New Generations United Report Highlights Grandfamilies’ Struggles with Food Insecurity

Existing help for food insecure families tends to assume kids live with parents, not grandparents, and should be fixed to reflect reality. 

Hunger hurts. Just ask Alice Carter. When she got a call from the Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) telling her that her daughter’s parental rights had been severed from her grandson, the department asked if Alice would take him. Without hesitating, she stepped up to raise him and later her granddaughter, too. Her decision was transformative and kept her grandchildren out of foster care. 

At the time, Alice was a welder, a job that paid good money but required her to travel to work sites. Raising her grandchildren meant she had to quit her job because she couldn’t find reliable care for them while she was away at job locations. Alice lost her home because she couldn’t pay rent, and for more than a year, they lived in her car and struggled to find food. 

“I tried to appear at friends’ houses around dinner time so they would include my grandchildren. Sometimes people would give us food that had been in their refrigerator for two weeks, but it was better than nothing. Someone gave us a bag of oranges and we ate nothing but oranges for four days,” Alice says.

Sadly, Alice’s story is not unique. Generations United’s new report sheds light on families like Alice’s. It examines why grandfamilies, families in which children are raised by relatives or family friends without their parents in the home, often face high rates of hunger and food insecurity and recommends ways our policies can better support them. 

The findings are startling. Generations United’s 2022 State of Grandfamilies report found that between 2019 and 2020, 25% of grandparent-headed households with grandchildren and no parent present experienced food insecurity. This is more than twice the national rate. It’s also 60% higherthan that of all households with children (25% vs. 15%). Yet at the same time, in 2019 less than half of low-income grandfamilies accessed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP.

In the report, grandfamily caregivers share personal experiences and struggles with feeding their families. The impact is severe and can harm the health, nutrition and economic security of children and adults.

“You know, if you only have $10 to spend, you really can’t afford to go out and buy stuff for a healthy salad. You can buy beans and rice and chicken nuggets,” says Kathy Coleman, a grandfamily caregiver and director of the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Resource Center of Louisiana.

“It would be a whole lot cheaper, but it’s not really beneficial to the children. But when you’re in that situation, where all you’re trying to do is feed these little babies’ hungry tummies, you do whatever you can to stretch your money and, to be quite honest, sometimes it’s not the most nutritional food.”

Factors Putting Grandfamilies at Risk

Grandfamilies are at increased risk of food insecurity due to factors such as poverty, racial discrimination, disability, marriage status, employment status, geography and accessibility. 

More than half (54%) of grandparent-headed households live in the South—states that tend to have food insecurity rates above the national average. Moreover, a large number of grandparent-headed households live in rural areas and are likely to experience food insecurity at a higher rate, in part because food sources often are further away from home and transportation options are sparse.

Due to cultural values and proud traditions, grandfamilies are disproportionately African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, and, in some areas, Latino. Yet, years of systemic racism and discrimination have led to disproportionate rates of food insecurity, as well as difficulties accessing support systems and inequitable supports for grandfamily caregivers and the children they raise. Additionally, 31% of grandchildren being raised by their grandparents in a grandparent-headed household are living below the poverty level, compared to 16% of all children nationwide.

Grandfamilies Face Greater Barriers Accessing Federal Nutrition Programs 

Federal food and nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and free and reduced-price school meals serve as a lifeline for millions of families struggling with hunger and food insecurity, but many grandfamilies face unique challenges when trying to access these services.

Grandfamily caregiver Linda Lewis from Oklahoma lives off her Social Security benefit and receives Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). 

“It’s tight,” she says. “I have to buy school uniforms and shoes out of that, too. We get SNAP, but the benefit amount is low and that doesn’t go nowhere.”

Linda finds herself visiting food pantries once a month for additional support, along with receiving meals from Meals on Wheels, which she says is helpful. 

Children living with an unlicensed kinship foster care parent are not automatically eligible for WIC benefits, though they may be automatically eligible through other avenues. If a child has been receiving support from WIC while living with a parent, when a grandparent caregiver takes over raising the child, WIC benefits are not always easily transferred or given to the caregiver or child.

Though SNAP is beneficial for grandfamilies, the application process can be difficult to navigate. Eligibility is based on household income, with no option to base it on the income of the child only. Many grandfamilies have household incomes slightly too high to qualify or they have assets they’ve saved for retirement. 

