About Federal Programs
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UCPS Federal Programs utilize federal funding as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to provide educational opportunities for students in high poverty schools and to provide support for students with limited English proficiency. Federal funds provide professional development to all teachers across the school district to enhance teacher quality and student achievement.
The Title II Federal Program focuses on improving teacher quality. These funds provide additional highly qualified teachers to reduce class size, as well as support for professional development in order to enhance educational growth that will impact student achievement.
Services
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English as a Second Language (ESL) / Title III
The Title III Federal Program supports language instruction for English learners and immigrant students. This additional support helps these students to succeed with core academic subjects and meet the North Carolina state student achievement standards expected of all students. The school system has an English as a Second Language (ESL) academic support center located at the Walter Bickett Education Center, which houses materials that may be checked out by ESL teachers, regular classroom teachers and families.
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Family Engagement Services
Family engagement is key to a student’s academic success, therefore, promoting and enhancing family involvement is a priority for all federal programs. Family Engagement Services offers events that enhance student achievement such as curriculum nights, provide tips on supporting academic success at home and gives families access to resource materials.
When schools and families work together to support learning, everyone benefits.
- Students do better in school and in life.
- Parents become empowered.
- Teacher morale improves.
- Schools get better.
- Communities grow stronger
Tips
Parent Resource Center
The Parent Resource Center is a place where parents, volunteers and students can gather to learn, share information, volunteer and promote and support learning at home. Believing that every parent wants to help their child to learn and accomplish as much as possible during their years of public education, resources are made available to help parents become an informed partner in meeting their child's learning needs. The Parent Center offers information and resources to help make learning interesting and fun for families. The Parent Resource Center is located at Union Elementary School.
The following resources may help you as a parent to get more involved in your child's education.
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Homeless Family Services / McKinney-Vento Act
Title I funds also support homeless youth as defined by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Act, which was created to assist qualifying students. Each school has a homeless liaison dedicated to offering assistance in meeting the basic needs of identified at-risk students in order to achieve academic success.
Homeless students are children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. Unaccompanied youth includes a youth who is not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian. Homeless children and youth include those students who are as follows:
- sharing the house of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason;
- living in motels, hotels, transient trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
- living in emergency or transitional shelters;
- living in a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as regular sleeping accommodations for human beings;
- living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations or similar settings; or
- living in a migratory situation that qualifies as homeless because the child lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence
Children and youth experiencing homelessness have the right to:
- Receive a free, appropriate public education.
- Enroll in school immediately, even if lacking documents are normally required for enrollment.
- Enroll in school and attend classes while the school gathers needed documents.
- Enroll in the local attendance area school or continue attending their school of origin (the school they attended when permanently housed or the school in which they were last enrolled), if that is the parent's, guardian's, or unaccompanied youth's preference is feasible. If the school district believes the school selected is not in the student's best interest, then the district must provide the parent, guardian, or unaccompanied youth with a written explanation of its position and inform him/her of the right to appeal its decision.
- Receive transportation to and from the school of origin, if requested by the parent, guardian, or unaccompanied youth.
- Receive educational services comparable to those provided to other students, according to the student's need.
These rights are established under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. This act is the primary piece of federal legislation dealing with the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness in U.S. public schools. It was reauthorized in 2015 by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). To qualify for these rights, children and youth must be considered homeless according to the McKinney-Vento definition of homeless.
Total number of homeless children and youth enrolled in UCPS:
- 2022-2023 - 345
- 2021-2022 - 258
- 2020-2021 - 224
Resources
- For North Carolina homeless data, please visit NCHEP or NCHE - NC
- Please contact the McKinney-Vento Liaison at your school or Lori Spruiell, Title I Specialist for enrollment information.
- Union County Board of Education Policy Manual (4-16 Homeless Students)
- For more information please visit the National Center for Homeless Education or the North Carolina Homeless Education Program websites.
- State Coordinator for Homeless Education: Lisa Phillips
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Latino Outreach Services
The Latino Outreach Program provides support to our Latino community through workshops on a variety of topics, including parenting skills, healthy living, higher education opportunities and immigration and tax issues.
Resources for Parents & Community
The Latino Outreach Program provides many opportunities for the Latino community to become engaged in their children’s education.
Parenting Classes (Parenting with a Purpose, Active Parenting of Teens) run February through November on Wednesday evenings and are held in the schools on a rotating basis. The program also offers special Health Services events such as Breast Health Education and Mammogram Screenings, Fire Extenguisher Training.
