	Introduction

Requiring or encouraging parents' involvement in the education of their children has been a long-standing goal of Title I, Part A, Education for the Disadvantaged, authorized by the of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), most recently amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, P.L. 107-110 ). Most of the parental involvement requirements in the ESEA, as amended by NCLB, are in Title I-A, Section 1118, though Section 1116 includes parental notification requirements and Sections 1111 and 1112 also have parental involvement provisions. This report examines various modes of parental involvement in the education of their children. Research on Parental Involvement and Student Achievement

As mentioned previously, studying the effects of parental involvement on student achievement is a difficult task. The IASA mandated that Title I-A LEAs and schools have parental involvement policies and that Title I-A schools develop school-parent compacts, both new parental involvement requirements. While both the IASA and NCLB required LEAs that received over $500,000 in Title I-A funds to reserve at least 1% of such funds to support parental involvement activities, NCLB has an additional requirement that 95% of funds reserved for parental involvement be distributed to schools. Schools that are in year two (or a later year) of improvement must also explain students' right to SES. Other alternatives to increasing parental involvement include promoting more full-service models: public charter schools and community schools.
Requiring or encouraging parents' involvement in the education of their children has been a long-standing goal of Title I, Part A, Education for the Disadvantaged, authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), most recently amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, P.L. 107-110). NCLB encourages parents' involvement by requiring Title I-A schools and local educational agencies (LEAs) to develop, in conjunction with parents, parental involvement policies and school-parent compacts. Schools in LEAs that receive over $500,000 in Title I-A funding must also reserve at least 1% of their Title I-A funds for parental involvement activities. Additionally, the ESEA requires that parents receive notification on their child's school's performance, and, if applicable, their right to transfer their child to a school that met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) or to request free tutoring for their child.
This report begins by discussing the various definitions of parental involvement, barriers to increasing parental involvement, research on parental involvement and student achievement, and parental involvement requirements prior to NCLB. It then covers the parental involvement requirements in Title I-A, Sections 1116 and 1118, that were enacted under NCLB and their implementation. A brief discussion of parental involvement requirements in other sections of the ESEA follows. This report concludes by considering two alternative approaches to increasing parental involvement: public charter schools and community schools.