Bylaws

Riverside County schools must improve education for all children, but schools cannot do this alone. More will be accomplished if schools, families and communities work together to promote successful students.

Riverside County Office of Education and 23rd District PTA are collaborating to increase parent and family involvement across Riverside County in order to raise student achievement and enable our students to be college and career ready. The Parent Engagement Leadership Initiative (PELI) focuses efforts on training and supporting parents, families, educators and community members to become involved in public education and positively impact student success.

Training programs are based on Dr. Joyce Epstein's "Six Types of Parent Involvement" and include information on parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making and collaborating with the community. Additionally, information from the California State PTA Parents Empowering Parents Guide and other PTA resources are shared. The Initiative uses a "trainer of trainers" format to develop a cadre of parents and family involvement leaders throughout the county.

Support is provided by the Initiative for parent leaders, educators, and administrators as they begin to continue parent and family engagement programs and events. The Initiative will provide access to current resources, information on training and leadership opportunities, and networking possibilities.

For more information, or to schedule a series of trainings for your school district, please contact Mimi Badura or Ellen Larson.

Below you will find resources categorized by Dr. Joyce Epstein, Director, Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships and the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) work around the Six Types of Family Involvement.

	Parenting Assist families with parenting and child-rearing skills, understanding child and adolescent development, and setting home conditions that support children as students at each age and grade level. Assist schools in understanding families. National PTA Parent Topics CA PTA Parents Empowering Parents (PEP) Guide and Parent Tips
	Communicating Communicate with families about school programs and student progress through effective school-to-home and home-to-school communications. Connecting Families and Schools to Help Children Succeed Establishing Strong Family-School Communication
	Volunteering Improve recruitment, training, work, and schedules to involve families as volunteers and audiences at the school or in other locations to support students and school programs. How to Connect by Volunteering at School
	Learning at Home Involve families with their children in learning activities at home, including homework and other curriculum-related activities and decisions.. K-6 Educational Resources (Enchanted Learning) K-8 Educational Resources (Info Please) K-12 Homework Help Video Explanations
	Decision Making Include families as participants in school decisions, governance, and advocacy through PTA, school councils, committees, actions teams, and other parent organizations. Parent Involvement Guidance, Regulation and Legislation in CA Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement
	Collaborating with the Community Coordinate community resources and services for students, families, and the school with businesses, agencies, and other groups, and provide services to the community. Riverside County Office of Education Riverside County News and Highlights Press-Enterprise Riverside County Community Action Partnership

The California Action Team for Partnerships (CATP) has developed a state Action Plan for Partnerships which lifts the involvement of families and community out of a “project/activity” mentality into a systemic approach to directly support schools’ instructional strategies and academic goals to ensure the success of all students. 23rd District PTA conducts on-going workshops for stakeholders in our children's public education. Participants learn how to mobilize strategies for parent, family and community involvement and learn how 23^rd District PTA has collaborated with the Riverside County Office of Education in promoting public awareness and knowledge about the role of these partnerships in closing the achievement gap and increasing graduation rates.

Ellen Larson, 23rd District PTA Parent Involvement Chair, past 23rd District PTA President, Certified Parent LiaisonMimi Badura, 23rd District PTA Consultant, Immediate-past 23rd District PTA President, Certified Parent Liaiso Van Horn, Coordinator, Teacher Support Center, Riverside County Office of Education, Certified Parent Liaison

"Of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled and fought for 5,000 years, the right to learn is undoubtedly the most fundamental. We must insist upon this to give our children the fairness of a start which will equip them with such an array of facts and such an attitude toward truth that they have a real chance to judge what the world is. ~W.E.B. Du Bois

The Blueprint for Change

Barack Obama's Plan for America

On March 13, 2010, the Obama administration released its blueprint for revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind, NCLB).

This blueprint builds on the significant reforms already made in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 around four areas: (1) Improving teacher and principal effectiveness; (2) Providing information to families to help them evaluate and improve their children's schools; (3) Implementing college- and career-ready standards; and (4) Improving student learning and achievement in America's lowest-performing schools by providing intensive support and effective interventions.

For more information, click on the individual links below.

A Blueprint for Reform

The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

Education 101

A Primer on The New Elementary and Secondary Education Act