Resources for Students
The Union County Public Schools Latino Outreach Program works to provide many opportunities for our Latino students.
In partnership with local organizations and agencies, monthly educational workshops are offered and held at various Union County schools.
Some of the workshops include:
The Latino Outreach Program also works with our English speaking students by helping them to become more familiar with and to interact with the Latino community. English speaking students are given the opportunity to participate in different cultural activities, including Cultural Simulation workshops.
Resources for Staff
The Latino Outreach Program provides workshops for Union County Public Schools staff to learn more about the Latino community and techniques on how to provide the best education. Some of the workshops provided include:
- Insight to the Latino Community - The workshop provides staff with the latest demographic information from Census 2010. Staff are taught how mainstream U.S. culture differs from Latino culture. Staff are also made aware of the challenges faced by immigrant parents and their children.
- Cultural Shock - This workshop helps staff to understand the meaning of culture and cultural shock. The difference between U.S. culture and Latino culture is defined during the workshop. Staff are given tools for helping students facing cultural shock and how to best handle the problems that can occur when children acculturate faster than their parents.
- Poverty Simulation - Over 34 million Americans, 12 million of whom are children under the age of 18, live in poverty every day. Scenarios are created based on real poverty statistics, cost of living, average rent, etc. The Poverty Simulation allows staff to experience the everyday decisions that many families have to make and the fears and frustrations they feel. This allows staff to better understand what it might be like to live in a typical low-income household trying to survive from week to week, month to month.
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Title I
Title I is the largest federally funded program for our nation’s schools. The purpose of this title is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments. Our school-wide programs are based on effective means of improving student achievement and include strategies to support parental involvement.
Title I Resources
Parents' Right to Know
Title I Parents have the right to request the qualifications of their child’s teachers. Parents who make this request will be notified in a timely manner.
Testing Transparency Notification
Parents have the right to request and be provided with information regarding any state or local educational agency policy regarding student participation in any assessments mandated by the state or local educational agency. View the testing calendar.
Report Cards
Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts
East Elementary
Marshville Elementary
Rock Rest Elementary
Rocky River Elementary
Sardis Elementary
Union Elementary
Walter Bickett Elementary
Wingate Elementary
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Title I Pre-Kindergarten
The UCPS Title I Pre-Kindergarten Program is designed to provide a rich, child centered, literacy-focused program to ensure that all children enter kindergarten ready to learn. The program provides experiences in the areas of language, early literacy, math, and science. These key experiences lay the groundwork for school success.
We provide:
- supplemental, enriching, and rewarding experiences for young children
- highly qualified teachers and teaching assistants
- home visits, parent-teacher conferences, and parent workshops
- information to parents about children’s progress
- collaboration with the NC Pre-K Program and the UCPS Exceptional Children Program
Eligibility Requirements
In order to qualify for the Title I Pre- Kindergarten Program a child must meet the following criteria:
- be four years of age on or before August 31st of the current year
- have a completed application on file
- demonstrate a need for education experience as indicated by performance on the state approved pre-kindergarten screening
- have a completed parent survey
- have a teacher observation
Curriculum
The Title I Pre-Kindergarten Program uses the following curricula in order to create developmentally appropriate experiences for young children:
- Foundations: Early Learning Standards for North Carolina Preschoolers
- The Creative Curriculum for Preschool
Locations
- Benton Heights Elementary
1200 Concord Ave.
Monroe, NC 28110
Phone: 704-296-3100 - East Elementary
515 Elizabeth Ave.
Monroe, NC 28112
Phone: 704-296-3110 - Marshville Elementary
515 North Elm St.
Marshville, NC 28103
Phone: 704-296-6340 - Rock Rest Elementary
814 Old Pageland Monroe Rd.
Monroe, NC 28112
Phone: 704-290-1513 - Rocky River Elementary
500 N Rocky River Rd.
Monroe, NC 28110
Phone: 704-290-1523 - Sardis Elementary
4416 Sardis Church Rd.
Monroe, NC 28110
Phone: 704-882-4303 - Walter Bickett Elementary
830 ML King Blvd. S
Monroe, NC 28112
Phone: 704-283-8520 - Wingate Elementary
301 Bivens St.
Wingate, NC 28174
Phone: 704-296-0635
Parents' Right to Know
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Title I Parents have the right to request the qualifications of their child’s teachers. Parents who make this request will be notified in a timely manner.
Testing Transparency Notification
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Parents have the right to request and be provided with information regarding any state or local educational agency policy regarding student participation in any assessments mandated by the state or local educational agency.
