Excellence Library

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Welcome School of Excellence Champions!

This resource hub is designed to help district, council, region, and state PTAs promote and support the National PTA School of Excellence program. Your role is essential, serving as motivators, guides, and champions for participating schools.

In the following sections, National PTA provides everything you need to help local PTAs succeed:

 

Message Board

 

2025-2026 School of Excellence Program


Program Ends June 2026 

Over 500 PTAs are working to complete the 2025-2026 program and earn the 2025-2027 School of Excellence designation. Find which PTAs from your state are active in the program here.

In the summer, National PTA will reach out to state PTAs to verify good standing for PTAs that complete the program. PTAs must be in good standing with their state PTA to earn the designation. 

2026-2027 School of Excellence Program


Enrollment Closes Oct. 15 

Help the PTAs in your state achieve Excellence. Connect with participating PTAs and promote the program now through the enrollment deadline (Oct. 15). 

Check this running list to see which PTAs in your state are enrolled and email Excellence@PTA.org to receive contact details. Use the Enrollment Promotion Toolkit and find more tools and tips in the Guide to Supporting Excellence.

Guide to Supporting Excellence

 

District, council, region and state PTAs play a critical role in supporting the School of Excellence program by acting as encouragement, guides and supports to participating local PTAs. You know your state and communities best and can best share suggestions and opportunities with participants that will further their family engagement goals. 

Using the Guide


Below, see what each section has to offer, then click the link to go directly to the information you need:

    • Promote Enrollment provides tips, templates and messaging to help engage even more PTAs in the program. 
    • Support PTAs provides program details, tools and ideas to help you better understand the program so you can support local PTAs in earning the designation.
     

    Promote Program Enrollment

     
    Share the program and enrollment with local PTAs as a tool to create transformative family engagement and foster long-term school improvements. Enrollment is open from May 1 to October 15.

    Helpful Details and Tools


    Customize the messaging from our enrollment promotional toolkit and include helpful hints, graphics, and program descriptions. Informative promotion helps PTAs find success in the program after the enroll. 

    Helpful Details for Local PTAs
    • Verify eligibility. The program is designed for individual and local PTA units to make a direct impact at their schools. The designation should not be sought by multiple schools under one PTA. 
    • Start early. Encourage local PTAs to enroll early so they can incorporate they program into their existing PTA plans and have more time to learn more about the program and requirements. 
    • Bookmark the Excellence Toolkit. This hidden webpage is the go-to resource for each cohort. Access is provided in the confirmation email after enrollment. Bookmarking ensures quick, ongoing access.
    • Email is our may communication tool with participants. Make sure our emails reach them. Remind PTAs to provide the correct contact details when enrolling and encourage them to check that emails from Excellence@PTA.org don’t go to spam or junk folders. 
    • Connect with National PTA. For questions or help, PTAs can email Excellence@PTA.org anytime. We are here to help answer questions, brainstorm ideas and chat through hurdles. 
    Graphics and Overviews
    Enrollment Graphics
    Program Graphics

     

    Navigate the Program Together

     

    Learn the program steps and connect with local units active in the program to offer encouragement, training or mentorship to support their goals. Use Program Step Checklist (en español) to guide your engagement. Since participants use it too, it’s a great tool for offering consistent, informed support.

    Need to Know Details


    To best provide this support, it will be helpful to understand the program and helpful details like requirements, deadlines and eligibility.

    Programs Steps

    To complete the program, PTAs complete five steps designed to help build an inclusive and welcoming school community. Completing the steps provides a PTAs gain hands-on experience with best practices. 

    Each step guides a PTA through a year-long effort to create transformative family engagement. Built-in requirements within certain steps verify a PTAs progress and help them stay on track with National PTA.

    Program Steps
    1. Enroll and Get Started
    2. Gather and Analyze Community Feedback 
    3. Build an Excellence Action Plan and Check Back with your Community
    4. Reflect On and Summarize Progress 
    5. Celebrate Your Excellence
    Program Requirements

    To complete the program and earn the designation, PTAs must complete Steps 1–4, meet all requirements, including: 

    • Submit the Community Feedback Form by Dec. 15 to verify fall feedback, select a National Standard and Program Focus Area and share initial goals.

    • Create and Implement an Excellence Action Plan using the fall feedback, National Standards and Program Focus Areas. 

