What can we do to get parents more involved in the events at their children’s schools?

Deedee: What can we do to get parents more involved in the events at their children’s schools?
I work at a preschool and a lot of the students have learning disabilities. We try to organize school events and invite the parents because we think that parent involvement is important for these children, but very few parents ever attend the events. We think it’s because the parents often work long, crazy hours, even on weekends and in the evenings, and that’s why they cannot make it. What can we do to make it easier for parents to attend these events so that they can become more involved in their child’s schooling? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Kelley
I totally know what you mean! I own an in-home child care & preschool company and we have expanded to 3 locations and I thought that if we had more families we’d have more involvement… well, no. Unfortunately, we don’t have more involvement and I’ve pondered the same question. One thing that HAS WORKED is we created our own PTA so families felt more vested in our program. We hold a PTA meeting every other month (every 2nd Thursday of the every other month) and our parents can plan on and around these dates to participate. The key is to GET YOUR PARENTS VESTED into your program. The more “ownership” they feel in and towards your program the better. Hope this helps. I’ve also copied your question to my FB community page “In-Home Child Care Providers’ Network” to see if anyone chimes in. It’s a new page, so there might not be a ton of response yet, but join our group too and get some good conversations and ideas!

– Kelley