How I can be more actively involved with my child’s school?
- Attend back-to-school nights, student exhibitions and other school events. Get to know the teachers and other school personnel. Listen to their plans, know what they hope to accomplish with their students, and understand why they chose these goals.
- Attend parent organization meetings. Voice your hopes and concerns for your child and for the school. Help organize parent-teacher meetings around your interests and those of other parents.
- Offer to tutor students. If you are comfortable with technology, volunteer to be a computer tutor for both students and teachers, or ask if there are other ways that you can help the school to use technology.
- Offer to help in the office or the cafeteria or to chaperone field trips and other outside events.
- Agree to serve on parent and community advisory groups to your school. They may consider everything from school policies and programs to the kinds of parent involvement activities the school plans.
- Work in a parent resource center or help start one. In these school centers, parents may gather informally, borrow materials on parenting and children’s schoolwork, and get information about community services.
- If you are unable to volunteer in the school, look for ways to help at home: Call other parents to tell them about school-related activities, edit the school newsletter or make educational materials for teachers. If you are bilingual, help translate school materials or interpret for non-English speaking parents in your school.
When parents get involved in their children’s education, the children do better in school, are better behaved, have more positive attitudes toward school and grow up to be more successful in life.
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reproduced from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs, Educational Partnerships and Family Involvement Unit, Questions Parents Ask About Schools, Washington, D.C., 2003.
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