    • Gather feedback in the spring using the same questions from the fall to measure progress. 

    • Submit the Community Impact Form by June 15 to verify they used the required questions and submit an overview of their Action Plan and program outcomes.

    Program Timeline
    Know the Program Timeline

    Mark your calendars with these key program dates to send our reminders or encouragement. 

    • May 1 - Oct. 15: Program Enrollment 

    • August - Nov. 15: Initial Community Feedback Collection 

    • Oct. 1 - Dec. 15: Complete and Submit Community Feedback Form

    • November - May: Create and Implement Excellence Action Plan

    • March - June: Follow Up Community Feedback Collection

    • May 1 - June 15: Complete and Submit Community Impact Form 

    • August: School of Excellence Designees and Hearst Award Recipients Announced

    Encourage, and Empower Participants


    You can support PTAs in completing each of these program requirements, providing reminders, training or just encouragement along the way. 

    Learn More
    • Send a welcome message to participating PTAs or schools to acknowledge their commitment and build early connection. Free State PTA emailed their County School Board to highlight the program and participating units. Texas PTA created a welcome video naming and celebrating each enrollee.
    • Host program trainings. Provide live or recorded opportunities, like South Carolina PTA, for participants to learn, connect and engage with the program and each other. Check out these template training slides from National PTA.
    • Encourage collaboration among PTAs by creating group chats, forums, or mentorship connections. Tap into your network of School of Excellence alumni to connect new participants with experience alumni, like Free State PTA.
    • Use the Excellence Library along the way. National PTA regularly updates the Library and Message Board with program updates, key dates, and tools to help you support your PTAs throughout the year.
    • Send check-in messages or create a shared calendar to offer encouragement and remind PTAs of upcoming milestones or deadlines.
    • Share success stories or spotlights from other PTAs to inspire and motivate participants.
    • Celebrate small wins and acknowledge progress at each step to keep PTAs engaged and energized.

     

    Celebrate Excellence Together

     

    Celebrate the designated PTAs in your community by sharing their success and highlighting their stories. Designees are announced each year in August and celebrated throughout the school year as leaders in family engagement. 

    Honor Excellence, Fuel Engagement

    Turn recognition into impact by using the excitement to inspire others, grow membership, develop leaders, and expand the impact of family engagement.

    Learn More

    • Use the designation to show PTA value and grow membership. Reach out to your state’s designees and gather their success stories. Share these examples of impact with your PTA network to highlight the value of PTA and attract new members who are passionate about family engagement. Encourage designees to use the YOU Belong in PTA — Grow Your PTA with Programs templates to promote their work and invite others to join.

    • Purchase and distribute School of Excellence celebration materials. Visit ShopPTA.com to order banners, lanyards, lapel pins, and more—most most items ship within a week. Choose from three cost-saving bundles to celebrate your designees and spotlight their success in your community.

    • Extend the impact of the National Standards. Your local PTA designees worked hard to transform family engagement through PTA’s National Standards for Family-School Partnerships. Use your designees’ success to partner with your district or state board and push for broader adoption of PTA’s National Standards in your community. To get started, download our ready-to-use model policy for school boards (also en español).

    • Develop and support new PTA leaders. The Excellence Teams that earned the designation are full of eager and hardworking volunteers who have already demonstrated a commitment to transformative family engagement. Build on their success by offering training and mentorship opportunities, and invite them to join Thrive PTA, National PTA's online learning community for leadership development. 


     

    Explore Excellence Data 

     

    Just like School of Excellence participants use data to guide their action plans, you can use program data to demonstrate how PTAs strengthen family-school partnerships, drive school improvement, and build stronger communities.

    Get Connected


    Use these reports to better understand participation in your state and to get connected with past School of Excellence participants and designees. 

    2026-2027 Participants

    Use the 2026-2027 Enrollment Report to see which local PTAs in your community are participating in the program. For contact details to connect with program leaders directly, email Excellence@PTA.org and request a contact list.

    Past Participants

    Explore the reach of the program or dive into your state's designation data to understand the impact of the program in your state. 

     

    National PTA is Here to Support You

     

    Need help finding information or exploring new ways to support your local PTAs? National PTA has your back. Whether you're navigating next steps or brainstorming new ideas, we're here to support you—because together, we make the greatest impact. 

    Questions? 
    For program details, reports, or state-specific info, reach out to us anytime at Excellence@PTA.org.