Room Parent

If you are interested in this role please contact volunteers@collinspta.org for details.

Time required:  ongoing throughout school year

Key Role – Room Parent

• Works with teacher(s) and parents/guardians, as a parent contact and liaison, to build stronger family-school partnerships for a classroom or grade level

• Encourages easy, two-way communication between teacher(s) and parents on what’s happening in the classroom to support student success

• Collaborates with the teacher(s) to identify how parents can assist with classroom activities

• Recruits parent volunteers and delegates volunteer assignments for a classroom or grade level

• Helps to promote PTA goals, membership and activities on campus

Getting Started

• Preparation – Talk to the Room Representative from last year about what worked well in working with teacher(s) and parents. Review his/her procedure book and other materials to better understand the scope of your new position. Learn more about your role and school policies related to parent involvement at a meeting organized by the Room Representative Coordinator at your school.

• Meet with Teacher(s) – Get together with the teacher(s) to talk about the various ways and options available for parents to assist with classroom activities, field trips and celebrations for the upcoming year. Develop a list together of volunteer opportunities to share with parents.

How Tos

• Contacts – Create a list of parents’/guardians’ names and contact information. Work with the teacher(s) to obtain this information for PTA use only and remember to keep it confidential.

• Welcome – Develop and implement an inclusive outreach plan to introduce yourself, welcome parents in home languages and provide a general overview of why parent involvement matters at your school.

• Survey – Distribute a volunteer survey, listing volunteer opportunities, to parents/guardians to share their availability, skills and interests with you and to sign up for classroom activities. Offer a range of volunteer options with different amounts of time and commitment to encourage inclusion and to respect parents’ work schedules.

• Delegate – Assign volunteer jobs and maintain a database of parents’ interests, skills and availability as volunteers to use throughout the school year.

• Connect – Communicate regularly with parents using multiple pathways – emails, phone calls, text messaging, websites and social media as well as newsletters and backpack express – to keep families in the loop on upcoming class or grade level activities and to grow family-school partnerships for student success.