Revised 11/2004

A student will not be considered officially enrolled until the parent has met with an Education Specialist in person and discussed and signed the Student Agreement and School charter (initialed school charter optional resource, not required for CWCS). The purpose of the Student Agreement is for the parent and Education Specialist to completely discuss the many resources available to the student through this Charter School. The ES is responsible to make sure the parent understands all information before they sign the student agreement. The parent is the student's primary educational facilitator and the Education Specialist provides the educational support to the degree the parent wishes, up to the maximum required time allotment per student. A full-time ES with 25 students works for 6 hours a day during the academic year. This is represents the equivalent of one hour and twelve minutes per student per week during the academic year. Each parent and student must sign a new student agreement each school semester. The original copy of each Student Agreement is submitted to the student records office where it is kept on file. Until a student agreement is received by the office for a newly enrolling student, the student will not be "funded", cannot attend classes, and cannot have POs created and processed, as they cannot be activated in the database until the complete student agremment arrives in the office. The office staff makes it a number one priority to process any complete student agreements as soon as they arrive.

• The signed Student Agreements must be sent to: Student Records, IEM 1166 Broadway Ste. Q, Placerville, CA 95667. Note on the outside of the envelope that it contains Student Agreements.
• If any changes are needed, information on the first page may be neatly crossed out and initialed by the ES and the parent, but if any information on the second page needs to be changed, the ES must redo it, no changes to the signatures or dates on the second page are allowed.
• As usual, it is highly recommended that you make a photocopy of the signed agreement for your records prior to sending the original documents to Student Records.
• CWCS Only: An Assessment Confirmation form is required to be included with the first student agreement of each school year. Please staple the two pages of the student agreement together, and include the assessment confirmation form (unstapled) in the same envelope, they must be mailed together.

 

• School year: This is the year that the calendar will be changing to in January. So if it's the "2003/2004" school year, please write "2004".
• Parent Name: The parent or legal guardians listed on the student agreement are the only people authorized to sign roll sheet attendance. (other than AESS option- see AESS). If both parents want to be able to sign, then both should be listed.
• Each Charter School maintains individual calendar tracks for the current school year. Some schools will have more than one track choice available. The track schedules have been printed on the back of the attendance roll sheet and are available in the forms section on the Charter School web page. The family chooses which track they wish to follow at the time the Student Agreement is signed.
• Semester - Mark the appropriate semester. The first semester of the school year is the Fall semester and the second is the Spring semester. A new Student Agreement must be signed each semester.
• Contract Begins - This is the first day of attendance for that semester.
• Ends - This would be the last day of the semester. If the student is leaving before the end of the semester, this date would be the last day of attendance in the charter school.
• Duration - Either the # of days or # of weeks.
• Manner for submitting assignments and reporting progress - Learning records, face-to-face meetings, etc. (must say at least "face-to-face meetings, but can say more).

  A formal time and place to do assessment of the student's work is required. The ES should record the most common time/frequency/place assessment occurs.

• Time - Clock time / day indicated which is the time that the actual assessment of the work occurs. Example: Tuesday, 10 am.
• Frequency - How often this assessment occurs. Example: Once a week, once a month, etc.
• Place - Where the assessment takes place. Example: At library, at restaurant, at parent's home, etc.

 Distribution of Educational Responsibilities

The ES and parent will discuss the choices in the distribution of educational responsibilities and circle the percentage in each area of responsibility. A parent who wants most of the responsibility in each of the areas will circle 100% under Parent. A parent who wants the ES to carry most of the responsibility will circle 100% under Ed Specialist. Much of the time the percents circled will vary from family to family depending on the type of professional support from the ES the family chooses. In an AESS situation, where the student is a high school age and the parent is not involved, the student may choose to accept some of the responsibility as noted below. The parent is not required to teach the child. The parent is responsible to make sure the student learns. Parents can choose how, when or what they learn. The parent "facilitates" learning. An older student might choose an AESS program; a younger student may be taught exclusively by his/her parent. The parent chooses how the time is used. Example: A parent has four children in the school. The parent can ask the ES to be there 4 hours a week and request that the ES help one child primarily. NOTE: The time the ES is required to serve a student (one hour per each five school days) is to be used for all administrative duties as required by the school as well as the services requested by the parent.

