An excerpt from a local paper. The topic: a town hall meeting between the superintendent of a district, a PR professional, and a parent.

One issue discussed was whether parents are allowed to volunteer in their children’s classroom. Parent Karen -----, whose children attend ----- Elementary School, said that she was under the impression that parents could not volunteer in their children’s classroom or even the same grade, except for parties or other special occasions.“ It’s not part of our policy,” said Christine -----, manager of school and community engagement. But she said the current policy is under review. In the last 13 years the number of people volunteering has dropped from more than 1,000 to around 700. There can be confidentiality issues. . . . The teacher should pick and chose their resources,” said [parent]. She noted that parents used to come in and help kindergarten teachers with kids’ writing but that is no longer allowed. And in a first grade with 23 6 year old children, there’s “a lot of Bandaids and untied shoes,” she said. Teachers need additional help at times, she said. "A lot of parents who are home want to volunteer,” said [the parent]. She helps out twice a week with laptop computers, she said. Both women agreed that parents are more likely to want to volunteer in their own child’s classroom.

This friendly exchange makes me thing about two problems we see right now in our schools. The district's reluctance to let parents volunteer in the classroom strikes me as administration while scared. So many decisions made by schools now are reactive and driven by concerns about a lawsuit or liability issue that might possibly happen in the future. It's a mental model that I have already seen squelch a lot of helpful communication between professionals about what to do with students. I have seen it in principals' reluctance to inform teachers of problematic behaviors with students on their roster. I have seen it in broader funding decisions about what will possibly happen if a district is generous with its resources.

A second problem: apparently this district has for a long time relied on parent volunteers to help teachers do their jobs well. On the surface, I like seeing this kind of cooperation between well-meaning parents and appreciative teachers. Yet such generosity is necessary when a district insists on relatively large classrooms at the elementary level and progressively commands that the teachers' instruction includes more and more content and skills. If class sizes were around 18 rather than around 24, might parents not be needed to fill in the cracks?