History

For more than a 100 years, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) has provided support, information and resources to families focused on the health and education of children. The organization was founded in 1897 in Washington DC as the National Congress of Mothers by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. If not for these women and their vision and determination, there would not be a PTA—an organization that has been woven into the very fabric of American life.

By whatever name it has been known, National PTA was created to meet a profound challenge: to better the lives of children. And today, it continues to flourish because PTA has never lost sight of its goal: to change the lives of children across our great nation for the better.