Texas PTA Advocacy Impact Awards!

Since the earliest days, Texas PTA leaders and members have sought to fulfill our mission to make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.

As such, Texas PTA is proud to once again offer you the opportunity to recognize and celebrate the advocacy efforts of Local PTAs, Council PTAs, and Students through the prestigious Advocacy Impact Awards.

All eligible nominations will receive a digital badge or certificate and be celebrated on the Texas PTA website in honor of their significant advocacy efforts. One outstanding award winner from each category (Student, Local PTA, and Council PTA) will be recognized on stage at LAUNCH 2025, July 18-20, at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, a weekend filled with celebrations, collaboration, learning, and inspiration for PTA leaders.

Now is the time to
plan for the 2024-2025 award,
opening in the spring!

Advocacy Impact Award: Selection Criteria

• Local PTAs: earn a digital badge after completing activities from at least 2 of the listed categories.
• Council PTAs: earn a digital badge after completing activities from at least 3 of the listed categories.
• Students: earn a digital certificate after completing activities from at least 1 of the listed categories.  

Outstanding Advocacy Impact Award

One Local PTA*, Council PTA*, and Student** submission will be selected as the Outstanding Advocacy Impact Award winner and recognized on stage at LAUNCH 2024, July 19-21 at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine. Listed below are some examples within each category.

*Local and Council PTAs must be in Good Standing to be considered for the Outstanding Advocacy Impact Award.
**A student must be a PTA member to be eligible for the Outstanding Advocacy Impact Award.

Apply in the Spring of 2025

----------2024 Advocacy Impact Award Winners----------

Please help us congratulate the 2024 Texas PTA Outstanding Advocacy Impact Award Winners:

Local: Brentwood Elementary School PTA
Council: Fort Worth ISD Council of PTAs
Student: Emma Dachowicz

Brentwood Elementary School PTA: ”Brentwood PTA balanced time this year with education about public school funding, conversation with Congressman Doggett's office, and ongoing information via our newsletter (https://www.brentwoodpta.com/blogs/bulldog-bark). We hold an annual Pride Parade to celebrate our community's diversity and values of inclusion. This year's parade happened the same day as our annual Brentwood Rocks event, a community concert held outside the school. We asked 5th graders to choose a beneficiary of this year's ticket sales, and used the opportunity to talk with them about school funding, equity, and statewide, local and hyperlocal giving. Perhaps one of the more impactful efforts this year was a rededication of art salvaged from the school's exterior, ahead of our building modernization 2020-2022, funded by a 2017 bond. We were able to gather many community members to see inside the new building, celebrate the school and community's heritage and history, and share perspectives about school funding relative to those bond measures, which are required to offset the impact of recapture on our school district. Our AISD superintendent Mathias Segura attended that event, as well.”

Fort Worth ISD Council of PTAs: “Our Council shared Texas PTA's legislative priorities with our district leaders, including the superintendent and trustees, as well as with our members in conjunction with our district's legislative priorities. We have a board member who works with Raise Your Hand Texas who updates us on legislative outcomes and their impact on our communities, both at our executive board meetings as well as delegate meetings. During our Founders' Day event, we provided a legislative update and recognized Rep. Charlie Geren with the TXPTA Champions for Children Award. We hosted a district-wide Straight Talk watch party followed by a panel discussion with district leaders in Educational Technology and Student Wellness. The majority of our board was in attendance as well as trustees. We shared all the TXPTA's Calls to Action, and encouraged our members to vote in local elections by sharing information on upcoming voting dates and relevant policy items. We also presented during a delegate meeting information on how to record short videos sharing our members' experience with STAAR to be shared with legislators.”

Emma Dachowicz: “Emma served as Advocacy Chair for Independence High School PTSA. She led by example, encouraging her fellow students to believe that you can bring change and impact, despite not being old enough to vote.  Emma also demonstrated her passion for advocacy by leading a training for PTA advocacy chairs from across our district on Texas PTA's legislative priorities and the importance of implementing an advocacy plan for next year.  Emma was such an inspiration to those ADULT Volunteers about using your voice - no matter what age.  Additionally, Emma used her PTSA's social media to encourage people to watch Straight Talk and to vote by "sharing" information on voting poll locations, early voting, and information about candidates.  Even more impressive, Emma has a tremendous understanding of how we can support public education (i.e. no vouchers) and how it is our responsibility as a community to vote.”

Congratulations and Thank You to all of the PTAs, Councils, and Students who received the Advocacy Impact Award digital badge/certificate for their advocacy efforts: