Title I

What is a Title I School?

Title I schools are determined by the percentage of students at each school who are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Dreamers Academy is considered a Title I School based upon the eligibility of over 60% of students qualifying for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. Title I is intended to ensure that all children can obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on challenging state academic standards and assessments. It provides flexible funding that may be used to provide additional staff, professional development, extended-time programs, and other strategies for raising student achievement.

Title I schools offer training to support parents in the education of their child. Areas of training may include:

• Academic enrichment in reading, writing, math, and science
• Literacy learning styles
• Behavioral management
• Technology

What Does That Mean For Dreamers Academy?

Our school receives additional resources to help us address the academic needs of our students. In addition to receiving additional instructional positions, our school also receives increased funding for additional instructional materials, professional development for our staff and parent involvement.  

Parents Right to Know

Federal law requires that the Sarasota County School District notify parents of all children in Title I schools of their rights to receive timely information on the professional qualifications of their child’s teacher. Parents may request information about the professional qualifications of the student’s classroom teacher including, at a minimum, the following:

• Whether the teacher has met state qualification and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher provides instruction.
• Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which state qualification or licensing criteria has been waived.
• The baccalaureate degree major of the teacher and any other graduate certificate or degree held by the teacher, and the field of discipline of the certification or degree.
• Whether the child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.

For all Title I schools, parents have the right to ask the school, and the school has the responsibility to let parents know about the qualifications of their child’s teacher. Please contact your school, who will respond in writing within a week. All paraprofessionals at our school meet the state requirements for highly qualified and 100% of all Title I teachers meet state requirements for highly qualified.

Parent and Family Engagement

We recognize that parent and family engagement is a shared responsibility and that parent and family engagement encourages high quality instruction for all learners.

Home/School Compact: Each school receiving funds under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) must develop a written Student-Parent-School Compact jointly with parents for all children participating in Title I Part A activities, services and programs. The Compact is part of the school’s written Parental Involvement Plan developed by the school and parents under Section 1118(b) of the ESEA. The Compact must outline how parents, the entire school staff and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and how the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve the state’s high
standards. Title I schools must have one parent contact (via written signature, phone call or face-to-face meeting) for each student stating that the student, parent and school will meet the responsibilities of the Student-Parent-School Compact.

What Would We Lose If We Were Not A Title 1 School?

If Dreamers Academy were no longer designated as a Title 1 school, we would lose our additional instructional positions, which directly support our students through supplemental instruction to our students during the school day. This team works with any children who demonstrate a need for additional assistance in a given academic area in both English and Spanish.

Wewould also lose our Family Outreach/Communications Coordinator. He is responsible for maintaining the vital connection between our families and our school, as well as programming the Parent and Family Engagement programs.

We would also lose funding for:

• Additional training for school staff
• A variety of teaching methods and materials
• Training for families

Important Links

• Sarasota Schools, Title 1 A
  
• Dreamers SIP
  
• Dreamers Home School Compact 
• Dreamers Parent and Family Engagement Plan

Out of Field Teachers