“When you’re a grandparent or caregiver raising children who are not your own, you don’t always meet the low-income eligibility in their state to qualify for SNAP,” says Kathy. “And in doing so, it hinders you from having the ability to have the nutritious food that you want and enough food to feed the family.”

Policy Recommendations to Support Grandfamilies

We can and must take steps toward providing grandfamilies with access to these proven, cost-effective programs they need to increase their family’s food security. These include:

  • Create a “child-only” SNAP benefit that does not consider household income in making eligibility determinations and, instead, is based upon the income of the child only. Children shouldn’t be penalized because their grandparents built up assets for retirement.
  • Support the development and use of kinship navigator programs that provide information, referral and follow-up services to grandparents and other relatives raising children to link them to the benefits and supports that they and/or the children need. These programs work and should exist in every state.
  • Ensure automatic access to free and reduced-price school meals for children living in grandfamilies and help grandfamilies cover meal costs when school is out to help fill the meal gap during the summer when millions of children lose access to school meals.*
  • Creating joint meal programs for grandfamily caregivers and the children they raise. It was startling to learn during the pandemic that programs could deliver meals to older adults but not to the children living with them, and that programs could feed children but not the grandparents raising them who were standing beside them.

When children can’t be raised by their parents, they fare better with their grandparents than do children raised by nonrelatives in foster care. They have better mental health and behavioral health outcomes, higher levels of stability and a greater sense of belonging. They say they feel loved.  

As a nation, we must ensure that no grandfamily experiences hunger and food insecurity. Grandfamilies like Alice Carter’s must no longer feel isolated and alone as they step up to raise a relative’s or a friend’s children. Any grandfamily should know, immediately, where to go for help. And help should be easily accessible to them.

Learn more in Generations United’s 2022 State of Grandfamilies Report, Together at the Table: Improving the Nutrition, Health, and Well-Being of Grandfamilies.

Donna Butts is executive director of Generations United in Washington, DC.

*National PTA continues to champion free school meals for all children, particularly if they live in high poverty school districts through options such as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and allowing Medicaid direct certification to ensure automatic access to free school meals if a family already participates.

Related resources: Op-ed by National PTA President Anna King and Food Research & Action Center President Luis Guardia and National PTA letter to Senate Agriculture Committee on key child nutrition provisions to be included in the end-of-year appropriations package

3 Healthy Habits for the Holiday Season

Practice healthy habits for the holiday season!

As the weather begins to chill in parts of the country, Lysol and National PTA are looking forward to the special moments to come this time of the year! However, it’s important to remember the holiday months are also the start of cold & flu season. While your school communities prepare to celebrate with friends and family, make sure practicing healthy habits in schools remains top of mind for your family and classroom as we near holiday and winter festivities.

Keep the following tips in mind to help make your holiday celebrations as safe as possible:

  • Get your flu vaccination: One of the best ways to help slow the spread of seasonal, illness-causing germs is to receive your immunizations, like the flu shot. The CDC recommends anyone above the age of six months receive a flu shot every year.[1]
  • Wash your hands: When traveling, visiting others’ homes, or preparing for a gathering at your own house, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly and often. Taking the recommended twenty seconds will go a long way in helping to prevent the spread of illness-causing germs throughout your winter adventures.[2]
  • Disinfect High-Touch Classroom Surfaces: Lysol Disinfecting Wipes make it easy to clean and disinfect surfaces at home and in classrooms. Disinfect frequently touched areas from desks to door handles as directed to help protect your school from the spread of germs. This year, refer your school leaders to apply for free Lysol Disinfecting Wipes by visiting Frontline Impact Project.

For more information and resources on healthy habits, please visit Lysol.com/HERE or sign up for updates here. Wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy holiday season!


[1] CDC.org, “Who Needs a Flu Vaccine

[2] CDC.org, “12 Ways to Have a Healthy Holiday Season

Teaming Up for Safer Online Learning

Child Learning Online

Learning technologies are changing fast, accelerated by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students now spend a significant part of each day learning online and working with school-issued technology. In this new reality—where digital learning is pervasive and evolving—parents and schools must work together to keep kids safer online.

Digital learning is here to stay, so let’s make it safer!

Prior to the pandemic, 45% of American schools reported having a computer for every student. (NCES, 2021). Today, as many as 80% of K-12 students have and use a school-issued device, according to a recent national poll by Morning Consult.

