School district celebrates 'Dads Take Your Child to School Day' to support fatherhood engagement

The Palm Beach County school district in Florida recently celebrated a day for students and their fathers and father figures on September 21. The annual event is a parenting initiative inviting dads to be the ones to take their kids to school and be more engaged in their education. It focuses on the importance of a father's engagement in education by helping schools foster the important connection with fathers, father figures, brothers, uncles, grandparents, stepfathers, male mentors and other significant male role models in a child’s life.

The Florida Department of Education website offers resources for both parents and teachers to be more active in students’ education and this initiative in particular assists schools with "building capacity in fatherhood engagement." After 30 years of research, the department came up with the initiative noting that family engagement positively affects a child's academic success rate in school.

The website points out that “findings suggest that when fathers are actively involved in their child’s education, students perform better academically, have fewer discipline problems, and become more responsible adults.” It's not just for biological dads and also applies to any other male role model in a child's life, like uncles, grandfathers, cousins, brothers and stepfathers.

The school district also suggests ways in which father figures can be more involved in young students' lives. This includes assisting with homework, regularly attending parent-teacher conferences, having an open dialogue with teachers concerning academic progress and participating in school activities. Having male adults more involved in the child's life can offer many benefits including improved test results and academic performance, better attitude toward school and a decreased likelihood of behavioral concerns.

As part of the "Dads Take Your Children To School Day" initiative, male mentors are also equipped with ideas that help them not only to be more involved during the event, but extend beyond at home or school or the community. Some ideas for being more involved at home include spending a few minutes at bedtime talking with children about each other’s day. Another suggestion included starting a journal project in which children write to their dad a few times each week and their dad writes back. They also suggest that dads involve the children in creating a weekend plan that they can do together. 

Suggestions for being involved in the community include taking kids to the local library or family outings to zoos, museums, concerts, sports events or other local activities. At school, dads can host a barbeque or chili cook-off and have father/child teams compete. They also suggest having children invite dads or male mentors to volunteer for school events, such as fall festival, auction or field day.

It's no surprise that having loved ones more engaged in a child's life can benefit the child in more ways than one. Realistically speaking, in most heterosexual families moms are often the primary parents. Having support and love from a male figure can at least take some of the pressure off moms. It's great that initiatives like this are coming about but it's important that more dads and male mentors realize that they should be involved in their kids’ day-to-day lives. Not just for one day... but every single day!