History: PTA National Timeline

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.

Our Founders' Vision

Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst founded an organization—a nationwide movement—in a time when social activism was scorned and women did not have the vote. Believing that there is no stronger bond than that between mother and child, they felt it was up to mothers of this country to eliminate threats that endangered children.In 1897, they called for action and more than 2,000 people responded—many were mothers, but fathers, teachers, laborers, and legislators also responded. Support grew from that first meeting in Washington DC. Problems were identified and strategies devised. Through consistent hard work, sometimes after years of perseverance, the dreams became reality:

the creation of kindergarten classes,
child labor laws,
a public health service,
hot lunch programs,
a juvenile justice system,
mandatory immunization

and many more programs were accepted as national norms. Between 1897 and 1919, 37 state-level congresses were chartered to help carry out the work of the organization.

Timeline

2000-Present
PTA entered the new millennium with renewed energy

1990-1999
Our triumph in 1994 was the enactment of the Goals 2000

1980-1989
Membership rose (1.3 percent) for second year in row

1970-1979
National PTA helped to form National Coalition to Save Public Education

1960-1969
Convention delegates adopted resolutions on education about Communism

1950-1959
National PTA national office moved to new headquarters, 700 North Rush Street, Chicago

1940-1949
1943 National convention canceled because of war

1930-1939
National PTA convention program broadcast to nationwide radio audience

1920-1929
Adopted new name—National Congress of Parents and Teachers

1910-1919
1916 Convention urged automatic sprinklers in schools, in addition to fire escapes

1900-1909
1906 National convention, scheduled for Los Angeles, postponed because of San Francisco earthquake