Sloan Work and Family Research Network Releases New Policy Brief on School Involvement Leave
President Barack Obama continues to underscore the importance of parental involvement in education as the beginning of education reform. Recently, the Sloan Work and Family Research Network released their latest policy brief on one way that states are responding to this call for parental involvement in education. This brief is titled, “School Involvement Leave: Providing Leave for Parental Involvement in School Activities.”
This new brief offers state policy makers a starting point for further discussion about parental involvement in school activities. More specifically, this brief defines school involvement leave and why it is a policy issue, discusses the pros and cons of school involvement leave policies, maps out proposed and enacted state legislation concerning school involvement leave, and provides links for more information.
As the policy brief points out, many states are addressing this issue already. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have laws providing leave for parents to attend school activities. Another twelve states have proposed new legislation during the current session that would provide this leave. “School involvement leave is an active policy issue because, despite President Obama’s call for parental involvement, many working families do not have the flexibility in their schedules or the leave time necessary to attend school conferences and activities,” states Mary Curlew, policy associate at the Sloan Network and author of this policy brief. Whether or not school involvement leave policies are the best initiatives to address this expressed need is for policy makers and their constituents to decide.
For more information on work-family legislative initiatives and trends, visit the Sloan Work and Family Research Network website—the premier online destination for information about work and family—including state policy resources, a bills and statutes database, policy briefs, statistics, and reports, at wfnetwork.bc.edu/policy.php.#
