How can parents help high risk classmates at child’s school?

[Anonymous]

I order large packs of socks, gloves, hats, etc. I drop them off at the main office. Usually in the evenings when no one is there. I would prefer them being completely anonymous donations.

[Anonymous]

The needs don’t end in ES. Please consider donating menstruation products and other personal care items, like deodorant as students approach middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The needs don’t end in ES. Please consider donating menstruation products and other personal care items, like deodorant as students approach middle school.

Yes, very much so. Middle school kids are sometimes very conscious of their appearance, especially if they know their life situation is not good. If you have a Costco card, you can offer to make a run for the social worker and pick up a lot of stuff at once. This stocks them up for the year with a minimal investment of the social worker's time. Another thing they really appreciate is a CVS gift card.

In everything you do for the PTO, literally every single thing, think how it impacts the lowest-income students and how to better serve them. For example, I was in charge of the school t-shirt order and pricing. I opted to charge everyone an extra 25 cents, to make the numbers work out so that the social worker could have some shirts to distribute. And I made sure to get some sizes for the kids who are overweight or really tall.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Think of the lowest-income kids always, especially the older ones. Any event that requires payment or tickets, make some free tickets to send home, or just be very lax about admissions. Cultivate your PTA's relationship with the older kids' teachers. Remember that they need larger portions of food so if you're funding snacks for an activity they should get a larger per-kid allocation. Their field trips are often longer and more expensive for a worthwhile activity. Don't charge them more for shirts even if the shirts cost more from the printer. Figure out if there are any bigger-kid activities that they would like to have funding for (like sports, school newspaper, student council, whatever). Preschool parents should be willing to work on behalf of these students.

Personally volunteer your time for career day or to help with one of their activities. For example, I helped arrange a field trip at a museum near my office and met them there to help chaperone. Others have used their professional skills to arrange field trips or help with activities. such as a one-issue student newspaper. There's a lot you can do, the first step is to befriend the teacher and give her confidence that you will be helpful and not a time-suck.

[Anonymous]

My DH went on an overnight field trip with the 5th graders. They really needed more male chaperones. It was not the most convenient thing, he came back pretty tired, but we made it work and he really did have a good time. Kids that age can be very fun and engaging, and their field trips are so much more substantive.

[Anonymous]

Our PTA at our title 1 does a coat drive every year and has a day where you can come in an pick up whatever you need. They also do food drives and I think some emergency funds to help families in need (for rent etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is such a great question, and I love that, according to the replies here, at least some PTAs are good about helping students. I wish that were the same across the board! I've reached out to our IB school's PTO (Bunker Hill) multiple times as a community member, not a school parent (our kids are too young for school still), to see if we can help satisfy any needs that students or the school might have (e.g., clothes, books, art supplies, etc.) and they have not once taken us up on our offer to help. It's unreal, because we know--through a teacher and other parents in the neighborhood whose children attend the school--that there are kids at the school who are in need of things like winter clothes and the like. It's noteworthy to us, as we're looking for a school community for our kids that welcomes support, has an active and engaged parent community, and is committed to helping students in need within the school community. Hopefully OP will get a better response from his/her local school's PTA/PTO.

Sometimes PTAs are just overwhelmed. If you want to help, I would just buy a couple of coats (in upper elementary sizes) and bring them in with a note that says to give to the social worker/guidance counselor.

Also set up an alert on Donors Choose so you will know when a teacher posts: https://www.donorschoose.org/school/brookland-education-center/6550?activeProjects=true

PP here. Thank you, this is a good suggestion. I reached out to the school and PTO a few times with some suggestions as to how/what we might be able to provide, including art supplies, winter clothes, and some other time-volunteered projects, and was hoping to be able to target our help to specific needs that the school has instead of just hazarding a guess and wasting money in ways that were unhelpful and potentially insulting. I think the problem here had more to do with PTO families leaving the school than anything else, which I guess makes it difficult to really build up a strong PTO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is such a great question, and I love that, according to the replies here, at least some PTAs are good about helping students. I wish that were the same across the board! I've reached out to our IB school's PTO (Bunker Hill) multiple times as a community member, not a school parent (our kids are too young for school still), to see if we can help satisfy any needs that students or the school might have (e.g., clothes, books, art supplies, etc.) and they have not once taken us up on our offer to help. It's unreal, because we know--through a teacher and other parents in the neighborhood whose children attend the school--that there are kids at the school who are in need of things like winter clothes and the like. It's noteworthy to us, as we're looking for a school community for our kids that welcomes support, has an active and engaged parent community, and is committed to helping students in need within the school community. Hopefully OP will get a better response from his/her local school's PTA/PTO.

They probably need to become a little more robust a PTA before they have the bandwidth for this. Or nobody is checking the email account. Just drop things off at the front desk, that is fine even if you don't go there.

PP here. Yes, I think that’s right. It’s a new PTO and will take time to get established. I’d originally reached out to the principal (who is lovely) and she put me in touch with the new PTO. I will continue to try to offer our help, and appreciate others’ helpful suggestions here on how else to help school communities.

[Anonymous]

New clothes and such are just the tip of the iceberg...
That’s what I would be concerned about when touring the school and seeing kids like that...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tbh when I did PTO, I found these donations to be mostly low value and often not worth the time and effort it took to deal with them.

This. I work with homeless children and you wouldn’t believe the garbage the public drops off to us as donations. I spent about an hour last week going through bags of vomit-stained baby clothes covered in pet hair.