JHB;147878 wrote: I totally agree but then the expectation of this special relationship needs to be two-sided. Parent groups can't be part of the school on issues like this but then claim "total independence" and being "separate' when it comes to a reasonable amount of oversight. For most it's a give and take relationship.
Rockne;147868 wrote: This is a bad policy and/or a scared lawyer making bad policy. Your PTO should bot be equated to every other outside organization.
Tim
I totally agree but then the expectation of this special relationship needs to be two-sided. Parent groups can't be part of the school on issues like this but then claim "total independence" and being "separate' when it comes to a reasonable amount of oversight. For most it's a give and take relationship.
PTO Pres - Actually, you can probably request contact information (with parent names, addresses, and phone numbers) as public information request.
While much information about students is private, an exception is "directory information" as defined by federal law. The school has to set a policy on what it will release as directory information and disclose that. It's usually right at the front of the school handbook. Parents can (in writing) instruct the school to withhold info - but otherwise, it's available.
The district has a right to charge "reasonable" fees such as copying or time for fullfilling an open records request. One year, our school was hung up in policies changing so I had to get it from the district. I asked for it electronically and there was a $35 fee.
Note - this is very commonly requested info. Especially when you get to high school you'll notice all the colleges, tutoring companies, foreign study programs, etc are suddenly mailing your child info. It's because they request these lists.
Thanks, everyone, for your input. Just to clarify one thing -- we only post or e-mail info for other non-profits, particularly local sports groups. As a large public middle school, a lot of our kids can't make the school teams, so many of them participate in Little League, Soccer leagues, etc. We don't do any fundraising and wouldn't post/e-mail for local businesses.
Another issue which arose today is that we will no longer have access to mailing labels for school families, which were crucial in reaching incoming families with directory/volunteer and membership info. Thankfully we started using PTO Manager this year, so we have many families in the database, but definitely not all -- and not the incoming 6th graders for next year. It is going to be quite a challenge and an expense to reach everyone. The school population is about 1200-1300 people.
Okay, first things first. Were I in your shoes, I'd be running to the next Board of Ed meeting to talk about this whole policy as it relates to parent groups. You could point out the part of NCLB that refers to parent involvement, and the risk that this new policy has of decreasing it. You could also point to the amount of funding that is being provided to your district by Parent Groups. Maybe you could even contact all of the parent groups in your district and get together the amount of money that you all spend on your whole district. Point out that applying this rule to groups whose sole purpose is to provide support to the schools is detrimental to all involved. And keep talking until they start to listen. It might even help to talk to your mayor or city council.
As for the other part of your query, I'm just going to relate an experience of ours.
Early in the school year I contacted a local martial arts studio to inquire about pricing for a field trip and demonstration for our Top 12 Gift Wrap Sellers. They replied back with an offer to do it for free for our Top 40 kids. We were really excited and grateful and made a very public announcement of our appreciation both in the gift wrap packets and on our website. Parents took this information and enrolled their children at the studio based on what they viewed as our endorsement.
That was in September. By the end of October when we were ready to book the field trip, the martial arts studio had backed out on us. By the middle of November they had gone out of business. Needless to say, we were really embarrassed.
So now, our new policy is that we will only post information for other groups on our website if they have supported our PTA in some way, and only after they have done so. We do this on an acknowledgments page only. We don't sell ads on our site, and we include a statement at the bottom of the acknowledgments page that stipulates that we appreciate the support of the groups listed but are in no way responsible for any product or service they offer and provide no endorsements of the same.
All of that being said, you would need to contact a lawyer to find out if you could be subject to the same type of lawsuit that your school district was, but my gut says no, since the Boy Scouts are allowed to prohibit girls from joining without violating any laws. But again, talk to a lawyer to be sure.
Also, keep in mind that parents are bombarded with advertising all over the internet. Most of the flyers that were getting sent home from non-school groups were getting trashed site unseen anyway. If you start to fill your emails and/or your website with those same types of ads, you may find that your emails and website are getting the same treatment.
