Parent Participation Organization

The Parent Participation Organization (P.P.O.) gives the opportunity to a larger number of parents to be involved in the day-to-day life of a school.

What are the functions of a Parent Participation Organization?

The P.P.O. has a twofold purpose:

• to encourage parents to be involved in fostering their child’s academic success
• to collaborate in developing, implementing and evaluating the school’s
  educational project.

As well, it may advise the parent representatives on the governing board about parents’ concerns. The governing board may consult the P.P.O. when parents’ opinions and ideas are needed (s.96-3).

The Parent Participation Organization can play a valuable role and complement the work of the governing board by effectively communicating with the parent body at large:

• letting parents know about what is going on at the school and what the needs are
• finding out about parents’ concerns

There are no regulations governing the size and general operation of a Parent Participation Organization. As well as fulfilling its purpose as defined by law, it has been suggested that sub-committees could be set up within the P.P.O. with specific tasks such as safety, newsletter, book fair, etc.

Each school has the flexibility to organize its P.P.O. to best suit the conditions, i.e., the number of parents who wish to be involved and the tasks that need to be done.

Most importantly, the P.P.O. and governing board must work closely together to ensure that everyone is working toward the same goals.