Parents across the nation will kick off PTA Take Your Family to School Week today with a variety of activities to further strengthen family-school partnerships.
PTA Take Your Family to School Week celebrates the day the PTA was founded—Feb. 17, 1897. Over the next five days PTAs will host family-centered events on their school campuses.
The National PTA created a digital toolkit available on the Alexandria, Va.,-based nonprofit’s website to provide guidance to PTA members and school staff seeking to launch parent-engagement programs or activities. The AXA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of AXA Equitable in New York City, is sponsoring the weeklong initiative.
To emphasize this year’s theme, “Supporting Student Success,” the toolkit provides PTA members and school staff with guidance to address high school dropouts and bullying, along with tips to improve literacy and math skills.
In Fort Smith, Ark., the Euper Lane Elementary School PTA will host a Family Technology Night with sessions in both English and Spanish, while in Hartford, Conn., the local PTA at the Environmental Sciences Magnet School at Mary Hooker will hold a Family Literacy and Math Night in conjunction with a local bank. Both were among the 51 local PTAs to receive $1,000 grants from the National PTA to hold family engagement efforts this week.
“Decades of research shows that when families and schools work together, student achievement increases, schools improve and communities grow stronger,” Otha Thornton, National PTA President, said in a news release.