Download the Room Representative Job Description
Key Role – Room Representative
- Works with teacher(s) and parents/guardians/caregivers, as a volunteer contact and liaison, to build stronger family-school partnerships for a classroom or grade level
- Encourages easy, two-way communication between teacher(s) and families on what’s happening in the classroom to support student success
- Collaborates with the teacher(s) to identify how families can assist with classroom activities
- Recruits volunteers and determines volunteer assignments for a classroom or grade level
- Helps to promote PTA goals, membership and activities on campus
Getting Started
- Preparation – Talk to the Room Representative from last year about what worked well in working with teacher(s) and families. Review their procedure book and other materials to better understand the scope of your new position. Learn more about your role and school policies related to family engagement at a meeting organized by the Room Representative Coordinator at your school.
- Meet with Teacher(s) – Get together with the teacher(s) to talk about the various ways and options available for family members to assist with classroom activities, field trips and celebrations for the upcoming year. Develop a list together of volunteer opportunities to share with families.
How Tos
- Contacts – Create a list of parents’/guardians’/caregivers’ names and contact information. Work with the teacher(s) to obtain this information for PTA use only and remember to keep it confidential.
- Welcome – Develop and implement an inclusive outreach plan to introduce yourself, welcome families in home languages and provide a general overview of why family engagement matters at school and in the home.
- Survey – Distribute a volunteer survey, listing volunteer opportunities, to families to share their availability, skills and interests with you and to sign up for classroom activities. Offer a range of volunteer options with different amounts of time and commitment to encourage inclusion and to respect work schedules.
- Delegate – Assign volunteer jobs and maintain a database of volunteers’ interests, skills and availability to use throughout the school year.
- Connect – Communicate regularly with families using multiple pathways – emails, phone calls, text messaging, websites and social media as well as newsletters and backpack flyers – to keep families in the loop on upcoming class or grade level activities and to grow family-school partnerships for student success.
Learn more: capta.org
