Whether you are a parent looking to get involved or a teacher looking for ways to utilize some parental help, this list of 50+ ideas will help.
Let’s first discuss the importance of parents getting involved in school programs. According to Edutopia parental involvement has some of the following benefits:
- School programs that have parental involvement outperform identical programs that don’t have parental involvement.
- Schools that involve and work well with parents have higher teacher morale and higher teacher ratings.
- Kids show a better attitude and better behavior when parents are involved.
Those are just a few benefits of parental involvement in the school. I think they show how impactful it can be to get parents involved.
The Center for School Change (n.d.) lists the following ways that parents can become involved in schools:
COME TO SCHOOL TO ASSIST
- Share information with a student or class about a hobby.
- Share information with a student or a class about a career.
- Share information with students about a country you visited or lived in.
- Tutor one or a small group of students in reading, math, or other areas.
- Help coach an athletic team.
- Help check a student’s written work.
- Help put out a school or classroom newsletter (can also be done at home).
- Help sew or paint a display.
- Help build something (such as a loft in a classroom or a new playground).
- Help students work on a final exhibition or project (can also be done at home or workplace).
- Help answer the schools’ phone.
- Help plan a new playground for the school.
- Help plan a theme-based presentation for students.
- Help present a theme-based program for students.
- Demonstrate cooking from a particular country or culture to students.
- Share particular expertise with faculty (such as the use of computers, dealing with disruptive students).
- Help students plan and build an outdoor garden or other projects to beautify the outside of the school.
- Help coach students competing in an academic competition (such as Odyssey of the Mind, Future Problem Solving, Math Masters).
- Help bring senior citizens to school to watch a student production.
- HELP ARRANGE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COMMUNITY
- Help set up an internship or apprenticeship for a student at your business, organization, or agency.
- Host a one-day ‘shadow study’ for one or a small group of students about your career in business or some other organization.
- Go on a local field trip with a teacher and a group of students.
- Go on an extended (3-5 day) cross-country field trip with a teacher & students.
- Contact a particular local business or organization regarding possible cooperation.*
- Help to create a natural area outside the building where students can learn.
SERVE ON AN ADVISORY OR DECISION-MAKING COMMITTEE
27. Serve on the school-wide site council.
28. Serve on a school committee that reports to the site council.
29. Serve on a district committee representing the school.
30. Serve as an officer in the school’s PTA.
31. Help organize a parent organization for the school.
32. Help design a parent and or student survey for the school.
33. Help conduct and or tabulate results of a parent survey regarding the school.
SHARE INFORMATION OR ADVOCATE FOR THE SCHOOL
34. Serve as a member of a ‘telephone tree’ to distribute information quickly.
35. Write a letter to legislators about the school.
36. Write a letter to school board members about the school.
37. Go to a school board meeting to advocate for the school.
38. Go to another school to provide information about this school.
39. Help design a brochure or booklet about the school.
40. Help translate information from the school into a language other than English.
41. Help translate at a parent-teacher conference for people who don’t speak English well.
42. Provide transportation to a parent-teacher conference for a parent who needs a ride.
43. Write an article for publication in a magazine about the school’s activities.
44. Help arrange for a political leader (mayor, city council, state representative, member of Congress) to visit the school.
45. Increase financial resources available to the school.
HELP WRITE A PROPOSAL THAT WOULD BRING NEW RESOURCES TO THE SCHOOL
46. Donate materials to the school.
47. Arrange for a business or other organization to donate materials to the school.
48. Help with a fundraiser for the school.
49. Help other parents develop their parenting skills.
50. Help teach a class for parents on ways they can be stronger parents.
51. Help produce a videotape for parents on ways they can be more effective parents.
52. Help write, publish, and distribute a list of parenting tips.”
Source: North Central Regional Educational Library
This list is not copyrighted; readers may reproduce it for their own use.
You may also be interested in the following…
- Page 1 All Comunity Service Categories (Except Kindness)
- Page 2 Community Service Ideas for Middle and High School
- Page 4 Real After School Program Service Projects
- Page 5 Random Acts of Kindness
- Lights on After School (Event on October 20, 2011)

