Creating Parental Involvement: A Manual for School Children and Parents Interacting Program.

The Children and Parents Interacting program is a federally funded Title VII project designed to create and promote greater Hispanic parent involvement in the educational system. The program represents a joint effort of Monroe and Dade County Public Schools and Florida International University's Center for Latino Education. The major thrust of the program is to involve Hispanic parents and children in parent-child training sessions, with specific activities designed to improve the students' academic achievement and English language proficiency. This guide for school personnel in the program is comprised of the following sections: (1) program description; (2) definition of parent involvement; (3) history of parent involvement; (4) discussion of the need for parent involvement; (5) factors influencing Hispanic parent involvement; (6) parenting in the Hispanic home; (7) common problems and solutions in interacting with parents; (8) strategies for promoting Hispanic parent involvement, including needs assessment strategies, strategies for facilitating involvement, strategies for dealing with parents of limited English proficient children, and specific ways Hispanic parents may be involved; (9) curriculum and materials, including state and national resources, associations, a bibliography, publications for sale, ERIC sources, and a list of magazines and journals; (10) Spanish survival language phrases; (11) staff biographical data; and (12) appendices which include a checklist for parents and a parent invitation. Sections 2 through 9 include bibliographies. (AF)