Resources for Parents of Gifted Students

Starting Up a Gifted Education Parent Group for Your School District by Dixie Youngers

There are many school districts across Missouri that have a gifted education parent group. It is great that you are thinking of starting up one too. It just takes a few parents with a passion for gifted education to get a group started. To start your group:
• Pick some officers for an Executive Board. A good start is a President, Vice-President, 
  Secretary and Treasurer. Secretary/Treasurer can be combined into one position to start.
• Develop bylaws for your group—feel free to use the PAGS Bylaws as a template 
  http://www.nkcpags.org/
• Set up a group email list on your computer
• Invite other parents to join your group or at least to get email updates from your group
• Set up an organization bank account
• Set up an organization post office box
• Set up monthly Executive Board meetings
• Set up monthly or bi-monthly general meetings. Plan fun social and educational gatherings.
• Partner with your school district administration
• Partner with your gifted teachers
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As you go further, you can add on these attributes to your organization:
• Seek a parent representative from each of your district's gifted education centers to serve 
  with your Executive Board.
• Further develop your Executive Board to include a membership chair, newsletter chair, 
  programs chair, etc..
• Move your group email off of your personal computer into a centralized webmail system
• Revise your bylaws to better meet your group's needs
• Develop a member and a correspondence families email lists
• Become a 501(c) 3 organization
• Partner with other gifted education parent groups through email or GAM events
• Get active with state legislation involving gifted education
NKC PAGS organization has been in existence since 1999. We have approximately 90 annual members and 400 correspondence families serving approximately 1300 gifted students out of about 18,600 total students. We have an excellent working relationship with our district administrators, school board members, teachers, parents and students. Our group continues to grow and change each year. We look forward to partnering with you to advocate for gifted children.

PARENT NETWORK CHAIR
Melanie Orr  

melanienorr@hotmail.com

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