Parent Links
WCSD Food Pantries
The Food Pantries are located at Washington Middle School and Washington High School. Contact your child's school counselor to make arrangements to visit a pantry. There is a link at the bottom of this page titled: Food Pantry Information.
Active Parenting programs empower families by providing parents with the skills to help their children survive and thrive in our changing world.
Research shows that many parents of young children are generally unaware of autism. This website is part of a campaign that seeks to educate parents about the growing rate of autism in this country and to ultimately increase the level of early detection. Parents, counselors and teachers are encouraged to visit www.autismspeaks.org to learn the signs of the disorder.
A helpful site for anyone looking to work with parents or teens on developing a healthy lifestyle. This site offers information on how to be trained on the content or on how to find a trainer that can provide a training with free materials to parents and teenage girls. In addition, much of the information included in the toolkit can be viewed or printed from the website and reproduced, free of charge.
Bullying affects ALL children — those who bully, those who are victimized, and those who are witnesses or assistants to interpersonal violence. This website through education.com provides many resources for professionals and parents about bullying and cyberbullying.
An award-winning website for stressed-out students, concerned parents and educators to help students releive stress and worry. Free resources, articles, tips and more
Teaching kids the importance of eating well and being physically active at a young age is crucial to reversing the trend of childhood obesity in this country. Children and their families are encouraged to visit www.HealthierUS.gov, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, where they can find fun, interactive and beneficial information on healthy eating and physical activity.
An organizational tool that is designed to make the process of preparing for college a breeze. Calendar of things to do from Freshman through Senior year.
Keep track of all the important documents, essays, letters of recommendation, grades and scholarships. Provides your family the comfort of knowing where everything is when it’s time to begin the application process.
College Parents of America (CPA) is the only national membership association dedicated to advocating on your behalf and to serving as your resource as you prepare for and put your children through college.
This website is sponsored by the National Association of State Treasurers and has information about college savings plans.
This website provides information to help parents and students solve the college admissions puzzle!
Comfort Zone provides grieving children with a voice, a place and a community in which to heal, grow and lead more fulfilling lives. Locations in Virginia, Massachussetts, Texas and California. CZC is a great resource for school counselors to refer students and parents to who have dealt with the death of a family member. Funding provided by New York Life Insurance.
Basic pointers, resources, and advice to help families going through divorce. This page is specifically designed for parents to help children and adolescence work through their impending divorce in healthy ways.
Welcome to Family Education Network, the best of the Internet's content, resources, and shopping for parents, teachers, and kids. Launched in September, 2000, the company's mission is to be an online consumer network of the world's best learning and information resources, personalized to help parents, teachers, and students of all ages take control of their learning and make it part of their everyday lives.
Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
The National family-run organization dedicated exclusively to helping children with mental health needs and their families achieve a better quality of life.
This is an internet clearinghouse for resources on teen and family issues.
Freinds of Quinn is a website dedicated to providing parents with information on and what to do if they suspect their child has a learning disability, where to find support for their child if they are diagnosed, and available resources for helping a child with a diagnosis succeed in all areas of their development. On FOQ - you can read a blog written by Quinn, the son of famous journalists Ben Bradley and Sally Quinn who has lived with a diagnosis since childhood, link to current resources, or even create your own blog!
Girl Talk: Choices and Consequences of Underage Drinking
The goal of Girl Talk is to reduce underage drinking among teenage girls by promoting improved on-going communication between girls and moms.
A website from the woman's sports foundation that has information about drugs, alcohol, body image, motivating girl's, and scholarship information!
Helping Children Through Divorce
The purpose of this guide is to help you understand the thoughts and feelings that children may have when their parents decide to divorce and to provide some tips for talking with children about divorce.
This series of booklets is issued by the Education Department. They offer practical activities to stimulate children's learning.
Talking with Kids About War and Violence
I Promise Program-Teen Safe Driving Initiative
The I Promise Program has been developed together with youth, parents, and community members to help families address the issues that relate most to new or young driver car crashes.
Intervention Central offers free tools and resources to help school staff and parents to promote positive classroom behaviors and foster effective learning for all children and youth.
Kids Health: Going back to school for kids
This link contains on going back from to school for children. From the first day jitters to transitioning to middle school, this link gives helpful tips to students to become successful, happy students.
KSA-Plus Communications' Parent Leadership Group
The easy-to-read publications on this website are designed to provide parent leaders and those who work with parents useful advice about how to become more effective school partners and advocates.
Laboratory for Student Success
Within this website is the Consortium for Parent Information and Education (CPIE). CPIE's mission is to provide parents with the tools and information they will need to make the best possible decisions about their children's education.
Love and Logic products provide parents and teachers with easy-to-use, practical techniques that help adults achieve respectful and healthy relationships with children. They teach the Love and Logic approach to raising children that puts teachers and parents in control, teaches children to be responsible and prepares them for the real world.
Mothers In Charge was founded by Dorothy Johnson-Speight as a community advocacy and support organization for families affected by violence. Dorothy Johnson-Speight's 24 year old son was murdered over a parking space in December 2001.
