The Better Way: How To Empower and Grow PTAs

Parent Teacher Associations, PTAs, have long been one of the primary vehicles for parent involvement in schools in the USA. When parent activity in schools is measured, parents’ participation in PTAs is even higher than attending parent-teacher conferences.

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that 83% of K–12 students had a parent attend a general school or PTA meeting during the 2022–23 school year. (That number has dropped from 89% just a few years earlier, indicating that some families feel increasingly disconnected from these opportunities to contribute.)

Room for Everyone?

Still, 17% of families choose or cannot be involved with their child’s school’s parent organizations. There are a plethora of reasons why parents may not get involved:

Parents, especially single parents, who work nontraditional or inflexible hours, may be unable to attend meetings or volunteer in person.
Families may deal with language barriers or find it culturally challenging to fit in.
New parents may feel isolated in traditional PTA settings if the group seems insular.
Parents who perceive the school climate as negative, or even hostile, may avoid engagement.
Lastly, in some cases, parents may not be aware of how the school’s PTA functions, and how to join.

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The Prospect

A single solution won’t fix all the issues, especially the ones rooted in culture. Yet, PTAs can act as a vehicle for positive change in schools. They can improve the school culture by extending their arms to the entire parent community and offering inclusive ways to participate.

What if the PTA hosted school events celebrating parents’ diverse cultural heritage? Or, what if the PTA offered flexible times for parents to volunteer in schools? A PTA that is integrated and supported by the entire school community – parents, teachers, staff, and administrators – is more likely to carry out a positive change in schools.

Choosing a PTA platform that includes the entire school community, even parents who typically stay away from school meetings, can work as a practical building block to close the gap between school and home.

A Better Way to Run PTA

The School Signals communication platform allows PTAs to maximize their potential in their community reach, communicate effectively, and reach the entire school community. Here are some ways the School Signals platform powers PTAs.

Make it Easy for Parents to Find and Join the PTA

If PTA is run in a separate app among members, reaching out to parents who’ve missed invitations can be hard. In School Signals, parents can quickly join a PTA with just one click. Parents can see the PTA in their Groups area, both on desktop and mobile. They simply click ‘Join.’ You can also create an online form with screening questions and make the process a quick application.

Promote Your PTA for the Whole School Community

The power of School Signals is that PTA communication is not isolated to third-party apps. You can reach the entire school community and let them know about your parent organization. Make posts to the School Feed for those parents who are not members of the PTA yet. Highlight positive reasons to join the PTA and create a low barrier by making joining a PTA a one-click step.

Use the School Feed to spotlight ongoing PTA goals, such as fundraising campaigns or school improvement efforts, ensuring all parents are informed, even those not in the PTA yet. Parents can use the built-in language translation to read the post in their language.

Power School Events and Volunteer Signups

According to school climate researchers Larry Feriazzo and Lorie Hammond, immigrant or lower-income families may have been withdrawn from the school’s regular volunteering activities due to cultural, language, or other barriers stemming from daily living circumstances.

Feriazzo and Hammond emphasize that authentic engagement must stem from parents’ genuine interests to enrich the community. Involving parents in their way and not in stereotypical volunteering roles created authentic connections with the school.

Think of ways to activate those parents who are not members of the PTA. Can the PTA outreach to these parents? Would the parents be interested in sharing aspects of their cultural heritage during a school event? Would they like to share a special skill? Feriazzo and Hammond give an example of a school garden where parents shared their knowledge on traditional gardening skills and greatly contributed to the community.

What’s powerful about School Signals is how you can integrate events and volunteering to be used within the PTA group, or to reach the entire school community.

Cultivate Clear and Timely Communication

Transparency in communication is a building block for trust, leading to a positive school culture. Post updates consistently. Members can discuss PTA matters, share ideas in the private feed, and be notified immediately or in daily digests, depending on their settings.

Be sure to upload all meeting minutes, flyers, or event materials. Keep them inside the PTA group or reach all parents via the School Feed. When coordination requires a personal touch, you can also message any parent individually (who has allowed messaging). Using the School Signals online forms, consider polling your group a few times a year to get feedback and brainstorm new ideas.

Your One School Communication Hub for Everything

Unlike standalone apps, School Signals works inside your school’s broader communication system. Parents don’t have to manage separate logins or juggle multiple tools. Instead of operating on an individual platform, PTAs can build visibility within the school’s central communication hub.

PTAs work best when everyone has a path to join in. Whether signing up for a single event or taking on a leadership role, every parent should have an easy, welcoming entry point. School Signals helps to bridge the gap between school and home.

The Takeaway: Positive Intentions with the Right Strategy

Strong PTAs don’t happen by chance—they grow from a culture of inclusion, communication, and shared purpose. With private groups, language translation tools, flexible volunteer signups, and clear pathways to participation, every parent has a chance to show up in the way that works best for them.

By meeting families where they are and making it easy to get involved, your PTA becomes more active and representative of the whole school community.