Viewed one way, this is an extremely positive development: more digital access = more learning opportunities!

  • 93% of K-12 parents and 98% of educators agree that the internet is a useful tool that should be used to enhance learning.

Parents have understandable concerns about these new technologies, though.

  • 71% of K-12 parents report concerns about their child accessing explicit or harmful content on school-issued devices.
  • 80% of K-12 parents agree unrestricted internet access on school-issued devices can be harmful to student mental health.

Taken together, it’s understandable that:

  • 92% of parents believe it is necessary to have online educational technologies in place to prevent students from accessing harmful or explicit content.

See more findings from Morning Consult.

Thankfully, most schools do have internet safety plans these days.  In fact, schools are required under the Children’s Internet Protection Act to have an online safety program in order to receive certain funding. But, while these safeguards are critical, they aren’t necessarily enough.

“We need to get proactive now about internet safety… Completely banning the use of internet and social media is no longer a realistic option because a lot of schoolwork has transferred online… We all [parents, kids, and educators] need to educate ourselves and start productive dialogues.”

Maya Kruger, South Lake Middle PTSA, PTA Connected Smart Talk Participant

Safety starts with a conversation

Parents, teachers, and school administrators need to be on the same team to ensure students’ online safety as well as theirprivacy. That requires open and active communication.

As a parent and former educator himself, GoGuardian Head of Privacy and Data Policy Teddy Hartman understands the balancing act that school districts must navigate as they deploy technology intended to keep students safe while also maintaining transparency. “As a first step,” Teddy says, “schools should publicly share any education vendors they work with and the types of data privacy protections both the school system and vendor have in place.”

Beyond that, educators and parents can help one another by holding community dialogues about the school’s digital safety technology plan. 

Start a digital safety dialogue in your community

National PTA recently teamed up with GoGuardian to create a resource for parents who want to promote improved online safety in their child’s school.

Check out our resource: Protecting Students Online

Inside, you’ll find a list of questions you can ask to better understand your district’s current digital safety plans and to open a dialogue in your community.

We hope this information sparks healthy conversations that help school communities put quality tools and support systems in place to keep our kids safer in a changing digital world.

GoGuardian has been a Proud National Sponsor of PTA since 2018 and is supporting the release of our updated National Standards for Family-School Partnerships—going live this month! GoGuardian and the National PTA are committed to student success. Together, they are working to engage families and educators on solutions to best support student mental health and online safety.

Show Your PTA Value with YOU Belong in PTA

With the 2022-2023 school year well underway, PTAs and PTSAs are hard at work with their initial membership drive, inviting people to join their local units or renew their PTA/PTSA memberships. Encouraging people to join doesn’t end with the back-to-school membership drive though. It’s an ongoing, year-round initiative.

To support your commitment to membership growth, National PTA developed the YOU Belong in PTA Suite of Membership Resources with easy, meaningful and fun ready-to-use flyers, customizable templates, social media posts, and a guide to help you create your own messages that show the value you provide to your communities throughout the year.

The YOU Belong in PTA suite of materials were designed based on research and marketing best practices. National PTA used two very important lessons discovered through the research done for our award-winning PTA for Your Child Membership Campaign:

Lesson 1:  The number one reason why people don’t join PTA is because no one ever asked

Lesson 2:  People are most willing to join when they see the value PTA provides.

The research showed three key areas where PTA excels in offering families value for their child:

  1. PTA’s ability to create connections
  2. PTA helps parents support their child
  3. PTA allows people to amplify their voice 

The main reason people join PTA/PTSA is to support their children. They see PTA as the way to be connected, to support their children’s education and to speak up for their children when necessary.

It’s important to understand the reasons why people choose to join PTA because knowing common motivations can be used to recruit others. To grow membership, PTAs need to show they provide value for families to make it worth giving their time, resources (connections, money, talents, etc.) or efforts.  How many times have we heard “I first joined PTA for my child. I’ve stayed for ALL children.”?

It’s also important to remember that the perception of value is in the eye of the beholder. What may be of value to one parent or caregiver may not be of value to another. Successful membership drives include learning about the needs of different potential audiences so that you can speak to their needs. As PTA/PTSA leaders, we need to think from their perspective and know what they value when we’re inviting them to join.

