1. Keep Your Contact Information Updated

Anytime your students experience illness or emergency, we contact you via the numbers you provide. Please update any changes in contact information in your Infinite Campus Parent Portal account or notify your student’s school for assistance. The school and district also use contact information to keep you informed about the best ways to learn about opportunities to get involved. 

2. Join or Start Your School's PTA, PTO, or Parent Group

Talk to your school’s office staff or contact the school district at (405) 587-0234.  

3. Participate With The Indian Education Committee

The Parent Advisory Committee for Indian Education Programs holds monthly meetings. For details, call Native American Student Services at (405) 587-0357. 

4. Attend Learning Opportunities for Parents

The district provides opportunities for parents and staff throughout the school year to help parents support their children and their school. Also, Parents as Teachers is a program to help parents get their children off to a great educational start. Services are provided to families who have children from birth to kindergarten including prenatal information for mothers-to-be. The services include home visits by certified parent educators, group meetings to address family issues and concerns, developmental screenings and connecting families to resources in the community. For more information, call (405) 587-0360.

5. Come to School

Parents/guardians are welcome to schedule meetings with their child’s teacher(s) and/or principal.  To promote a safe climate for schools, all visitors sign in at the office to obtain a visitor’s pass and make arrangements with the building principal before entering the school. 

• To volunteer in your child’s school, please complete the Volunteer Application found on the OKCPS Volunteers web page. All school volunteers are required to complete the application. You may also talk to your child’s teacher or principal regarding volunteer opportunities at the school. For more information, please contact Community Relations at (405) 587-0234. 

• All schools have an annual Open House during the fall of each year. Parents/guardians and patrons are encouraged to attend. Schools will notify parents concerning the dates and times for Open House. 

• Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled twice per year as opportunities for families to meet with their child's teacher to check on their student's learning progress. Contact your teacher to check on their progress throughout the year. Families can call the school to schedule a meeting with a school faculty member before going to the school. Scheduling a meeting assures the faculty member will be available to meet with you and be prepared with information to address your concerns. 

• Be conscious of the content your student could potentially read. The grade-level reading lists below represent possible texts your child may study in class this year as whole-class novel studies. Your child’s teacher will choose titles from this list; however, not every title on the list will be read. If you have concerns regarding any of the novels, please contact your child’s teacher immediately so that they can assist you in assigning your child an alternate text.  Requests for the alternate text must be received prior to the novel study and within the first three weeks of the semester. Supplemental materials such as short stories, articles, poems, speeches, frequently-used websites, etc. will be accessible on Canvas and/or distributed in class. This list does not include Literature Circle opportunities.

All texts selected align with Oklahoma State Reading Standards 2 and 3; additionally, district libraries support Standard 8.

• Standard 2: Students will read and comprehend inclusive, diverse, and increasingly complex literary and informational texts.

• Standard 3: Students will analyze, interpret, and evaluate increasingly complex literary and informational texts that include a wide range of historical, cultural, ethnic, and global perspectives from a variety of genres.

• Standard 8: Students will read self-selected texts independently, choosing genres to suit and expand their personal preferences and purposes.

Novel List for the Middle Grades: A Good Kind of Trouble, A Wrinkle in Time, Freak the Mighty, An American Plague, Fish in a Tree, America Street, Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Between Shades of Gray, Efren Divided, Among the Hidden, Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad, Boots on the Ground, Frindle, Bud Not Buddy, Hoot, Brown Girl Dreaming, Front Desk, Esperanza Rising, How I Became a Ghost, Chains, Maniac Magee, Hatchet, Lions of Little Rock, Dear Martin, Other Words for Home, Holes, Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary, Ender’s Game, Save Me a Seat, Love That Dog/Hate That Cat, Out of my Mind, Flowers for Algernon (abridged version from textbook), The One and Only Ivan, Monster, Out of the Dust, House of the Scorpion, The War that Saved My Life, Number the Stars, Refugee, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Wringer, Rosa Parks: My Story, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Prisoner B3087, The Ninth Ward, The Call of the Wild, Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, The Crossover, Summer of My German Soldier, The Well, The Devil’s Arithmetic, The Book Thief, The Westing Game, The Lightning Thief, The Boy on the Wooden Box, Tuck Everlasting, The Outsiders, The Contender, Tulsa Burning, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, The Diary of Anne Frank (Drama from textbook), Wonder, Walk Two Moons, The Giver, The Pearl, Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