The mission of Mothers In Charge is violence prevention, education and intervention for youth, young adults, families and community organizations. In addition, Mothers In Charge works with elected officials on legislation to support safe neighborhoods and communities for children and families and collaborates with community and faith based organizations.
National PTA is the largest volunteer child advocacy organization in the United States. A not-for-profit association of parents, educators, students, and other citizens active in their schools and communities, PTA is a leader in reminding our nation of its obligations to children.
Online Colleges is a nonprofit resource for students considering attending an online college. It gives students the most comprehensive and unbiased list of online colleges and universities on the web. We will combine existing lists of online colleges and find unlisted ones, putting them all in a single page. Students can use this for a more educated choice about where they want to go to college. Linking directly to the college, we also give an overview of its distance education, and list its accreditation data. We accept no sponsorships from any college.
This Web-based public education campaign includes resources and tools to assist teens, parents and professionals in achieving healthy and positive outcomes.
Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights
The PACER Center's mission is to improve and expand opportunities that enhance the quality of life for children and young adults with all disabilities and their families.
Parenting Press: Downloadable Parenting Brochures
The brochures listed here provide quick, up-to-date help on important issues such as talking with your child about war, dealing with temper tantrums, and the internet.
Parents Helping Parents: Parent-Directed Family Resource Center for Children with Special Needs
PHP is a 28-year-old nonprofit, family resource center that benefits children with special needs. This includes children of all ages (birth through life) and all backgrounds who have a need for special services due to any special need, including but not limited to illness, cancer, accidents, birth defects, neurological conditions, premature birth, learning or physical disabilities, mental health issues, and attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder to name a few.
Parents, Teens, and Money: A Clear and Simple Guide to Discussing Financial Responsibility
“Parents, Teens, and Money: A Clear and Simple Guide to Discussing Financial Responsibility,” offers interactive tools and resources to help parents engage their teens and guide discussions on a broad range of financial topics. The comprehensive guide is published by Chase Card Services and College Parents of America.
This site provides information for parents and educators about drugs, drug-prevention resources, and includes activities for the classroom.
The American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have prepared these Guides to help patients, families, and physicians make informed decisions about obtaining and administering the most appropriate care for a child with depression. These Guides have been endorsed by many national medical, family and patient advocacy organizations.
Partnership for Family Involvement in Education
A list of resources for parents from The Department of Education.
Practical Money Skills for Life
Practical Money Skills for Life is an award-winning, teacher tested and teacher approved financial education program. It is available for free, in English, spanish and Chinese and is designed for teachers, students, parents and consumers. This free educational resource provides teachers with lesson plans (kindergarten-college) mapped to their state education requirements, as well as teacher guides, overheads, instructional videos and CD-ROMs. For students, there are interactive games and calculators designed to teach financial responsibility and important concepts such as earning, saving and budgeting money.
Safe Smart Women is an organization promoting automobile safety for young women. It includes tips and advice for women drivers, and includes a contract that parents can use with their children to promote automobile safety.
Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement
There is widespread consensus that family engagement is a critical ingredient for children’s school success “from cradle to career.” Research suggests that family engagement promotes a range of benefits for students, including improved school readiness, higher student achievement, better social skills and behavior, and increased likelihood of high school graduation. Policymakers, practitioners, and researchers also recognize family engagement as a critical intervention strategy that maximizes return on other investments in education. Early childhood education programs that have demonstrated significant short- and long-term benefits for children all have intensive family involvement components.
Stop Alcohol Abuse: Underage Drinking Prevention
Despite the prevalence of underage drinking, and the potential consequences, research shows that parents generally underestimate the extent to which their teen children use alcohol and even consider it inevitable. This website is part of a campaign launched by SAMHSA which seeks to raise awareness and encourages parents to talk to their children early and often about the dangers of underage drinking. It also teaches the consequences of underage drinking.
Study Skills and Homework Help for Parents and Students
This site gives loads of homework help, parent homework help, and study skills for the elementary, middle and high school student.
Talking With Kids About Tough Issues
This is the Web site for the national initiative by Children Now and the Kaiser Family Foundation to encourage parents to talk to their children earlier and more often about tough issues like sex, HIV/Aids, violence, alcohol and drug abuse. Free materials offered.
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning
CASEL's mission is to enhance children's success in school and life by promoting coordinated, evidence-based social, emotional, and academic learning as an essential part of education from preschool though high school.
Think Before You Post: Online Sexual Exploitation
Sponsored by the US Department of Justice and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the Online Sexual Exploitation PSA campaign is to make teen girls aware of the potential dangers of sharing and posting personal information online and of communicating with unfamiliar people to help reduce their risk of sexual victimization and abduction. www.cybertipline.com provides tips on how to prevent, detect, and report suspicious online behavior.
With no other website or publication specifically focused on the parenting of pre-teens, we're proud to introduce TweenParent.com! Our site offers interesting articles, a robust Community Forum, a unique Tween Dictionary and much more. Explore our site, sign up for our e-newsletter... join our community. Enjoy!
We have tried to fill this site with facts, insights, stories, quizzes, and activities you can do with your kids, as well as links to many other helpful sites. We want you (and your child!) to gain an understanding of the career planning process and leave our site feeling ready and empowered to take action!