La Mesa Elementary School in Plainview, Texas developed a PALS Literacy Bag program to help involve parents with their children at home. PALS is an acronym for Parents As Literary Support. The school prepares a number of PAL bags containing a book, a game or something the parents and child can enjoy together. Every night, several students each take home a literacy bag. The teacher changes the contents of the bags periodically so parents and students always have new activities to keep their interest.
Some parents feel uncomfortable doing things in the classroom at school.
To solve this problem and to give these parents an opportunity to participate in a less intimidating way, La Mesa Elementary School created the Parenting Center where parents can go to get parenting tips, meet other parents and educators and help with classroom projects. A feeling of usefulness by parents is necessary to the success of any parental involvement program. The current director of Special Programs should organize a volunteer committee. Each campus should select one staff person and one parent volunteer to be on the committee. The committee members should research best practices in other school districts, formulate goals for the program and communicate areas where volunteers can be used at the schools.