PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.

SEC. 3223. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. (a) General Authority.—The Secretary, through the Fund, is authorized to make demonstration grants to eligible local educational agencies for the development of innovative, promising family-school educational partnership activities designed to— (1) support the efforts of families, including training, to the maximum extent practicable, to work with children in the home to attain both the instructional objectives of the schools within eligible local educational agencies and instill positive attitudes about the importance of education; (2) train teachers and other staff personnel involved in the program supported under chapter 1 of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to work effectively as educational partners with the families of participating students; (3) train families, teachers and other staff personnel in the schools within such agency to build an educational partnership between home and school; and (4) evaluate how well family involvement activities of the schools within such agency are working, what barriers exist to greater participation, and what steps need to be taken to expand participation in such family involvement activities. (b) Uses of Funds.—The activities and procedures for which gr ants may be made under this subpart may include— (1) training programs for the family on the family’s educational responsibilities and reasonable and necessary expenditures associated with the attendance of parents or guardians at training sessions; (2) planning and development of new school procedures and practices to meet the changing demographic characteristics of the families of school-age children; (3) planning and development of modifications of school procedures and practices necessary for the involvement of parents of special groups, including minorities, disadvantaged, gifted and talented, and students with handicaps; (4) hiring, training, and use of educational personnel in eligible local educational agencies to coordinate family involvement activities and to foster communications among families, educators, and students; (5) development and purchase by a local educational agency of educational materials where such materials are commercially unavailable to reinforce school learning at home and assistance 102 STAT. 341in implementing other home-based education activities that reinforce and extend classroom instruction and student motivation; and (6) securing technical assistance, including training, to design and carry out family involvement programs. (c) Private School Students.—An application may, consistent with the number of children enrolled in private elementary and secondary schools located in the school district of an eligible educational agency, provide for the participation of such children, their families and teachers.