The gold standard of a thriving educational environment is one in which parents and teachers work towards aligned goals, the students have the latest technology at their fingertips at school and home, and communication between parties is welcomed and encouraged.

An increasing number of Afghan and Ukrainian families are entering U.S. school districts as immigrants and refugees. Integrating these newcomers poses unique challenges, among them the critical task of effective communication between the school and parents. Communication is a cornerstone for student success; however, language barriers often act as a stumbling block for meaningful interaction with parents from non-English speaking backgrounds. 

As our student body becomes increasingly diverse, there is no better time to take a proactive approach to parent communication, especially in their own languages.

TransACT ParentNotices, in collaboration with some states and districts, has translated its ESSA and General Education ParentNotices Collections into Dari, Pashto, and Ukrainian, the languages of recent refugee populations. The following ParentNotices Collections have been updated:

As an education professional, we understand that you are committed to communicating effectively with your students and their families to support student success. Not only that, you’re aware of the legal obligations of presenting information in a language that all parents understand, including the parents of English learner (EL) students. After all, your goal is to build trust, share information, and show that you care about all students in your district  — regardless of which language they speak.

In response to guidance released by the U.S. Department of Education (USED), TransACT has updated documents in its ESSA ParentNotices Collection in two content categories:

TransACT ParentNotices subscribers get unlimited access for all district users to over 200 expertly written and translated parent notifications. These notices have been legally reviewed (where applicable) to comply with federal education laws and are regularly updated to remain current with changes. ParentNotices supports administrators in a compliant parent and family engagement plan and can serve as evidence of implementation in the event of a state monitoring visit, ensuring districts have genuine support when they need it most.   

TransACT ParentNotices is parent engagement software used by school districts and state departments of education to support compliant and equitable parent engagement. Subscribers of ParentNotices can have access to over 200 expertly written and translated notices that have been legally reviewed where applicable to comply with federal education laws. ParentNotices supports administrators in a compliant parent engagement plan and can serve as evidence of implementation in the event of a state monitoring visit.

The August 2021 ParentNotices feature release involves enhanced monitoring capabilities when adding parents and staff into the system.

Effective school-to-home communication plays a vital role when it comes to achieving successful student outcomes. However, staying in compliance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirements when communicating with parents and family members can prove challenging and the pandemic has only exasperated the difficulties as schools operated remotely.

TransACT’s Executive Director of Federal Programs and State Relationships is leading a webinar on the “Increases in Federal Requirements for Parent and Family Engagement” on August 25th, 2021, at 9:30 am PT / 10:30 am MT, 11:30 am CT, and 12:00 pm ET.   

In this webinar, you will learn about significant changes to parent and family engagement under ESSA, including:    

The June 2021 ParentNotices release further supports school and district staff by collecting parent signatures on crucial notifications while improving content management with auto-fill student assessment results. The latest release includes: