in student achievement. Schools with strong parental/family involvement have students that achieve higher scores on standardized tests and performance based assessments. This school district encourages and highly values parental/family involvement. Click on the above link for more information.

Parents & Teachers, together as a team, can ensure school success!

Parents can sometimes spot a school problem before the teacher does. If you think there's a school problem, it's time to call the teacher.

Here are some tips on how you can make the most of that call:

• Call the school and leave a message for the teacher to call you when she has time. Or, send the teacher an email asking her to call you when she's not too busy.
• Write down details. Be as specific as possible. Be sure to jot down some notes you can refer to during your phone call.
• Tell her what you've tried. Let the teacher know what steps you have already taken at home to try and help your child.
• Ask the teacher for her insights and her help. Let the teacher know you want to work with her.
• Remember that you and the teacher have the same goal: your child's success. Starting out on a positive note is a great way to end with a successful plan for your child.

Attendance

• Hours for students: (7:25) 7:55- 3:05
• Attendance should be your child's #1 responsibility.
• Being tardy or absent makes it hard to keep up- and when one student falls behind, it can affect the whole class.
• Help your child commit to being prompt and present!
• Midyear is the time to review attendance.
• The halfway point of the school year is approaching. It's time for a mid-year checkup on your child's attendance.

Research Says:

This is what researchers found when they looked at what happened when students missed as few as one day every two weeks:

• School absences add up. Kids who aren't in school can't learn what's being taught.
• Missing school becomes a habit.
• There is a "clear and consistent relationship" between early attendance and later achievement.
• How many days of school has your child missed? It's not too late to get back on track so they can have a successfull school year.

Source: M. Buehler and others, "Why Being in School Matters: Chronic Absence in Oregon Schools", Attendance Works, www.attendanceworks.org/.

Work with your child to set priorities and manage time

• Enforce a homework time.
• Focus on productivity instead of grades.
• Set priorities.
• Help with time management.
• Help your child track the time they spend on homework.

Source: M. Levine, The Myth of Laziness, Simon & Schuster.

Family community service

Check out these websites, unitedway.org and volunteermatch.org to find family volunteer opportunities in our area.

Communication

• Listening is the key to getting your child to open up to you!
• It's important to keep the lines of communication open with your child. Studies show that when children feel connected to their parents they tend to do better academically.
• So, if you want your child to talk, you have to listen. And that often means not correcting them when they use the wrong word. It also means not interupting what they are saying and waiting until they get to the end of the story before commenting.
• The key to keeping the lines of communication open is simple: If you want to find out what's going on at school and in your child's life, avoid the urge to interrupt them when they are telling you about it!

Source: A.E. Wolf, I'd Listen to My Parents if They'd Just Shut Up, HarperCollins.