Publicity
A carefully thought out publicity
campaign is essential to success.

• Set an attendance target and decide how best to achieve it.
• Design specific strategies to reach specific target audiences – families of children with disabilities may have special ways of communicating with the school (daily or weekly journals or other messaging systems) find out from the child study team and use these direct communication lines.
• Provide adequate advance notice
• Have parent volunteers call other parents
• Announce the meeting on the school marquee
• Send follow-up reminders – “3 chances”.
• Set an expectation among all students that their parents/special adults will attend
• Have students design personal invitations to the event to their parents
• Mail every parent an invitation which is friendly, colorful, in easy to under stand language and explains what parents/students can expect to learn/gain.
• Note on the invitation the transportation, child care, translation or other arrangements the school will provide to accommodate their attendance.
• Hang posters developed by classes of students in local grocery stores, libraries, laundromats, ______________, ______________ , __________________ .
• Use the PA system to remind all children on the day of the event that you are eager to see their parents.

Planning
Activities/Events are successful when they meet the
real needs of parents.  The best way to ensure success
is to involve parents in the planning process. 

Important goals for all of your activities should be:

1. to convey important information and or skills to families, and

2. to initiate and/or maintain a positive feeling about the school and staff.

In attracting parents to events at the school planners need to also keep in mind the three “F”s – Family! Food! Fun!

Some ideas:

• Make sure the purpose is clear and important to families and teachers.
• Make sure that the activities are aligned with the purposes.
• Involve a cross-section of parents in planning your activities – this is a way to enlarge your parent group beyond the “usual cast of characters.” 
• Plan a schedule with timeframes for each activity, allowing enough time, so that you stay on schedule.
• Provide child care or involve children in the program.
• Provide transportation, if needed.
• Provide translation, if needed.
• Hold events/activities at times most convenient for the intended audiences.
• Offer more than one opportunity for families to take part in the activity.
• Decide how you will evaluate the event, to see if it has the desired impact/outcomes and how it can be improved in the future.

Preparation
The school will want to convey a warm and inviting
atmosphere and insure that teacher and
staff presentations are informative and enjoyable.

Some ideas:

• List all supplies and materials needed for the evening and make sure that you have enough on hand for the expected and unexpected attendees.
• Write out a list of activities and responsibilities for the event and clearly outline who is responsible for what.
• Arrange to direct families with clearly marked signs and support staff around the building.
• Make sure that arrangements for child care and transportation run smoothly.
• Provide translators for parents who do not speak English.
• Arrange for a display table with copies of pertinent information about the school.
• Request that art classes prepare welcome signs for parents.
• Make sure that walls/bulletin boards are bright displays of student work.