The Office of Title I works to promote academic excellence, enhance educational opportunities and equity for our children and families, and to improve the quality of teaching and learning by providing leadership, technical assistance and financial support to district initiatives.

The goal of the Title I Program is to provide academic excellence for our students to acquire the knowledge and skills contained in the challenging Common Core State Standards.

Under the Title I program, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) provides supplemental funding to local school districts to meet the needs of students in a school with a certain percentage of at-risk and low income students. The purpose of this funding is "to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education and reach, at minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic assessments,” according to the DOE.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) seeks to provide every student with a high quality education. It states that students are to be challenged to meet high standards, taught by highly qualified teachers using proven teaching methods and be able to learn in a safe, drug-free environment and creates a system of reports, assessments and sanctions in order to help districts meet those goals. Schools that receive Title I funding are subject to certain rules, regulations and accountability under ESSA.

For more information, visit: ESSA Website

A "Title I School'' is a school that is eligible to receive Title I funding. For an entire school to qualify for Title I funds, at least 40% of students must enroll in the free and reduced lunch program. Title I funds can be used to improve curriculum and programs, to increase staff, or for instructional activities, counseling and parental involvement. In the Franklin Township Public School District, the following schools receive Title I funding: Elizabeth Avenue School, Hillcrest School, Pine Grover Manor, Franklin Middle School @ Hamilton Street Campus, Franklin Middle School @ Sampson G Smith and Claremont Elementary School.

For more information, visit: NJ Title I Program

Under ESSA, schools must make adequate yearly progress on state testing and focus on best teaching practices in order to continue receiving funds. In Franklin Township, we currently have six schools that receive Title I funding.

An important part of ESSA is the area that focuses on parental involvement and encourages districts to help parents be partners in their children’s education.

• We encourage parents to keep aware of their right to know certain information about their child's records, school and teachers - see our annual "Right to Know'' letters below.

• We encourage our parents to keep informed about their school's performance on state testing and on the ESSA "status'' of their child's school by viewing the annual NJ Performance Reports.

  • This report card presents school-, district-, and state-level information in those areas mandated by ESSA, such as Adequate Yearly Progress; information on highly qualified teachers; attendance and dropout data; and assessment data that has incorporated all of the conditions mandated under ESSA for meeting federally approved proficiency levels.

• We encourage our parents to keep informed by attending Board of Education meetings, viewing our district and school websites, reviewing their children's teachers' class pages online and making sure they have an e-mail address registered on the district's Parentlink system.

• We encourage our parents to get involved by joining your school's parent group organization, attending school events, assist with school fundraising activities and engage in conversations with fellow parents and school and district staff members. See our District Parental Involvement Policy

• We encourage our parents to communicate with your child's teacher and with your school and district administrative staff and to attend Back to School Night events (typically in September and October) and parent-teacher conferences (typically in November or by request), which can be found on the district's monthly calendar.

• Parents are encouraged to offer input and suggestions to the Board of Education and school and district administration on how the district can maintain a safe and healthy school environment. Every board meeting has an open public forum where any questions or suggestions can be addressed and our administrative team can be reached by phone or e-mail.

• Parents have the right to know about teacher qualifications. In New Jersey, a teacher receives a certificate for teaching and also must obtain the status of "highly qualified'' in their area. Each year in our annual notices, we post information about the status of our teaching staff. This information is also available in the ESSA Report Card.