Learn How To Put Arts Education Into Your District Budget
October 17, 2021
LEARN HOW TO PUT ARTS EDUCATION INTO YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT BUDGET Parents, students, and community advocates can help assure that arts education is part of their school district’s annual funding discus...
California Supports Diversity with New Ethnic Studies Graduation Requirement
October 15, 2021
By California State PTA Legislation Team with the Health and Community Concerns and Education Commissions With the governor’s signing of Assembly Bill (AB) 101 Ethnic Studies (Medina), California is t...
Futureproof: A Book About Your Kids’ Futures (and Yours)
October 15, 2021
By California State PTA Family Engagement and Communication Commission Futureproof, written by technology writer Kevin Roose, offers new perspectives and interesting food for thought on matters...
By California State PTA Health & Community Concerns Commission October is Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. Bullying is a serious issue at home and in school, and parents and caring adults can ...
Celebrating Partners in Education: School Administrators
October 13, 2021
By California State PTA Education Commission Our kids’ education is a team effort! A collaborative partnership between families, teachers and school administrators who are dedicated to the well-being ...
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month “The line between our online and offline lives is indistinguishable. In these tech-fueled times, our homes, societal well-being, economic prosperity and nation...
Children are back in school, but for many of us it feels like we are still a long way from a full pandemic recovery. One place many PTA leaders feel that is in the volunteers on their local boards, or...
Need help heading off tax issues before they start? Need help reaching the right contacts at the various government agencies who can help expedite processing of paperwork? We’re here for you. Ca...
Family-School Partnership Standard #4: Speaking Up for Every Child
October 8, 2021
by Heather Ippolito, Vice President Family Engagement Commission The fourth PTA National Standard for Family-School Partnerships calls for empowering families to speak up and advocate for their child ...
by Family Engagement Commission Thank you to all of the families, schools, PTA councils, and districts who joined us in the September walking challenge. Remember that you can use that family engagem...
by Heath & Community Concerns and Family Engagement Commissions Parents Need to Know Why Attendance is Vital About forty percent of parents underestimate how many school absences their child has ...
by Heather Ippolito, Vice President Family Engagement Commission This Sunday, September 26th is Gold Star Mother’s Day. Gold Star Mother’s Day is designated as the last Sunday in September and is des...
by California State PTA Vice President for Health & Community Concerns, Derby Pattengill We recently highlighted September’s National Preparedness Month, a great reason to raise awareness ab...
by Membership Services Commission MEMBERSHIP TIP: Let Everyone Know About PTA Perks PTA members get more perks than you may have realized! Membership in a Statewide and Nationwide organization comes w...
Question: College? When do we start talking about college? Answer: NOW!
September 17, 2021
by California State PTA Family Engagement Commission Consultant, Kelly Mattinson The best time to discuss and prepare for college is now. That said, your three-year-old does not need to decide where t...
How to Apply for CA State PTA Scholarships and Grants
September 16, 2021
by California State PTA Scholarships and Grants Committee California State PTA is pleased to offer these scholarship and grant opportunities to you and your PTA. The deadline is coming up fast for two...
by Resolutions Committee A History of Parent Advocacy Founded in 1897, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is a nationwide network of 4 million families, students, educators, and community leaders workin...
PTA leaders can spread hope and vital information to people affected by suicide
September 15, 2021
by Derby Pattengill, Vice President for Health and Community Concerns Over the last year and a half, we have faced a pandemic, combined with a massive experiment in remote schooling, a racial justice ...
by Membership Services Commission Did you know anyone can be a member of the PTA? That’s right, from students (even elementary), to grandparents, alumni, school board members, and… Well, you ge...
by CA State PTA Arts Education Committee This National event, taking place this year on September 12-18, is a great chance for local PTA leader and members to show your support for Arts Education and ...
by Heather Ippolito, VP Family Engagement This coming week National PTA celebrates Back to School Week. From September 13-17 they are hosting activities and encouraging school sites across the countr...
by Family Engagement Commission On September 12th we celebrate Grandparents Day to honor all of the contributions that grandparents have made in our lives. While it can be a wonderful idea to bring g...
by Education and Family Engagement Commissions The website, Raising a Reader, recently shared these statistics about reading and literacy: Less than half of the 16 million U.S. children who live in po...
Participate and WIN: 2021-2022 Membership Awards & Incentives
September 6, 2021
by Membership Services Commission We’ve made the directions simple on your journey to a successful membership drive. Visit each checkpoint along the route to build a strong membership campaign for you...
