Learn about the Welcome!
Welcome to the Parent and Community Resources section of the NCPTA Website. The North Carolina PTA feels we must involve parents in their children's education, in every school. Informed and involved parents are essential to every child's educational success.
NCPTA Parent Involvement Initiative
Parent Involvement Initiative Flyer
- Informed and involved parents are essential to every child’s educational success.
- Declining parent involvement is a crisis, and it is hurting children.
- NCPTA can help North Carolina respond to the crisis.
With 240,000 members,
- NCPTA is the oldest and largest parent organization in our state;
- NCPTA understands that different schools require different approaches;
- NCPTA has vast experience with parent involvement programs.
Why Now?
In a historic move, the North Carolina General Assembly in July, 2007, appropriated
$262,500 to the NCPTA for the NCPTA Parent Involvement Initiative. With this new
legislative appropriation, NCPTA will be able to begin building a parent involvement
program that can potentially reach every parent in the state. NCPTA is ready with a plan
that, if fully funded, can accomplish this goal.
What is Needed?
NCPTA has the history, credibility, and vision to attract major funding from both private and public sectors. NCPTA’s goal is to raise $1 million by May 1, 2008. With over 1,300,000 children in our public schools, that is less than $1 per child.
How will NCPTA Involve More Parents?
By funding a creative statewide effort to make sure there is a parent involvement
program in every school and community, designed and run by volunteer parents and
NCPTA professionals working cooperatively with school teachers, school administrators,
and community leaders.
The goal is to expand NCPTA’s statewide network of volunteers working to improve
parent involvement in every school and community. This can be done in countless
different ways, and NCPTA has experience with virtually all of them.
The goal is not to impose on schools a centrally-designed “parent involvement program” from Raleigh, which will never work.
The heart of the NCPTA Parent Involvement Initiative is finding, encouraging and
advising volunteer parents who can then lead parent involvement activities in their
schools. NCPTA will utilize professional expertise in areas most beneficial to parents to help make this happen. Volunteers often need help getting started; after that, they can
and do work miracles.
NCPTA Parent Involvement Initiative will be led and managed by former NCPTA President Debra Horton. The headquarters of the NCPTA Parent Involvement Initiative will be the NCPTA office in Raleigh. Top professional staff will be employed to assist Ms. Horton in this Initiative. With sufficient funding, NCPTA’s goal will be to hire a professional coordinator in each education region whose job will be to increase parent involvement in his or her assigned education region.
NCPTA Parent Involvement Initiative staff will work to gain a comprehensive
understanding of parent involvement programs across the nation and incorporate
aspects of the most successful programs. Good ideas that work in one area will be
disseminated statewide.
NCPTA will use a creative combination of modern and time-tested techniques, from
online communication and user-friendly resource materials, to hands-on assistance from
NCPTA professional staff in each education region, all designed to help local volunteer
parents help their children in ways that work best for them.
NCPTA will collaborate with other organizations focused on improving education in North Carolina. NCPTA will measure the success of the Initiative and report the results to the General Assembly and private donors.
To view this document in PDF format, click here.