First, my sympathies to the family. It must be a terrible situation to deal with.

Our PTO used to pay for flowers or a charitable donation (at the families request) when a parent, or very close relative of the children, teachers, staff or admin of the school died, or we sent flowers when a parent, teacher, staff or admin was seriously ill (hospitalized for an extended time). This was included in our Admin budget.

I say "used to" because last year we got hit with a lot of these and it became to expensive to do. The Board voted to stop this practicw and send a card instead.

Thankfully, we never had a parent in this situation. But I like the idea of a basket for the kids. This seems a reasonable thing to do.

The same situation occurred at our school this past week. As a Board, we decided to put aside $25 towards purchasing books for the child's classroom. They will have a dedication sticker in memory of the lost parent. We are getting a list of topics the child is interested in so we can purchase books meaningful to the child. At the end of the year, the books will be moved into the library for all the children to read.

Hi!!! This past summer my treasurer lost her 8 yr. old in a bike/car accident & we wanted to help in anyway we could. Her work place let us help out at a bake sale they put on. Since we've had budget cuts for the last 2 yrs. & our elem. closed, so after we depleted the majority of our funds, we had $300. left over which were going to decide what to with when school started up but since there was a tradgedy, it was decided to donate it to the family. Everyone was in agreement to do this. I know the family appreciated it.

Last year we lost a student and in asking how the PTO could help we were asked to help with the renting of the auditorium for the family's service. To clarify, the family held the memorial for the child at the school on a Saturday for family. friends and the students in the child's class and the students in the older brother's class. At that moment it seemed like the right thing to do to write a check for $150 to help this family....now I'm not so sure. I really wish we would have done a basket or ssomethingelse. In this situation there was also a need to know what to do as to not offend the family because of their faith.
A parent mentioned asking the school for our check back and let the family use the building for free, I said as far as the family knows they are using the building for free.

We also lost a teacher and a staff member in the following months, this time we are planting a tree with some flowers.

Live and learn.....

Our school has had our fair share of parents passing. What we have done is send care packages to the funeral home for the kids. Our social worker gave us the idea. In the baskets we have teddy bears and things to keep them busy. The baskets have always been well received.

It is hard being a PTO and collecting money for a family. Organizing benefit events not as a PTO function is suitable as well.

In our school PTO we have a "SUNSHINE" person on our committee she is used for this purpose specifically. If the child in our school loses a parent, if the child gets sick and will be out for awhile, etc. We send them a basket specifically for the child. It has books, puzzles, games, maybe a gift certificate depending on circumstance. We have funds set aside for this every year.


Cindy