This article originally appeared in the May-June 2005 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Grassroots Snapshot

"Include the parent voice!"

Parents campaign for a say in organizations that make decisions about their families

By Casey Flaherty

S.F. school board advisory council

In the middle of a recent controversy over school closings, the board of the San Francisco Unified School District heard an unusual report: the board’s Parent Advisory Council made recommendations based on feedback they had gathered from parents. “They weren’t saying ‘close schools’ or ‘don’t close schools,’” says Sandra Fewer, facilitator for Parent Advocates for Youth (PAY). “They were saying ‘if you do close schools, you’ve got to include the parent voice.’”

Including the parent voice is the purpose of the Parent Advisory Council, created by the school board two years ago after a campaign by PAY, a branch of Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth. Parents, says former PAY member Clare Watsky, needed “a much more authentic parent voice at the district level,” on issues from budgeting to curriculum.

PAY gathered support for its Parent Advisory Council proposal, says Fewer, in a campaign that included sitting at tables and collecting signatures as well as lining up the support of other parent organizations—the PTA, Parents for the Public Schools, the NAACP Education Committee, Chinese for Affirmative Action, the Central American Resource Center, and more.

Meanwhile, they met individually with almost every member of the school board, asking for their input to make a plan that worked for everybody. When the vote came, in June 2003, it was unanimous.

The council’s job is not only to advise the board on issues coming up for a vote, but to consult with other parents and develop recommendations. “The issues have to be defined by the parents to a certain extent, not the school district,” says Watsky. The council is a “tool to find out what parents are really thinking,” Fewer adds.

Michael Smith, who chaired the council in its first year, adds, “it’s a crucial time. We need to have a voice, not just to the school board and administrators, but to the governor as well. We need to make sure our voice is heard.”

Statewide social services

“Low-income families are the experts on poverty and what they need to get out of poverty,” says Diana Spatz, executive director of Oakland-based nonprofit LIFETIME (Low Income Families Empowerment Through Education), an organization of low-income parents.

So when they learned that the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), which runs welfare programs, meets regularly with an advisory committee, LIFETIME decided low-income parents should have the right to participate. Until now the committee has been composed of service providers from county programs and private nonprofits.

So LIFETIME started a letter-writing campaign to CDSS, demanding a seat on the committee. Then last September, parents, children, and LIFETIME staff marched in Sacramento, ending with a rally at the CDSS offices.

At first the CDSS offered to let only Spatz join the committee. But parents insisted that parents currently on welfare be represented as well. Now the committee includes two parents from LIFETIME in addition to one staffer. Having two parents present, says Spatz, makes it less intimidating to speak up.

In the last meeting, says program director Anita Rees, LIFETIME representatives presented the results of their survey on domestic violence services. “More than one-third of the parents we surveyed weren’t getting services,” Rees reports. “(DSS representatives) seemed surprised and asked for our report. “

Parents are crucial, says Spatz, because they put a human face on policy decisions. LIFETIME member Melissa Johnson, a pre-nursing student at Sacramento State University who has attended CDSS advisory committee meetings, agrees that it’s important for decision-makers to discuss policies face to face with people they affect. In the last meeting she attended, the group was discussing a proposal to take away a family’s whole welfare check, not just the parent’s share, as a “sanction” when the parent breaks a welfare rule.

“I told them that would be totally devastating to my family,” says Johnson, who herself received a sanction for staying in school past the 24-month limit. Although her family’s check was reduced, she says, “that’s what keeps me afloat and pays for my daughter’s child care.”

(The time limit on education has now been abolished. The proposal for increasing sanctions has not been adopted.)

L.A. universal preschool

This spring, Los Angeles County launched its ambitious universal preschool program, LA-UP. The goal is ultimately to provide free preschool for all four-year-olds but, for now, parents pay a fee, on a sliding scale depending on their income.

The LA-UP board of directors planned to let kids from only the very poorest families attend free. But the parent members on the board objected. “As parents we felt the minimum (fee) was too high” for working families just getting by, says board member Rafael Gonzalez, a longtime community activist and vice chair of the board.

So the board decided to raise the income level at which families have to start paying, to $26,000 a year. “I really felt parents were able to provide a critical perspective,” Gonzalez comments.

Parent places: Gonzalez occupies one of two spots on the LA-UP board that are reserved for parents. He says these positions exist mostly because of the efforts of the Los Angeles Children’s Planning Council, a countywide organization working to increase communication between government children’s services and grassroots organizations.

“These are their children, therefore this system needs to reflect their values and aspirations for their children,” said Yoli Flores-Aguilar, executive director of the Children’s Planning Council and co-chair of the LA-UP Parent Engagement Task Force. “It is essential as we create a new system that we build it based on what parents want and not what we as service providers want.”

Engagement blueprint: The task force worked with dozens of local community groups to conduct a survey of 3,000 parents. The results formed the Parent Engagement Blueprint, which calls for:

• Three spots on the governing board for parents, two with voting power

• A parent policy board to advise the governing board

• Neighborhood parent leadership councils to ensure local programs are meeting community needs

• Community-level parent advocacy training available to equip more parents to participate in governance.

“My responsibility as a board member is to ensure that the parent’s voice is being heard and that parents are taken into consideration,” Gonzalez says. “It’s important for parents on the board to tell other (board members) how policies will affect other parents.”

Gonzalez says another important aspect of his role as a board member is talking with other parents about the importance of being informed about public policy issues affecting children. “My engagement is going to make my community better, for my children as well as other children,” Gonzalez says.

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Resources

• Parent Advocates for Youth, 415-239-0161

• LIFETIME, 510-452-5192

• Los Angeles Children’s Planning Council, 213-893-0421

• LA-UP, 310-568-9430

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