To communicate value that matches your potential PTA members, the YOU Belong in PTA kit includes several print-and-go pieces, social media ready messages and customizable pieces with language provided in the How to Create Your PTA Value Message Guide.

We created this kit based on feedback we received from PTA/PTSA leaders in our annual Membership Survey. Our leaders told us that the main obstacle in growing and retaining members is that “our members don’t seem to see value in PTA.” They also asked for “easy-to-use resources to help in communicating the value” that local PTAs/PTSAs provide to the community and the value of PTA in general.

To include our growing community of Spanish speakers, the entire suite of materials is also available in Spanish.

Many people take a wait and see approach to what PTA has to offer when you first ask them to join. That’s why asking to join PTA needs to be an ongoing effort. Use the YOU Belong in PTA resources to always be ready to ask based on the opportunity offered. If your PTA/PTSA organizes a Reflections event, use the YOU Belong in PTA/PTA Supports Your Child’s Education pieces (they are all colored in green). If your PTA/PTSA is holding a town hall meeting to get to know the candidates and their positions, have a YOU Belong in PTA/PTA Amplifies Your Voice flier (colored in blue) to thank everyone for attending and support your work by joining PTA. If your PTA/PTSA is having a Coffee with the Principal meeting, have a YOU Belong in PTA/PTA Creates Connections flyer (colored in orange) to share with your attendees.

Think about what every activity or event you plan accomplishes and use the YOU Belong in PTA pieces that best conveys the value your PTA/PTSA is providing. If you don’t have time to customize the piece, simply use the print-and-go materials as needed. There are endless possibilities in using these materials – in your eNewsletters, bulletins, posters, reports, etc. Every single communication effort, whether it is in-person, virtual or hybrid, is an opportunity to ask people to support your PTA/PTSA work with their membership.

Our YOU Belong in PTA webpage is full of links to many other resources (QR codes, Membership Campaign toolkit, how to make a logo for your PTA/PTSA and more) you can use to personalize your flyers and directly link them to your PTA/PTSA. 

Based on our webpage activity, National PTA knows many local leaders are taking advantage of the YOU Belong in PTA Suite of Membership Resources. We’d love to receive samples of how your PTA/PTSA is using them by emailing a picture or document at membership@pta.org.

Thank you so much for all you do for ALL children and to advance PTA’s mission to make every child’s potential a reality.

Ivelisse Castro | National PTA Membership Outreach Team

Inclusion Matters: Engaging Families of Students with Disabilities

Student with a disability

A few years ago, a flyer came home from my child’s high school announcing the first annual sensory-friendly school dance. Knowing that a school event was planned with the needs of all students in mind made me, a parent of children with disabilities, feel that my family was included in a meaningful way. When I found out the event was planned by other families like mine—not by the school or PTA, I was deflated.

My middle school aged son is one of the seven million students in the U.S. who receive special education services. That means that nearly 14% of all students in the U.S have been identified as having a disability that requires support at school. And that even doesn’t include students who haven’t been identified as having a disability or students who have a disability, but don’t need special education support.

Inclusion and Belonging are at the Heart of Family Engagement

When we use statistics and numbers, it’s easy to overlook the people behind them. Simply put, those numbers mean there are a lot of families like mine craving meaningful connection and inclusive family engagement.

The updated National Standards for Family-School Partnerships ignites my hope that education leaders, including PTA leaders, can help meet the needs and desires of students with disabilities. The six standards outline exactly not just why, but also how, leaders can advocate for students with disabilities. Here’s how that looks:

  1. Welcoming all families into the school community requires an understanding of the barriers families face. Students with disabilities and their families may feel isolated and excluded from school communities due to barriers you are not aware of. Simply asking families what they need to feel welcome is advocacy and builds a sense of belonging.
  2. Communicating effectively with families of students with disabilities is not always easy. Many of us have had negative experiences, some of which are based on the misunderstanding that we do not want to be asked about how PTA can accommodate our children’s disability. Even acknowledging that you are not sure what to ask is a start.
  3. Supporting student success means creating safe and supportive spaces where it’s believed that all students can succeed. Talking to families to let them know that you believe their children can meet their full potential is key in supporting success. You can start by asking one simple question: Do you have suggestions for how we can better or more authentically represent disability in our PTA?
  4. Speaking up for every child takes some pressure off families like mine, who are used to speaking up for our children’s rights and for educational policies and services that support our kids. When you speak up for and with us, you become an additional voice of support, a person we can trust, and someone who sets the standard for speaking up against bias.
  5. Sharing power requires you to be open to new ideas and different perspectives. It is also realizing that you can learn from families of students with disabilities. If you’re unsure if every voice is represented and considered in the decisions you make, ask: Do you feel comfortable raising disability-related concerns?
  6. Collaborating with the community means recognizing that the disability community extends beyond your school district and beyond the families in front of you. Include organizations that have their pulse on what’s happening in the disability community and people who are united by the experience of being disabled.

