Advocacy Training

PTA'S ADVOCACY TEAM:

VP of Advocacy: Evie Hudak  

eviehudak@copta.org

Director of Legislative Engagement: Dawn Fritz

dawnfritz@copta.org

Chair of Legislative Engagement Committee: Sarah Robirds

sarahrobirds@copta.org 

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Mission of PTA:

• To make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.
• PTA began speaking out on behalf of children over 125 years ago. Check out the National PTA’s Advocacy page (at www.pta.org) and Colorado PTA’s Advocacy page (at www.copta.org).

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PURPOSES OF PTA:

• To promote the welfare of children and youth in home, school, places of worship, and throughout the community.
• To raise the standards of home life.
• To advocate for laws that further the education, physical and mental health, welfare, and safety of children and youth.
• To promote the collaboration and engagement of families and educators in the education of children and youth.
• To engage the public in united efforts to secure the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social well-being of all children and youth.
• To advocate for fiscal responsibility regarding public tax dollars in public education funding. 

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What is "Advocacy"?

• Actively supporting a cause, idea, or policy.
• Achieving social change by:
•  Speaking out on behalf of other people.
•  Providing policymakers with information that will result in their action.
•  Educating people affected by a problem to help them be aware of their own power to create a solution.

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Advocacy is the primary goal and function of PTA

There are MANY ways to be an advocate! 

Advocacy can look like:

• Identifying a need in your school and facilitating solutions with stakeholders
• Fostering open lines of communication between families and staff
• Sharing information, resources and opportunities with families (create newsletters and surveys, advertise PTA meetings)
• Host community-building events to foster ENGAGEMENT

Engagement is Key in Advocacy

By engaging your school community, you are inviting people to be stakeholders and change makers in their immediate school setting, as well as in local, statewide, and national issues that affect public education. 

Parents and families deserve to have their voices heard when decisions about public education are being made. Studies show the drastic positive impact family engagement has in the long-term success of students. 

Schools would need to increase spending by more than $1,000 per student to gain the same results as effective family engagement 

 Source: Houtenville, A. and K.S. Conway. (2008). Parental Effort, School Resources, and Student Achievement. Journal of Human Resources, XLIII. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

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National Standards for Family-School Partnerships

Standard 4: Speak Up for Every Child

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The school affirms family and student expertise and advocacy so that all students are treated fairly and have access to relationships and opportunities that will support their success.

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PTA.org/Standards

What does Advocacy look like at a unit level?

Goal 1:

Navigate the School System

Are families knowledgeable and able to raise questions or concerns about their child’s educational experience?

Indicators:

• Build school staffs’ skills to build trust and problem-solve with students and families. 
• Make it easy to understand how the school and district operate. 
• Comply with families’ rights under federal and state laws.
• Connect families to resources that address their questions or concerns.
• Make school staff and families aware of conflict resolution processes and apply them fairly. 

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Source: PTA.org

Advocacy at the local unit level, continued:

Goal 2:

Address inequitable outcomes and access

• Does the school remove barriers for families to be advocates for and with students’, particularly those who are most marginalized?

Indicators:

• Encourage community and leadership among historically under-represented groups. 
• Share understandable, disaggregated data on school progress and practices.
• Recognize and work to eliminate bias in family engagement practices and policies.

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Source: PTA.org

Examples of Promising Partner Practices in Colorado 

• Colorado Department of Education has great resources on Standard 4: Speak Up For Every Child. Examples of how schools have implemented programs or events that promote advocacy and engagement can be found here:

https://www.cde.state.co.us/familyengagement/standard4speakingupforeverychild

Level Up: �The Advocacy Liaison

• A “liaison” is someone who is a channel of communication between groups of people. 
• Every local unit should have an Advocacy Liaison  (formerly called “Legislative Chair/Representative”).
• The name of this person should be submitted to COPTA on the Officers List.

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What is the role of an Advocacy Liaison? 

To Be:

• The key link between the local unit members and the state PTA and national PTA on legislative issues, ballot issues, and policies affecting children.
• The conduit for accurate information on issues affecting children (such as school funding), in order to empower and motivate PTA members to take action on these issues.
• A resource for acquiring information about legislative and regulatory agencies, policy makers and lawmakers, and campaign activity guidelines and restrictions.

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Being an Advocacy Liaison �isn't as intimidating as it sounds! 

3 Key Steps:

• Be informed.
• Keep members informed.
• Promote advocacy.

BE INFORMED:

Share information that comes from the Legislative Committee or other major issues that affect your community by —

• Always asking for a small amount of time to speak during your PTA meetings to discuss advocacy.
• Sharing via email, newsletters, and social media.

Keep Members Informed:

Promote Advocacy Opportunities From PTA:

• Share PTA’s Positions on Bills and and Ballot Issues.
• Read and Share Communications from PTA that are sent through Voter Voice.
• National PTA Take Action – https://www.pta.org/home/advocacy/take-action 
• Great Education Colorado –  https://www.greateducation.org/eswn/

Share community meetings and other information that comes from decision-makers (school board, Legislature, city government . . . . )

This isn't an "all or nothing" task. Any information you can share is valuable and important to pass along to your unit, especially around voting times when we take positions on ballot issues. 

THESE GUIDELINES DO NOT APPLY TO BILLS

• At school events, follow school district policy (for example, rent a table or a room; get the principal’s permission).
• At PTA meetings, if the room isn’t rented or the school district’s policy allowing advocacy on a ballot issue is not in effect:
• You may state that PTA has a position on the ballot issue.
• If asked without soliciting – you may answer questions fully and honestly about what PTA’s position is and why.

Do not use any school resources for printing, mailing, or distributing literature advocating PTA’s position.  Literature with PTA’s position should be copied on a printer off school grounds and handed out beyond the border of school grounds.

When mailing or emailing information advocating PTA’s position, send only to PTA members.  Be careful not to send emails to school staff using their district email address.

NOTE: PTAs may print and distribute voter registration information, general election information, information that presents both the pros and cons of ballot issues, announcements regarding where to vote (mail-in ballot or polling locations, hours, etc.), and announcements of forums where both sides have been invited.

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Guidelines for advocating 

PTA’s positions on Ballot Issues 

CAUTIONS

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Resources:

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PTA's Advocacy Page:

https://www.pta.org/home/advocacy

PTA's Position Page with Position Statements and Resolutions:

(This is how we ground our positions on local and statewide issues)

https://www.pta.org/home/advocacy/ptas-positions 

PTA's Center for Family Engagement:

(Engagement and Advocacy go hand in hand!)

https://www.pta.org/the-center-for-family-engagement

Colorado PTA's Advocacy Page:

https://copta.org/advocacy/

Colorado PTA's Resolutions and Positions:

https://copta.org/resolutions-positions/

COPTA Legislative Engagement Committee meets every 2nd Monday of the month May-December and every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month January-April (legislative session).

Please join us or reach out to Evie, Dawn, or Sarah for a meeting zoom link, if you have questions or to connect.

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Thank you for being an advocate and helping fulfill PTA's mission!

VP of Advocacy: Evie Hudak  

eviehudak@copta.org

Director of Legislative Engagement: Dawn Fritz

dawnfritz@copta.org

Chair of Legislative Engagement Committee: Sarah Robirds

sarahrobirds@copta.org