Gwinnett County Public Schools salutes the families and staff members who work together in their local school PTAs to advocate for the children of our community! Our PTAs sponsor events and learning activities, raise funds to support teaching and learning, provide resources and tools for families and schools, and advocate for families, speaking “with one voice for every child.”
In GCPS, local school chapters work together in one of three areas in the Gwinnett County Council of PTAs that make up District 12 of the Georgia PTA, a state affiliate of the National PTA.
“We are thankful to have PTA as a great partner through the years and we know the value that each PTA chapter adds to our schools,” says Dr. Pam Williams, GCPS chief of staff, who serves as a liaison to PTA leadership in the county. “We believe that when schools and PTAs work together, it leads to student, school, and community success.”
DID YOU KNOW? The National Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)—the largest and oldest child advocacy association in the United States—has strong Georgia roots.
PTA was the brainchild of Marietta native Alice McLellan Birney who worked with Phoebe Apperson Hearst to organize the first National Congress of Mothers. The Washington, D.C., event on Feb. 17, 1897, drew far more than the “200 mothers” expected, with more than 2,000 attendees—both women and men—who saw an opportunity to address the needs of children and families with one voice.
A similar organization—the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers (NCCPT)—was dedicated to advocacy for children, particularly those in segregated communities. The first local chapter was launched in an Atlanta elementary school in 1911 by NCCPT founder Selena Sloan Butler, an alumnae of Spelman College and longtime teacher who grew up in Thomasville, Ga. NCCPT had its first convention in 1926. Mrs. Butler went on to serve on presidential committees and founded and led numerous service organizations in Atlanta and the state of Georgia. (Her portrait is displayed in the State Capitol building.)
Over the years, the National Congress of Mothers and the NCCPT worked together to improve conditions for students and teachers, merging in 1970 to form the National PTA. The National PTA and its founding organizations have advocated for children and families on key education, health, and safety issues—from school and bus safety, mandatory immunizations, and universal kindergarten to child labor laws and juvenile justice, the first school lunch program, and family involvement in schools.
Today, the National PTA has more than 4 million members—parents, teachers, grandparents, caregivers, foster parents, and other caring adults—who are committed to the PTA mission.