Step 1: Understanding Your Audience

State legislators are elected officials who represent you in your state legislature. Each state legislature includes a legislative body that makes decisions about state laws, which usually includes a state senate and a state house of representatives (also sometimes called delegates, council, assembly, etc.). Every person is represented by at least one state representative and one state senator except for Nebraska, the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands whose legislatures have one unicameral body. Some legislatures meet annually while others meet every other year. The length of the legislative session varies depending on your state, territory or district.

The main role of state legislatures and their members is to pass laws that apply across the entire state. When it comes to gun violence prevention, there are many types of state laws that impact school and community safety, such as laws that prevent children from gaining access to guns, laws that strengthen the background check process to ensure guns don’t end up in the wrong hands and laws helping people store their firearms safely, among many others.

A conversation about school safety with your state legislators or their staff is a great place to start. In fact, most state-level bills come from concerned parents and community members like you who expressed their perspective to a legislator. If this is your first time discussing school safety with their office, consider starting with an introductory 1:1 call or meeting. During this discussion, you can explain PTA’s role in the community and get a basic understanding of all your state legislators currently do to promote school safety and what they are willing to do in the future. Building a long-term relationship with the office is essential, as advocacy is most effective when there is repeated contact, not just a single meeting. Focus on relating to your state legislators by sharing your personal story and how gun violence impacts your community and family.

It’s important to remember that perspectives and positions on gun violence prevention vary. It's always worthwhile to do some research prior to reaching out to state legislators, starting with their website to better understand their perspective and background on school safety issues. Know that you may have to work with your elected officials to find areas of consensus. For example, some may be willing to support background checks or bans on assault weapons, while others may only be willing to support firearm safety education. Regardless, when it comes to school safety and your state legislators, it is their job to pass new laws and improve upon existing laws that keep everyone in school communities safe. And it is their job to listen to you, hear your concerns and represent the interests of you and your community in the state legislature.

A conversation about school safety with your state legislator(s) and/or their staff is a great place to start. If this is your first time discussing school safety with your state legislator(s) and/or their staff, consider starting with an introductory 1:1 call or meeting to explain PTA’s role in the community and get a basic understanding of all they currently do and are willing to do in the future to promote school safety. Building a long-term relationship with the office is essential as advocacy is not as effective in a single meeting. Focus on relating to your state legislator(s) by sharing your personal story and how gun violence impacts your community.

Step 2: Preparing for Your Conversation

When you’re ready to facilitate a meeting with your state legislator(s) or their staff, reach out to them by finding their contact information on their website and calling their office to schedule a meeting. Remember flexibility is key, as most state legislators do not have extensive staff capacity, if any staff at all. Something to note is that some state legislators continue to have full time jobs while still serving in the legislature, so their availability may vary. It is best to schedule a meeting with your state legislator that is in person and during the legislative session for your state. However, in some states, legislative sessions can also be very short (as short as two months out of the year). If you or other members of your group are unable to travel, some state legislators have local offices or will offer virtual meetings.

Consider inviting others in your school community to join the meeting, such as other concerned parents/guardians, students or teachers. A more inclusive group will not only emphasize the importance of school safety across the community, but it will also show your state legislator(s) that your community is willing to work together on these issues.

Prepare and send an agenda to the participants prior to the meeting. A customizable agenda template is provided in another tab of this blueprint, but ideally the agenda should include discussion topics and questions that align with the specific school safety concerns you have for your state legislator(s). One topic of conversation could be legislation. You can learn more about gun violence prevention legislation in your state by visiting your state legislature’s website. Most state websites feature a search function where you can input specific keywords related to gun violence prevention or browse through categories of interest. This will allow you to track current bills, their status and legislative developments. Additionally, consider signing up for alerts or newsletters from your state legislature to receive updates directly in your inbox, ensuring you remain up to date with the latest legislative actions. Furthermore, you can visit your state PTA website to see if they have endorsed bills at the state level that are related to gun violence prevention or school safety.

It may take some time to find areas of consensus with your state legislators, but doing the research ahead of time and having specific bill names and numbers that have been introduced in the state legislature to discuss will guarantee the office takes note of your concerns and gives you an opportunity to follow-up after the meeting. Make sure to also review PTA's official positions on this topic for language you can use in your conversations.

Is this your first time meeting with your state legislator(s)? It’s okay to be nervous! Remember that you will never need to be an expert on gun violence prevention. The biggest impact you can make is by sharing your personal story..

Step 3: Discussion and Further Action

Remember this conversation is an opportunity to provide feedback, ask questions and build a relationship with your state legislators around school safety. Take notes, ask questions, listen closely and commit to continued conversation, collaboration and action alongside your state legislators and their staff. 

There are many ways you can collaborate with your state legislators beyond this initial conversation. Consider these action items to discuss during your meeting and to pursue as follow up action:

• Ask your state legislator(s) to support a bill or draft a new bill on a particular topic. You can learn more about what legislation is passing through your legislature at LegiScan or National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

• Ask your state legislator(s) to support funding that addresses school safety needs. In most states, the state legislature plays a crucial role in developing and approving the budget. Legislators review and amend the governor’s proposed budget through committee hearings, where community members can advocate for specific funding needs. This process determines the final financial support for various safety initiatives and programs.

