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“What my culture means to me”
“What my culture means to me”
That’s the theme for the 2026-27 Reflections Art Program. This program is all about increasing community awareness of the importance of arts in education. It encourages students to express themselves through their artwork and experience the joy of making art!
All students attending PTA schools sponsoring the program are invited to participate and submit original artwork in one of the six areas:
Dance Choreography
Literature
Photography
Film Production
Music Composition
Visual Arts
Artworks are submitted first to school-level PTAs, where they are first recognized, celebrated and judged by five grade-level divisions; the Accessible Arts division celebrates student artists with special needs. School PTAs then choose a selection of entries to be judged by local PTA units, which are then sent on to councils and then districts for consideration. The final artworks submitted to California State PTA by districts are then considered for Outstanding Interpretation, Awards of Excellence or Awards of Merit. Outstanding Interpretation and Award of Excellence entries then go on to represent California in the final National PTA judging round.
Category Guidelines:
For Unit Reflections Chairs
For Unit Reflections Chairs
8 Steps to Start Your Reflections Program !!!
1. Get trained and set a due date. Check out the Peralta District Training. Your school due date, if in a Council (Alameda. Berkeley, Fremont, and Pleasanton) is suggested for November 02 or earlier. If you are in an out of Council school (Albany, Castro Valley, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Oakland, San Leandro, San Lorenzo and Union City) it is suggested for November 1st. These dates depend on when you need to have Award of Excellence pieces forwarded to the next level. If you have questions about this, reach out to your Council Reflections Chair.
2. Get flyers out. Print out promotional posters, located here, https://www.pta.org/home/programs/reflections/startyourprogram#download, and hang them around your school.
3. Start by putting an announcement in your student bulletin and any social media sites. Here are some video links that talk about the program: https://youtu.be/F30WEbPSYIs
4. Start a Google Account for your Program, if you haven't already. We are using the Google Entry Form this year. The Google Entry Form does make things easier for you, but you need a Google Account to use it. We will do a hybrid system this year and use the Google Entry Form but also collect Visual Art and Photography live. More on that later. Remember you don't need the Google Entry Form available until you are ready to collect artwork. This is the last thing the students need to do, the first is to find out about the theme and the guidelines for the category they wish to enter.
Here is the link to the new virtual form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KhmcQNqZAC-bWxT8_2aJdh6wRcxkjFVZhdrkyjLe_h8/copy Check out this step by step powerpoint on how to upload your Google form first: Virtual Form Setup Powerpoint Walkthrough
Please note that the details section is now required. The rules for Reflections have been updated. Students participating in Visual Arts or Photography need to now detail what computer generated or editing they've done. All other categories should write N/A or provide details that relate. Please note that you need to have the Google form up before you are ready to accept artwork for the 2026-2027 year. Right now it's more important to advertise the program and get the theme out.
Please do not change the questions or columns in this form. We need to keep them the same. This way, when they return to each level for judging there will be no column offset.
5. Request to speak at a staff meeting and ask teachers to promote the Reflections program.
6. Have a Reflections Kick Off at a school assembly.
7. Provide students with a Reflections workshop, either during lunch or after school. Provide paper, crayons, colored pencils, and writing paper. Ask them "What does your culture mean to you?". Allow them to create a drawing or writing to the theme. Then share the Google Entry Form with them so parents and students can fill out and enter the artwork.
8. Find your judges. If there are schools nearby who are also doing the Reflections program, consider sharing judges. Each school's entries will be judged separately, but the judge can be the same for multiple schools.
9. Council will be celebrating winners on December 09, 2026. We suggest to plan to celebrate winners and participants at school level before that. If you plan to order trophies/medals from the CA PTA store, factor in about 10 days for those to arrive after you select your winners.
Award of Excellence vs. Award of Merit vs. Honorable Mention.
Award of Excellence - only 1 per category, moves on to the next level
Award of Merit - each level/school selects their own, can be 1 or more per category
Honorable Mention - optional, can be all other participants or just a few select students
We suggest you register with the National PTA. You don't have to but it helps us learn who the program is reaching.
Don't forget to use the many marketing materials from National PTA. There are also resources to be found on the CAPTA https://capta.org/programs/reflections/
Find Guidelines and rules here. Download the Leader's Guide, Training materials and timeline. These documents will help you run your program.
CAPTA Training:
Google Form: Virtual Form Training Recording
[Upcoming - September 15, 2026 at 7pm] How to Judge Reflections Entries
[Upcoming - September 30, 2026 at 7pm] Prepping Reflections Entries for Judging
CAPTA Training from previous years:
Virtual Judging Folder of Resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13J9SmvIqcGj6wPlD9QFBiX4j64Ut35Zt?usp=drive_link
Virtual Judging Training Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AMd-FGNvDL_hj0goMR1m_6NSMwEECFd4/view?usp=drive_link
Important dates to remember :
Deadline for students to submit their artwork to school (suggested): October 11
Deadline to submit school level winners to council : November 2
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