Building strong family-school partnerships is a shared responsibility

As a PTA leader, you can take the lead in applying the updated National Standards for Family-School Partnerships to your relationships with families of students with disabilities. But strong family engagement only happens when all parties are engaged. That’s why I’ve partnered with National PTA to create a series of fact sheets, questions, and conversations starters for each standard.

You can help enhance communication practices between school administrators and parents like me by sharing Strengthening Family-School Partnerships for Students with Disabilities.

National PTA has also published several policy resources, including a Position Statement on The Education of Students with Disabilities, Resolution on High Expectations for Students with Disabilities, and a Position Statement on Safe and Supportive Schools to support inclusive advocacy efforts at the local, state, and federal level.

Amanda Morin is an educational consultant, a former teacher and early childhood specialist, special education advocate, and author of five books, including The Everything Parent’s Guide to Special Education. She is also the mother of three children, two of whom have disabilities.

The Personalized Learning Children Deserve

Smarter Balance The Personalized Learning Your Child Deserves

Looking for resources to personalize learning and support teachers in meeting your child’s individual needs? Smarter Balanced tools go beyond end-of-year testing! 

We support teachers in meeting the individual needs of children throughout the year with lesson plans and classroom assessment. Our tools help to provide accurate measures of achievement and growth while challenging students to think critically and solve real-world problems.

  • A core principle of our system is accessibility and equity for students. Our tools include unmatched accessibility features designed to support students and remove access barriers—allowing them to demonstrate what they know and can do.
  • We offer easy-to-use instructional strategies and activities that enhance teaching and learning and support flexibility, autonomy, and equity.
  • We support teachers around decision-making with actionable information for daily instruction, planning throughout the year, and data for local, regional, and statewide improvement.

We are committed to doing what is needed to equip both educators and parents with tools that help them clearly identify where students are in their learning and what information they can use to support growth.

We know that parents want to be highly involved in their child’s education, and desire clear information about where their student excels or needs help; actionable resources; and feedback about their student’s progress. Whether it’s learning about the tools available to students or the types of content they’re learning, it’s important to have a bigger picture of your child’s education. Teachers are essential partners and trusted messengers when it comes to conveying information about student progress to parents.

Parents can continue to engage in their child’s education and help pave each students’ path toward growth by diving into insightful resources. With a complete picture of their child’s learning, knowledge and skills, parents can start smarter conversations with teachers about what they can do to support learning at home. 

Check out these Smarter Balanced tools today! 

  • Guides to help parents understand their child’s score reports,
  • Tips for making the most of conferences with their child’s teachers, and
  • Practice tests, sample items, and more!

Learn more about Smarter Balanced family resources at: https://smarterbalanced.org/our-system/students-and-families/ 

Author: Bryce Carpenter, Ph.D., Executive Administrative Officer, Smarter Balanced

Smarter Balanced is a member-led public agency that equips educators with tools to support students on a path to progress. As a member of the executive team, Dr. Carpenter’s focus areas are workforce development, strategy, governmental & external affairs, and communications. Dr. Carpenter is a lifelong public servant who believes in the transformative power of education and has committed his career to serving children and those who serve them.  

6 Ways to be a Reasonable, Unbending Advocate in a Divided World

PTA is committed to building community to support our children and their families across the country. I am always so amazed by all that PTA leaders and members do to make a positive impact, especially amid so many issues facing our children, families, schools and communities today. The expected challenges we typically experience throughout the school year have only been enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, social injustice, political division, school shootings and violence—and so much more.

The latest nation’s report card and emerging research has revealed what we already suspected—that our children have been deeply affected by all of these occurrences. And our support is needed now more than ever to address their needs and set them on the path to academic success in a healthy and safe environment—with a bright future ahead.

