Question: Advocates for students and parents

Can PTO serve as advocates for students, and parents. For example in a case of grivence claims against staff and or faculty, who are or may be suspected of bullying, and harrasing students?

Asked by oif0506vet

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Craig writes:
There's not really a black and white answer to this. As a general rule, we believe that the most effective role for a PTO is to build a sense of support and community at the school and to help get parents involved in their children's education. It's not really the place of a parent group to get involved in issues involving individual children -- for example, taking the side of a parent vs. a teacher in a classroom dispute. If there's a systemic issue -- for example, the school has an ongoing problem with bullying -- it often makes sense for the PTO to get involved, hopefully in a positive and solution-oriented way. Some situations, of course, lie between those two. If that's the case, you might ask whether getting involved in this particular situation will make your group less effective in its main goal of creating a better learning environment for all students. It's a balancing act, and different groups take different approaches.