But I Joined the PTSA when My Kid was in Elementary School!

Why join the PTSA when your kid is in high school, and doesn't need your help anymore? After all, the kid has gone to school for many years, now, he's a professional and it costs more money to join in high school than it did before.  And they expect your son to be a member too?  What is all the fuss about PTSA in high school? 

Short answer: supporting your kid and supporting her school. Supporting his prom experience, and affording him the opportunity to win a PTSA sponsored scholarship. Learning the ins and outs of high school life, and knowing what is being planned in the life of your silent and moody teenager. That's the short answer. Here comes the longer one. Are you ready? 

First some statistics. According to Wikipedia, in the 1960s, PTAs, and PTSAs had a membership of over 12 million, and has dropped to somewhere between 5 and 5.2 million this past year, despite a growth in population in the United States over the last 50 years. Elementary school PTAs generally benefit from a higher membership than high school PTSAs even though the membership pool is broadened by the addition of students to PTSA for high school. 

If you and your children join the PTSA while your children are in high school, your children become eligible to receive PTSA sponsored scholarships. Without that membership on the part of your child, she doesn't even get to compete for the scholarship. The PTSA puts on the traditional post prom party for the Senior Prom at your child's high school. In order to help the Post Prom Party get off the ground, it needs a wealth of volunteers, all of whom should be PTSA members according to the insurance that the PTSA has that allows them to sponsor such an event. Also, the money you contribute when you support the PTSA with your membership go in part to put on the Post Prom Party. That party is sometimes looked forward to more than the actual prom! And without your help, one of these days in tight economic situations, it might not happen!

If you join your children's high school PTSA, you have the option of coming to meetings, and finding out what is happening in your child's school.  No more relying on the super-responsive teenager:  "Fine."  "Good."  "Nothing."  You might even hear about things that are happening in the wider world that affect your child's life at school. Certainly, you'll get the chance to meet more teachers at your child's school. 

Your PTSA membership costs help the PTSA in many ways. In addition to putting on the Post Prom Party and giving scholarships, the PTSA also hosts the teachers of your child's school for at least one breakfast per year, and if possible, a luncheon during Teacher Appreciation Week as well. Often, PTSA's donate a large quantity of money to the school's discretionary fund or to it's technology fund. A school's discretionary fund helps students acheive that which they cannot afford to acheive without assistance: a state-wide or national competition for which the student cannot pay the entry fee; gym uniforms for their required gym class; lab fees for a higher level science course; and sometimes even application fees for college applications.

There is evidence out there that parents who are involved in their teenagers' lives tend to have teenagers who graduate high school at a higher rate than those who are not involved. That's a statistic. I have found that being an active member of my sons' high school PTSAs gave me a lot of insight into their lives.

If you become a member and volunteer to sit at the PTSA table during football games and sell spirit wear, you might meet that girl Rhonda that he's been talking about. Or you might meet your son's science teacher, and find that he really is a cool human being, not the wrath of Godzilla. The PTSA really is a way to stay out in front in your childrens' lives.

I have also found, and this is in no way a statistic, that being actively involved in the PTSA of my sons' schools made me feel younger than I felt before getting involved. What reason do you have for not getting involved with something that is so intertwined in your kids' lives? Can you turn it around this fall and become a member of your child's High School PTSA with your child?