As PTA leaders, you have had challenges of your own. Not having the same access to the school building has made it difficult to connect with school staff and families to do what you do best— solve the toughest challenges and meet the needs of your community. But do not lose heart. As we have for over 125 years, our persistence and unified voice enables us to continue to push for change and pull our resources together to meet the critical needs of our communities.

And keep in mind, the loudest, harshest and most divisive voices don’t represent the majority of parents. We know from research that PTA is in the mainstream, and we should lead from the broad middle, while remembering that all viewpoints are welcome because our mission is to help every child—that means every student, every family, every school and every community.

While we may not agree on all things, we must work together as one unified PTA to achieve impactful and lasting change for those we serve.

Here are six ways to be a reasonable, yet unbending advocate in this divided world. You can also watch this speech I gave on this topic to offer thoughts on how you can partner with your communities and PTA peers to achieve our mission and make a difference in the lives of all children.

  1. Surround yourself with a team of leaders who are willing to enter the fray as your partners and create a connection with them.
  2. Refuse to allow others to divide and conquer. We cannot say we are carrying out our mission if we allow others to marginalize issues we know that matter.
  3. Control the narrative. Don’t allow others to label your opinions. When you hear divisive terms on controversial topics, counter them with the simple words that express what you know to be true.
  4. Engage everyone, not just who you agree with. If you live in a bubble with only people who agree with you, you cannot grow and you cannot influence the world view of others.
  5. Take care of your mental health. Caring for our mental health could also be aided by getting perspective. You don’t have to feel miserable to be engaged and you don’t have to embrace division in your work on creating change.
  6. Continue to speak your truth. Fight back. Now more than ever, our students and our education system need us to stay engaged. A writer put it this way, “[Speak] in a healthy and productive way. Grace does not require you to take abuse.” Remember the families and students who rely on us to work together to help lead them to a better future.

Nathan R. Monell, CAE is the executive director of National PTA.

Ask the Right Questions to Support Student Online Safety

November is Parent Involvement Month, and there are few topics needing our attention more than children’s online safety. But it’s not always easy to know where to begin. What type of digital safety measures should we expect schools to have in place? How do you know if your school or district is following best practices?

We can help! National PTA recently teamed up with education technology provider GoGuardian to create a straightforward resource for parents who want to promote effective digital safety practices in their school community. Inside, you’ll find a list of questions you can ask to better understand your district’s current digital safety plans and to open a dialogue about digital safety in your community.

What’s in your school’s digital safety plan?

Check out this new resource from National PTA and GoGuardian!

Why understand student online activity?

1. Safeguard student mental health and safety.

80% of K-12 parents believe that unrestricted access to the Internet can be harmful to student mental health.

More than 88% of K-12 parents support the use of online tools that help detect signs of students considering self-harm or violence. 

2. Protect children from harmful and explicit content.

71% of K-12 parents have concerns about their child accessing explicit or harmful content on a school-issued device.

92% of K-12 parents believe it’s necessary to have online educational technologies in place to prevent such access.

3. Keep students on task while accessing digital resources.

93% of K-12 parents believe the internet is a useful learning tool that schools should use to enhance learning.

90% of parents believe it is necessary to have online education technologies in place that keep students away from digital distractions.

Source: The statistics above were drawn from a recent blind survey by Morning Consult of a nationally representative group of nearly 2,500 K-12 parents, teachers, and administrators.

Meet Our Sponsor

GoGuardian has been a Proud National Sponsor of PTA since 2018 and is supporting the release of our updated National Standards for Family-School Partnerships—going live this month! GoGuardian and the National PTA are committed to student success. Together, they are working to engage families and educators on solutions to best support student mental health and online safety.

Why We Need a Parent Nation

I like to say that parents are children’s first and best teachers. And since science tells us learning begins on the first day of life—not the first day of school—the job starts early and lasts a lifetime.

A child’s early experiences, particularly those of rich language and responsive interactions with a loving caregiver, fuel early brain development. They catalyze the formation of new neuronal connections at astonishing rates, up to one million new connections per second. This rate of brain growth, linked to language, literacy, math, spatial reasoning and self-regulation, is never matched later in life. The more input a child receives, the stronger these neuronal connections grow—building the foundation for all future learning.

But we don’t do nearly enough to pass that science along to parents—the people in the best position to put it to use. Nor do we share it with society more broadly, so that parents and caregivers might receive the structural support they need and deserve. 