Family-School Partnership Standard #3: Supporting Student Success
September 3, 2021
By Heather Ippolito, VP Family Engagement As we continue our series about the PTA National Family-School Partnership Standards we want to remind you that we have several blog posts around this topic...
Family Engagement Monthly Activities – September Family Walking Challenge
September 1, 2021
By Family Engagement and Health & Community Concerns Commissions Each month the Family Engagement Commission is going to share an activity that you can do with your school, council, or district. ...
Test Scores Can Help Jump Start the Learning Process
September 1, 2021
Register Now! California State PTA Presents: A Zoom presentation by Educational Testing Service and Metametrics September 2, 2021 – 4-5pm We often think of test scores as the ending point of a ...
Child Tax Credit Outreach Requested by US Department of Education
September 1, 2021
We recognize that many families are still struggling financially from the pandemic and that the Child Tax Credit is an important opportunity to help them cover their expenses, especially as kids prepa...
PTA Tools Can Help You Exceed Your Membership Goals
August 30, 2021
by Membership Services Commission School has started now, and we know just how easy it is to be overwhelmed by the commotion of getting your own students out the door and into the classroom. Because i...
by Heather Ippolito, VP Family Engagement The Family Engagement Commission this term consists of a Vice President, nine members of the CA State PTA Board of Managers (five of whom are District Preside...
by Membership Services Commission ELECTRONIC MEMBERSHIP WORKS! A few years ago, at the request of our local leaders, California State PTA created the online membership system known as Totem. Since its...
Congratulating 29 California PTA/PTSAs designated 2020-2022 Schools of Excellence
August 24, 2021
by Communications Commission Congratulations to the twenty-nine California State PTA/PTSA units at schools throughout our state who were designated 2020-2022 National PTA Schools of Excellence in reco...
by Heather Ippolito, VP Family Engagement In July we introduced the PTA National Standards for Family School Partnerships and Standard 1- Welcoming All Families on this blog. Today we are going to sh...
by Mary Perry, California State PTA Board of Managers All over California, the back-to-school ritual has begun. This year, of course, that ritual is so different. For many students and families, it’s ...
PTA Knows Family Engagement! Learn more about the School Smarts Program
August 18, 2021
by School Smarts Committee For nearly 125 years PTA has helped parents and caregivers make lasting connections to their school campus to benefit all children. Over the last ten years our School Smart...
by Reflections Committee Want to be inspired? Just spend some time looking at the dance routines, films, visual artwork, written poems and stories, and photographs California students created as part ...
By Membership Services Commission Adding student members to your association and having students serve on your executive board is great for them and great for your PTA. PTA was established to be a ...
By Heather Ippolito, Vice President for Family Engagement PTA units are always asking our state leaders “How can we get more people to attend our association meetings and events?” The Leadership Servi...
By the Membership Services Commission In the PTA universe, we know how important our teachers are! Having the teachers and administrators at your school join your PTA and participate in your programs ...
As the summer ends, many workshops, webinars, and virtual conferences are preparing educational leaders, teachers, and parents for the return to school. Our Family Engagement Team has attended severa...
The CDC is Asking You to Help Raise Awareness About Immunizations
August 5, 2021
By Mary Perry Vaccinations are a hot topic right now, thanks of course to COVID-19. But long before the current pandemic the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) designated August as National Immunizatio...
Standard #1: Welcoming all families into the school community
July 30, 2021
By Heather Ippolito, VP for Family Engagement Earlier this month we introduced the PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships on the blog. You can view that article by clicking here. Today...
Protecting Kids from the Academic Impact of a Lost Year
July 29, 2021
By Mary Perry, California State PTA Board of Managers For many California children, the 2020-21 school year was a time of lost potential as one fourth of families did not have a high-speed internet co...
Parent Town Hall with the US Department of Education
July 26, 2021
There is a unique opportunity for parents this Thursday, July 29th at 5:00 p.m. — The National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement and the United Parent Leaders Action Networ...
Interview with Danni Kim, National PTA Family Engagement Whole Child Fellow
July 23, 2021
Earlier this month National PTA announced the names of four Family Engagement Fellows from across the United States. California State PTA is proud to announce that Danni Kim from Franklin Magnet PTA i...