Novel Lists for High School: American Born Chinese, A Long Way Gone, 12 Angry Men, 1984, Cold Sassy Tree, Antigone, A Raisin in the Sun, A Passage to India, Dreamland Burning, Bless Me Ultima, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Tale of Two Cities, Enrique’s Journey, Born a Crime YA Version, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Americanah, I Am Malala: Girl Who Stood Up For Education, Children of Blood and Bone, Beloved, Animal Farm, Living Up the Street, Julius Caesar, Black Boy, Anthem, Romeo and Juliet, Like Water for Chocolate, Caramelo, Atonement, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Lord of the Flies, Cat’s Cradle, Beowulf, The Boy Who Carried Bricks, Maus I, Challenger Deep, Brave New World, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Death of a Salesman, Canterbury Tales, The Freedom Writers Diary, Night, Fahrenheit 451, David Copperfield, The Hate You Give, Persepolis, Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Frankenstein, The House on Mango Street, Pride, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Go Set a Watchman, The Joy Luck Club, Rich Dad Poor Dad, In Cold Blood, Great Expectations, The Odyssey, Sold, Into the Wild, Grendel, The Old Man and the Sea, The Color of Water, Invisible Man, Gulliver’s Travels, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Killers of the Flower Moon, Hamlet, Under the Mesquite, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Of Mice and Men, Heart of Darkness, Westside Story, The Zookeeper’s Wife, Slaughterhouse-Five Jane Eyre, The Little Prince, The Awakening, Le Morte d’Arthur, The First Part Last, The Catcher in the Rye, Life of Pi, The Crucible, Little Women, The Glass Castle, Macbeth, The Grapes of Wrath, Metamorphosis, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Never Let Me Go,The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Othello, The Martian Chronicles, Paradise Lost, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, Pygmalion, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Things They Carried, The Handmaid’s Tale, Warriors Don’t Cry, The Once and Future King, The Testaments, Wuthering Heights, Things Fall Apart. 

Novel Lists for Online Learning - Middle School: Because of Winn Dixie, Holes, Barrio Boy, The Great Fire, Number the Stars, The Number Devil, The Outsiders, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, Bone Detective, We Beat the Streets, Harriet Tubman, Conductor on the Underground Railroad, Maniac Magee, Apollo 11, The Miracle Worker, Monster, Out of the Dust, Immigrant Kids, The Story of My Life, The Diary of Anne Frank, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, The Building of Manhattan, Anne Frank Remembered, Wonder, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, The Land, Esperanza Rising, Dragonwings, Travels with Charley, Seedfolks, The People Could Fly, The Gettysburg Address, A Short Walk Around the Pyramids and Through the World of Art, An American Plague, Frida Kahlo, Fever 1793, Heart of a Samurai, A Night to Remember, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Exploring the Titanic, Into the Unknown, Black Ships before Troy, Citizenship, A Black Hole is NOT a Hole, The Phantom Tollbooth

Novel Lists for Online Learning - High School: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Sugar Changed the World, The Scarlet Letter, Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, The Prince, Moby-Dick, Beowulf, It’s Our World, Too!, A Doll’s House, The Mississippi River Runaways, The Pardoner’s Tale, Iqbal, Animal Farm, Trifles, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Warriors Don’t Cry, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Freakonomics, Utopia, Silent Spring, Hamlet, The Dark Game, A vindication of the Rights of Women, The code Book, A Dictionary of the English Language, Metamorphoses, The Importance of Being Earnest, Romeo and Juliet, The War of the Worlds, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminstyer Boy, The Fellowship of the Ring, My Story, Midsummer, Outcasts United, How to Find Out Anything

Join School Alumni Associations

Parents/guardians who are graduates of OKCPS, former students, supporters and current students are encouraged to become involved in the school’s alumni association. More information is available by contacting the office at each high school. 

Teachers will contact parents when they determine a student is performing unsatisfactorily. The notification must be in writing in a language the parent can read during the 4th, 5th, or 6th week of each quarter. Additional notices may be sent earlier than the 4th week of the quarter or later than the 6th week of each quarter. 

The Oklahoma City Public School District strives to maintain a harmonious relationship between parents, teachers, staff and administration. Occasionally, issues arise or misunderstandings occur and resolutions need to be made. Issues and concerns are best resolved on the level at which they occur. By following these steps, situations can usually be resolved in a quick and fair manner. Below is the process parents or guardians should take to resolve a situation. 

Step 1: Contact the Staff Member

The most direct route to resolving a concern is to speak directly with the person involved, whether it is a teacher, a coach, a bus driver, etc. Most are best resolved through effective communication with those involved. 

Step 2: Contact the Principal 

The principal is in charge of each campus and is responsible for the school’s operation. Explanations of policies and procedures, various clarifications and all types of campus information are available in the principal’s office.  In schools that have assistant principals that oversee certain departments on campus, it may be more appropriate to communicate with them prior to taking your concerns to the building principal. 

Step 3: Contact the Appropriate District Level Administrator 

Call the PK-12 Office at (405) 587-0049 to reach the appropriate administrator or director. This step should be taken only when steps one and two have not resolved the concern. 

Step 4: Contact the Superintendent

If your concern has not been resolved in Steps 1 through 3, then a call to the Superintendent’s Office is appropriate. 

When to Contact the Board of Education

The Board of Education is comprised of eight (8) school board members, seven of which are elected by the community within a geographic area called a ward or district and one Board Chairperson who is elected at large from the entire OKCPS school boundaries. The School Board hires and employs the Superintendent and sets policy and the annual budget, and approves expenditures and contracts. Because of the unique responsibility on the Board of Education, complaints are often redirected to Administration for resolution. The public is invited and encouraged to participate in public comment (which is limited in compliance with the Constitution and federal and state laws) at all regular board meetings.