It’s time to remedy that.

I founded the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health at the University of Chicago and wrote a book called “Thirty Million Words: Building A Child’s Brain,” hoping to spread far and wide what science has revealed about the role of early language exposure.

Those findings are what motivate me and my team at the TMW Center to develop and study evidence-based strategies that help parents learn and apply the science of early brain development. But evidence-based strategies aren’t enough if you lack the time, resources and mental and emotional bandwidth to apply them. And America doesn’t do a whole lot to provide parents any of the above.

This became painfully apparent the more deeply I engaged with families at the TMW Center. Because our studies followed children from their first day of life into kindergarten, my team and I were getting to know many families up close and over time. The parents’ enthusiasm was thrilling. But real life—unpredictable work schedules, multiple jobs, lack of health care, structural racism, homelessness—would stand in the way of their best intentions again and again.

The bottom line is, we have made it exceedingly difficult for most parents to raise children in our country. It’s almost impossible for some. And until we make it easier for all parents to meet the developmental needs of their children—to fulfill their promise as brain architects so that their children may reach their full potential—our society will fail to reach its own.

We don’t need another research study to show that parents are important, or that rich conversation is key for children’s brain development.

What we need is a parent nation.

A parent nation, as I see it, is a society that cherishes and supports the love and labor that go into nurturing, raising and educating future generations. There is no limit on who can provide that love. So, I want to be clear that when I say “parent,” I mean any caring adult engaged in the work of raising a child.

Just as neuroscience tells us what to prioritize individually as parents, it can tell us what society should prioritize in order to optimize healthy brain development for all children. But if brain science offers blueprints, it is parents who do the building. Parents are the captains of their families’ ships, manning the helm. And just as every captain needs a crew, every parent needs the support and protection—including fair wages, paid time off and a social safety net—that will allow them to steer their families to safety.

I’d love to see parents band together in their workplaces and communities and talk to each other about their needs, hopes and fears. My team and I created an entire curriculum that’s free and downloadable on ParentNation.org for people to start Parent Villages—small groups or parents who come together to create community and push for change. That change could be working to get a lactation room at work, or a childcare center built near public transportation, or any number of things.

Together we can push for families to get the support they need and deserve. Being a parent can bring us to our knees. But it must also rouse us to our feet.

Dr. Dana Suskind is a pediatric cochlear implant surgeon, founder and co-director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health at the University of Chicago and the author of Parent Nation: Unlocking Every Child’s Potential, Fulfilling Society’s Promise.

4 Back to School Tips for Parents

Practice healthy habits so we can be “stronger together” this back to school season!

Lysol and National PTA hope families everywhere enjoyed their summer vacation and the quality time that comes with it! This school year is the first time many students are back together at school following the COVID-19 pandemic. Children are stronger together in the classroom, so it’s important to follow the below healthy habits to help keep students at school, learning from teachers—and each other—this academic year:

  • Complete all health requirements: Schedule your annual checkups including medical, eye, and ear exams for your child, and ensure they are up to date with their immunizations. This will help ensure your child is ready for the school year.
  • Go to bed on time: We know bedtime can vary over the summer, but it’s important to get back on a regular sleep schedule to be energized and refreshed for the day. Students aged 6-12 should sleep 9-12 hours a night, while students aged 13-18 should aim for 8-10 hours a night. Sleeping the recommended length of time helps students stay focused and improves academic performance.1
  • Get the right supplies: Prepare your student for success by acquiring all school supplies early. Make a list to double check what you may already have at home and pick up everything your child needs to start the year. Each school year presents its own unique challenges, and the correct supplies can help your student be ready to tackle anything that comes their way.
  • Practice healthy habits: Lysol is proud to support healthy habits at home and in school through the Here for Healthy Schools initiative. Encourage teachers, administrators, and school leaders to utilize Lysol resources and downloadable activities on handwashing, germ transmission, and other valuable lessons available through the Healthy Habits Program. Practicing healthy habits can help curb the spread of illness-causing germs in classrooms and support a successful school year!

Healthy habits are important to instill in children so they can feel their best as they come together at school. This year, Lysol captured candid conversations from real students who shared who they really are and said what they really think on topics such as celebrating differences, what they missed about school, and more. Please visit Lysol.com/HERE to watch and learn more.