• Schedule another meeting to perhaps bring in more families, community members or other important voices, like students.

• Invite your state legislator(s) to speak at a PTA meeting or another event to share their perspectives on school safety issues and elicit feedback from families and answer questions.

• Ask your state legislators to highlight their school safety efforts in their regular communications with constituents. Offer to help gather resources to share in those communications.

• Write a letter about your perspective and concerns around school safety and share the letter with your state legislator(s). Ideally, ask other parents in your community to sign the letter or write the letter on behalf of your PTA if you are in a leadership role. If possible, ask your legislator(s) to support a specific bill in the letter or draft a new bill on a particular topic.

Remember to send a follow-up email thanking your state legislator(s) and their staff for their time and reiterating any next steps discussed in the meeting. We also highly recommend you take a photo during your meeting and post to social media, tagging your state legislator(s) and National PTA so the conversation can continue after the meeting.

Sample Meeting Agenda

Below are some sample questions you might consider discussing during a meetings. Feel free to customize these questions to meet your community’s needs.

• Introductions. Briefly describe who is in attendance, what their role is and their relationship to the school or the community. Explain how those in your group relate to your state legislator and their staff.

• Personal Story. Have one or two people in your group explain why the issue of school safety is important to them and/or share a brief (1-2 minute) story about their experience with this issue. Personal stories not only increase credibility but are often the most memorable and compelling for a state legislator and will underscore the importance of your requests later in the meeting. They will not remember every statistic you share, but they will always remember how you made them feel.

• Acknowledgements. Take a moment to thank your state legislator for anything they have done so far to support school safety, like supporting a bill or speaking out on the issue. This is also a good opportunity to identify and confirm whether they are on a committee that is important on these issues.

• Secure Storage. Do you support legislation to encourage gun owners to store their firearms safely and out of reach of children? Do you support holding adults accountable for using safety locks and other safety devices to prevent youth from obtaining and discharging a firearm?

• Background Checks. Are you in favor of universal background checks for anyone who purchases a firearm? Are you in favor of background checks for guns purchased via gun shows, private sales and online transactions? Are you willing to require background checks take a minimum of three business days? Do you support background checks that enable guns to be traced moving forward?

• Minimum Age Requirements. Are you in favor of setting the minimum age to purchase firearms at 21 years old rather than 18? Note that some states may already have this minimum. Would you support legislation that revokes a firearm license for any dealer who knowingly sells to minors? Are you willing to increase enforcement of state minimum age requirements for handgun purchases?

• Firearm Safety Education. Would you be willing to support education programs to teach students, parents and community members about firearm safety and violence prevention?

• Mental Health Supports and Services. Do you intend to increase school funding to provide wraparound services for students who are at risk of harming themselves or others? For students who have brought a firearm to school? Are you willing to provide more state funding for comprehensive research of the causes and effects of gun violence?

• Restricting Specific Weapons and Accessories. Are you willing to support a ban on bump stocks? Military-style semi-automatic assault weapons? Large-capacity ammunition magazines? Online sales of kits that can be used to make or modify guns? Are you willing to tighten enforcement on straw purchases of weapons and limit how many guns can be purchased in a month?

• Extreme Risk (also known as “Red Flag”) Laws. Do you support restricting gun purchases for adults who commit violent crimes? How about if they committed a violent crime as a juvenile?

• School Climate and Student Support Services. What role do you see school climate and student discipline playing in school safety? Do you support restorative justice, positive school discipline and alternative dispute resolution techniques over the detention, exclusion or incarceration of youth?

• Physical Safety. Do you support increasing the physical security of school buildings? How do you aim to do this without undermining the school environment or causing psychological harm through ineffective trainings, lock downs or responses to false threats of violence? What measures specifically do you support to protect schools from firearm related and other forms of violence?

• State Funding. Do you support increasing funding to incentivize and support family engagement and education initiatives? Where do you stand on funding comprehensive school mental health programs, drug and violence prevention programs, training on trauma-informed practices, and other health and physical education programs?

• Thank You & Next Steps. Ask if your state legislator is willing to continue this conversation. If they have committed to supporting specific actions, ask how you can help them. Be sure to take a photo and post to social media tagging and thanking your state legislator. In the days following the meeting, send a follow-up email thanking them for their time and reiterating next steps; include resources relevant to the discussion.

Checklist for Working with State Legislators on School Safety

• Identify your state legislators.

• Review the publicly available school safety information (see Step 1).

• Schedule a meeting with your state legislator(s) or their staff (see Step 2).

• Draft and send an agenda in advance of the meeting (see Step 2).

• Assemble a list of school safety related questions, concerns and requests (see Step 2). If helpful, use the resources listed below.

• Meet with your state legislator(s) or their staff (see Step 3 and PTA’s helpful tool).

• Commit to next steps with your state legislator(s) and their staff (see Step 3).