Parental Involvement
Perhaps our most effective collaboration has been with the parents of our students. Parent participation and willingness to “spread the word” about TAP and PALS to other families has made our student recruitment costs very low.

TAP and PALS offer weekly “Parent Nights” featuring experts on adolescent development, education, school administration, and admissions policies for college-prep courses of study. Our teachers and counselors are available to talk with each parent about his/her child individually and to develop a working partnership for the student’s benefit. Parent Nights are typically extremely well attended, most often with 50-60% of the parents in attendance.

TAP and PALS parents have formed a “Parents Club” which has been highly successful in improving communication between the program staff and the parents. The formation of TAP and PALS Parents Clubs bodes well for long-term relationship building with some of those persons who have the greatest stake in the success of the program. 

The Parents Clubs helped organize all of the Parent Nights and provided refreshments at all functions. Both of the PALS and TAP Parent Club presidents are invited to attend and actively participate in the YLF Board Meetings. The PALS Parents Club president has been instrumental in helping the Board to make improvements in areas of the program for next summer.