As we gear up to head back to school, our commission has been noticing a trend in the news — there has been a great deal of talk about Family Engagement! This is exciting for all of our PTA unit...
Learning loss during the summer months is a real concern, especially after the challenging school year we’ve had. If you’re looking for ways to keep your child’s mind active over the term ...
Introduction to the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships
July 9, 2021
National PTA is focused on transformative family engagement which is defined as “a shared effort of families, schools, and community leaders to advance programs, practices, and policies that empower e...
Getting started as a brand-new PTA officer can seem daunting at first. There’s a lot that needs to be done to get things up and running, but who does what, and in what order? This list help you ...
By Heather Ippolito, Vice President for Family Engagement In PTA we often talk about family engagement, but what does it really mean and why is it so very important? Family engagement with schools h...
Hello PTA friends and friends of California State PTA: The resilience, dedication, and creativity shown by PTA leaders during this challenging term has been exceptional. Through the pandemic, PTAs con...
An opportunity drawing is a prize where everyone who comes to the event has an equal chance of winning and no one pays for a ticket. A raffle is defined as a lottery in which each participant buys a c...
The biggest challenge of the last year to maintaining healthy vision has been digital eye strain. With kids being forced to switch from in-person to digitally based distance learning because of the pa...
Helping our students think about college and career readiness is a great thing to do during the summer months. The Family Engagement Commission has found a really fun resource for students in grades 5...
Book Club Discussion: “Strangers from a Different Shore” by Ronald Takaki
June 21, 2021
Members of the California State PTA Board of Managers have been reading books that give us a deeper understanding of the effects of racial prejudice on our minority populations. We have read eight boo...
California State PTA believes that all children deserve a quality education regardless of the community in which they live, the color of their skin, their language, their gender identity, or their imm...
Please find below a listing of California State PTA’s June training and advocacy opportunities for our leaders and members. We hope you will join us for some of these offerings: June 1, 8, 15, 2...
This year was different – and Family Engagement was different, too. Families are struggling with physical and fiscal health. There were so many uncertainties about this school year – and e...
Addressing Microaggressions to Make PTAs More Welcoming
May 13, 2021
We all want all families to feel welcome at our schools. An active middle school PTSA was committed to including all voices in their PTSA planning. They worked with their school’s Spanish-bilingual an...
As PTA members, we know how important family engagement is for student and school success. Did you know that family engagement is not just good practice? In California it’s the law! The Califo...
This article was provided by our sponsor ETS. Read more about ETS here. State tests are underway and like this school year when learning is different—whether your child is in a school, learning at ho...
Please find below a listing of California State PTA’s May training and advocacy opportunities for our leaders and members. We hope you will join us for some of these offerings: May 3-16 Conventi...
Staying Connected with PTA Families in a Virtual World
May 10, 2021
How do we keep everyone connected when we can’t meet in person? The same way we did before: by communicating clearly and frequently, by hosting a variety of social and learning activities, and b...
By the Reflections Committee A total of 13 students from California received recognition for their creative accomplishments from the National PTA Reflections program. You can see a list of all the 202...
Family Engagement is at the heart of what we do in PTA — but do you feel like you are running out of ideas for good programming? The Family Engagement Commission is hosting a workshop that will ...
Screenagers NEXT CHAPTER: Uncovering Skills For Stress Resilience
April 22, 2021
The Family Engagement Commission is excited to share a little teaser about its upcoming Convention workshop. You won’t want to miss the showing of the documentary “Screenagers NEXT CHAPTER,̶...
This article was written by Kathleen Fay, member of the California State PTA Legislation Team. A school district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) is an important tool that requires a dis...
This article was written by Shereen Walter, California State PTA’s Director of Legislation. Now that the Governor and Legislature have come to agreement on the details surrounding the $2 billion...
Book Club Discussion: “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo
April 5, 2021
Our Legislation Team decided that a book club would be a good way to begin discussions around race, equity, inclusion and justice. They created a list of books dealing with these topics and began to r...
Take some time with the family today to celebrate both National Crayon Day and the end of Arts Education Month. Our Communications Commission created these coloring sheets that highlight PTA’s advocac...
California State Board of Managers member and past Vice President of Education Mary Perry recently wrote an article for Ed100 entitled, “Are California Students Prepared for Citizenship?” She writes, ...
Please find below a listing of California State PTA’s April training and advocacy opportunities for our leaders and members. We hope you will join us for some of these offerings: Thursday...
