LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Providing a positive outcome for how students navigate school is a shared responsibility with schools and families to support our students, according to the Nevada Department of Education. As students prepare to head back to class, there are ways parents can stay present for their kids.
Washing dishes, like many parents, is how Dana Page usually ends her day.
“Life is not perfect, but you know,” she said. “We get so busy.”
She said she has barely enough energy to take a drink of water, focus on herself or be as involved in her kids’ education.
“I haven’t been very good actively with the school,” Page said.
However, she told 8 News Now that she makes up for it by having them do activities she can also participate in.
“I let them join different sports, different activities,” she said. “But life’s reality is really you have to work.”
Recent research from the America First Policy Institute shows student academic performance in public schools reached a 30-year low. It also said to restore the quality of education, states should promote accountability in school districts. One of them is through increased parental involvement.
“We absolutely have no engagement,” Anna Binder said.
She said parents need to speak up, especially at Title 1 schools.
“I have to stand out on the quad and beg parents at pick up to go back in and go into the library,” she said.
Binder is chair of the school organizational team at Fay Galloway Elementary in Henderson which is a Title 1 school.
An example of how parents can get involved is by heading to their child’s school website. Binder told 8 News Now every school in Clark County has a school organizational team also referred to as SOT.
On certain tabs on school websites, usually, there’s an About tab and that’s where you can find the school organizational team. It’s where families can learn about the school’s meetings, and agendas, and express concerns and make suggestions.
In fact, the American Psychological Association said parental involvement in education was positively related to children’s emotional and social adjustment. Highlighting just how important parent involvement is for students to succeed.
Every Clark County school has a school organizational team. Meetings are once a month and it is also a great way to get to know the principal, key staff and also meet other parents.
Below is a statement from CCSD on SOT’s:
“A school organizational team (SOT) is a group of members of a school community, including parents/guardians, that serves as an advisory body to the school principal by providing advice and assistance to the principal as it relates to the development and carrying out of the School Plan of Operation in accordance with NRS 388G.540 through NRS 388G.760.“
Each year, the principal determines the size of the school organizational team for the following term beginning October 1 of each year. SOT members serve one-year terms from October 1 through September 30 with no term limits.
