A PTA unit is a local, self-governing membership association whose
main purpose is to promote the health, welfare, safety and education
of children and youth in the home, school, community, and place
of worship. PTAs traditionally work within a school community,
although there are examples of non school based PTAs working for
children in other settings.
Washington State PTA includes all people without regard to differences
in race, culture, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status,
gender, abilities, special needs or geographic location.
One important reason to join PTA is that PTA is the only group
whose exclusive interest is the health, welfare, safety and education
of your children. Children cannot vote, and are not organized
and do not participate in the legislative process. Thus, they
have no say in creating the policies that affect their lives and
well-being. PTA allows you to speak for the interest of your children
when you cannot be there yourself. Whether in Washington DC, Olympia,
or in your own city government offices -- everywhere decisions
are made that affect your children, PTA is there speaking on behalf
of your children. This has always been and will always be a central
focus of PTA. In 1937, PTA was advocating for child labor laws.
Today the issues are equally important for our children -- internet
safety, youth violence, levy/bond election, education reform,
school class size and many more.
Another compelling reason to join your local PTA unit is that
every study ever conducted on the relationship between student
performance and parent involvement in education shows that when
parents are involved in education, student academic performance
improves. Involvement in PTA allows you not only to be involved
in your child's education, but also allows you to get to know
their teachers better and become more familiar with the school
and what goes on there. It also allows you to get to know the
parents of your children's classmates better. Even if you don't
have a great deal of time to devote to PTA activities, by becoming
a member and attending meetings you are showing your children
that you believe their school and their education is important.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, your membership in PTA has
a direct impact on your children and the quality of their school.
PTA has the ability, more than any other organization, to make
a school a better place for your children to learn. PTAs do this
by addressing the needs of their individual schools. By becoming
a PTA member, you can help identify those needs and develop solutions
that may include: making the school safer, becoming more technologically
advanced, being more tolerant to others' differences, and bringing
enriched educational opportunities to the school.
Click here to learn how to joing the PTA
PTA's mission is to "Build a Better World for Children."
Here are just some examples of how individual PTAs from around
the state are fulfilling that mission in their own communities:
• Providing enrichment programs for children -- PTAs offer
enrichment opportunities for children. These opportunities include
providing after-school tutoring; foreign language classes; hosting
a career day by bringing in a variety of professionals to talk
to kids about their jobs and what it takes to do their jobs; encouraging
children to write articles and poems and publishing them in a
special magazine; and organizing an on-going after-school science
enrichment program for all students at the school. Because each
PTA chooses its own enrichment programs based on the needs of
their community, there are as many different enrichment opportunities
provided by PTAs as there are individual PTAs in this state.
• Providing parenting classes for their community -- Many
PTAs provide parenting education in conjunction with their meetings,
including such topics as parent involvement in education, understanding
learning styles, building children's self-esteem, helping your
child succeed in school, and youth violence prevention.
• Influencing legislation on behalf of children -- Some
PTAs advocate for local issues that affect the children in their
community. In the past, individual PTAs have advocated for mandating
bicycle helmet usage in their community, advocated for increased
pedestrian safety laws, and advocated for safer yard maintenance
at school by eliminating the use of pesticides, to name a few.
• Making the school a better place to learn -- PTAs have
purchased and donated computers, playground equipment, and volunteered
countless hours in the classroom and in conjunction with programs
and activities.