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Washington, D.C. - Congressman Dale E. Kildee (D-MI) announced today that the United Way of Bay County has been awarded a $460,662 grant under the Parental Information and Resource Center Program. The U.S. Department of Education awarded the grant to the United Way of Bay County to implement successful and effective parental involvement policies to increase student academic achievement.
“In order to improve the academic performance of every student, we must encourage parental involvement and strengthen the relationship between schools and parents,” said Kildee. “This funding will enable Bay County schools to coordinate and facilitate partnerships with parents, which will ultimately help improve the quality of education for all students. We must never underestimate the impact parental involvement has on the academic achievement of students.”
The United Way of Bay County, in partnership with the Bay-Arenac Intermediate School District, will use these funds to establish a school-linked Parent Information Resource Center to serve Bay and Arenac County families. The grant will be used to improve and expand parental involvement in six schools identified for improvement under Title I and Michigan’s Education Yes! school accountability initiatives. Under this grant program, parents will be provided with the knowledge, training and skills needed to work in full partnership with school personnel to help improve the quality of the schools and the academic performance of each student. The main goal of the grant program is to help struggling schools design, implement and evaluate effective parent involvement policies, programs and activities that will improve academic achievement.
The Parental Information and Resource Center Grants were designed to help increase family awareness and involvement in the academic performance of students and schools. Several of the projects funded under this grant are geared towards helping parents understand the state and local standards and how student academic achievement is measured. The funding can be used help increase parental awareness by providing families with information about high-quality family involvement programs. The grant is typically used to help support a variety of family involvement programs such as the Parents as Teachers (PAT), the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) and other early childhood parenting programs. |
