SAN JOSE – California State PTA has received the inaugural Jan Harp Domene Diversity and Inclusion Award for its School Smarts parent engagement program. 

The National PTA award honors a single PTA from throughout the nation for “doing remarkable work in the areas of diversity and inclusion.”

Beginning in 2010-11, California State PTA has partnered to offer the School Smarts parent engagement program at 21 elementary schools from four school districts during the past year: South San Francisco, Alameda, Chino Valley and Riverside.

More than 700 parents have graduated from the 7-session parent academies, and several thousand have participated in campus-wide parent engagement events.

Approximately 20 percent of the academy participants were fathers and over half of the parents enrolled spoke Spanish.  School principals reported that the curriculum – which was developed by a team of parents and educators – has helped increase communication and collaboration between different groups at their sites.

"We've always envisioned School Smarts as a catalyst for fostering inclusion at school sites," said California State PTA President Carol Kocivar, "Our long-term objective is to help as many parents as possible feel comfortable and confident advocating on behalf of their children and all children, such as speaking up for a well-rounded education for every child that includes the arts and music."

“The School Smarts program has enabled us to be more confident in setting up a more conducive learning environment at home,” said Carlo Lacambra, a parent and academy graduate from Sunshine Gardens Elementary School in South San Francisco, “It was seven weeks well-spent with fellow parents who share a common concern on improving our children’s learning, on possibly improving the educational system with our ideas, and especially on improving ourselves as parents with our teacher hats on.”

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