 

• Definition of an assignment - The period of time between meetings.
• Selection of Curriculum Materials - The selection of appropriate curriculum materials is a cooperative venture between the parent and ES. The parent may want the ES to pick all the materials. The parent may know exactly what materials are appropriate for their child and only ask the ES for suggestions. The ES is responsible for ordering and tracking these materials. The materials ordered for a student must be appropriate for that student's needs and abilities.
• Person Giving Assignments and/or Instruction - About one third of the students enrolled in this Charter School are high school students. Many of these students choose to use an AESS model. In an AESS situation, the ES has more responsibility in the administration of the daily learning. Most of the parents prefer having the responsibility of daily instruction, relying on the ES for support in other ways: setting up Contract Program Courses, Group Educational Activities, and providing educational advice.
• Evaluating Student's Daily Work - A student who is on an AESS model will need more feedback on their academic work from the ES than a student whose parent is involved in the daily supervision of learning. Student work is always reviewed regularly by the ES for the purpose of documenting learning in the learning record.
• Arranging for Group Educational Activities and Cooperative Learning Projects - If the parent wants their student to participate in a Group Educational Activity or Contract Program Course, the ES is the primary administrator of the required paperwork. A more detailed description of the policy and procedures required for each of the Contract Program options can be found in the appropriate section of the ES Handbook.
• Parents wishing more direct teacher involvement can discuss the AESS option with their ES. The stipend paid to the ES for these additional services is deducted from the instructional funds. The AESS contract form must be signed in addition to the Student Agreement.

Student Cumulative File Contents

• A Report card for all 9-12 students is required. Please make sure that parents of K-8 students realize that if they do not mark the box requesting a report card, no report card will be placed in their child's cum.
• STAR test results will be added to the student's cum file unless the above box is checked.

• An Authorization for the Release of Student Information must be obtained for any student participating in videos or written publications. This form can be found in the PDF forms files http://www.ieminc.org/genericforms/index.htm listed under Parent Information. 

• The Charter school objectives are the student standards.
• The ES evaluates the work product of the student to determine if adequate and appropriate progress towards the student standards have been made during that assignment period.
• The activities which support the attainment of student standards must be reported on the learning record.
• The learning records must include descriptions of the major objectives of the course of study covered by the agreement.

• The ES must list the subject and number of credits to be earned during the contract period.

• This student is entitled to school services and resources including but not limited to all school personnel, a credentialed teacher, textbooks, computers and software, supplementary materials, group educational activities, contract program courses including tutoring and community resources.
• No more than 20 days may pass between when an assignment is made and the date by which a K-12 student must complete the assigned work in this charter school unless an exception is made in accordance with school policy.
• The number of missed assignments that will be allowed before an evaluation is conducted to determine whether it is in the best interests of the student to remain in the AESS option shall be one (1). If a meeting is missed or if the student does not make adequate progress in meeting student standards for an assignment, "0" attendance is generated for that period. This automatically triggers a truancy notice.
• Enrollment in this charter school program is an optional alternative that is voluntarily selected. This student will remain eligible to enroll in a school located in the district in which he/she resides.
• This student will not be enrolled as a student in a private school while he/she is enrolled in the Charter School. A law took effect on Jan 1, 1999 which states that no student can be concurrently enrolled in a tuition charging school and a charter school. No Charter School student may concurrently be enrolled in a private school if the school charges the pupil's family a tuition, if that school takes a record of attendance, and if the student takes a course of study that meets the State's compulsory education laws. A Charter School student may be concurrently enrolled in supplemental educational activities paid for by their parent, as long as those courses are clearly supplemental in nature. If there is any question of whether a student's participation in supplementary instruction could also be interpreted as enrollment in a private school, the issue shall be brought to the school's administration for a ruling. If a parent wishes to contest the school administration's decision, they may appeal their case to the school's governing committee for a formal decision which shall be final.

 Signatures

• The Student Agreement must be signed by student, parent and ES and dated prior to submitting to Student Records.

  Parent signature indicates that the parent:

  has read the Charter

  has read the school handbook

  understands the school's requirements

  accepts full responsibility for their child's education

  understands that the educational needs of some students cannot be met through this charter school

  The student is also required to sign the Student Agreement.