Every Child in Focus - Illinois PTA
Every Child in Focus
How PTAs Can Better Support Foster Families National PTA’s Every Child in Focus is centered on strengthening family engagement in schools by celebrating important cultural distinctions and achievements, while highlighting solutions to potential educational issues. This March, we turn our focus to families of Foster Children and the unique challenges they face in supporting student success. Based on National PTA’s Standards for Family-School Partnerships, let’s explore ways PTAs can welcome and support foster families in the school community.
Standard 1: Welcoming All Families into the School Community
Standard 2: Communicating Effectively
• Recognize that children • Survey foster parents to in foster families are often determine their educationdifficult to identify due to al support needs and how privacy concerns. It is the PTA can help address often a matter of selfthose needs. disclosure after joining the PTA. • Invite a social worker from the school or the foster • Welcome all new children care agency to write child and their foster parents welfare and foster care to the school with a tour articles for the newsletter, and a meeting with the the website, etc. principal and school social worker or counselor. Making the student and their families feel welcome and connected to their school community is even more critical to their success.
Standard 3: Supporting Student Success
Standard 4: Speaking Up for Every Child
• Children in foster care • Every year there are may miss many days of proposed state child school or enter school welfare bills affecting mid-term. Encourage child welfare and often teachers to provide a more specifically foster syllabus to identify families. Form a committee learning content, establish to keep all families expectations, and help a informed about proposed foster parent understand child welfare legislation what content has been and encourage them to covered to date. advocate for the foster care/child welfare bills • Provide specialized PTA they support. family engagement training to raise and sustain academic achievement. Cover the effects of traumatic stress on children, their health, behavior and educational outcomes.
Standard 5: Sharing Power
Standard 6: Collaborating with Community
• Recruit foster parents • Sponsor professional to represent the PTA development training on the school’s School for teachers focusing on Improvement Committee. students in foster care. • Recruit foster parents to serve in leadership positions in the PTA.
• Form a partnership with the local department of social services or child welfare agencies. Invite them to PTA meetings and ask them to invite the PTA to their parent meetings.
How PTAs Can Better Support Foster Families National PTA’s Every Child in Focus is centered on strengthening family engagement in schools by celebrating important cultural distinctions and achievements, while highlighting solutions to potential educational issues. This March, we turn our focus to families of Foster Children and the unique challenges they face in supporting student success. Based on National PTA’s Standards for Family-School Partnerships, let’s explore ways PTAs can welcome and support foster families in the school community.
Standard 1: Welcoming All Families into the School Community
Standard 2: Communicating Effectively
• Recognize that children • Survey foster parents to in foster families are often determine their educationdifficult to identify due to al support needs and how privacy concerns. It is the PTA can help address often a matter of selfthose needs. disclosure after joining the PTA. • Invite a social worker from the school or the foster • Welcome all new children care agency to write child and their foster parents welfare and foster care to the school with a tour articles for the newsletter, and a meeting with the the website, etc. principal and school social worker or counselor. Making the student and their families feel welcome and connected to their school community is even more critical to their success.
Standard 3: Supporting Student Success
Standard 4: Speaking Up for Every Child
• Children in foster care • Every year there are may miss many days of proposed state child school or enter school welfare bills affecting mid-term. Encourage child welfare and often teachers to provide a more specifically foster syllabus to identify families. Form a committee learning content, establish to keep all families expectations, and help a informed about proposed foster parent understand child welfare legislation what content has been and encourage them to covered to date. advocate for the foster care/child welfare bills • Provide specialized PTA they support. family engagement training to raise and sustain academic achievement. Cover the effects of traumatic stress on children, their health, behavior and educational outcomes.
Standard 5: Sharing Power
Standard 6: Collaborating with Community
• Recruit foster parents • Sponsor professional to represent the PTA development training on the school’s School for teachers focusing on Improvement Committee. students in foster care. • Recruit foster parents to serve in leadership positions in the PTA.
• Form a partnership with the local department of social services or child welfare agencies. Invite them to PTA meetings and ask them to invite the PTA to their parent meetings.
