• Unless you prefer to work alone on this event, solicit support from a few other parents to plan and carry out the event; if your school has a parent group, this would be a natural place to tap interest and support. (If you don’t know of parents to contact, ask your school’s principal for names of parents who s/he thinks might be interested in being involved.)
  
  
• Call the principal of the school where you’d like to host your legislator. Tell them about the legislators in the schools project and ask them to suggest some good times for the visit in the January-February timeframe. Tell them that parents will host the legislator, but you will work closely with the principal and other staff to have a positive experience and pose the least disruption to the school day. You may want to ask your principal (or superintendent) if there is a particular legislator they suggest you invite. (Note: Principals should have received notice of this event through the newsletters of their principals’ associations.)
  
  
• When you have the suggested times from your school principal, take a look at the different legislators for your school district to decide who to invite.  Call the legislator to tell them about the project, offer some possible times for visiting the school, and ask which of those would work best for them. Treat this as an invitation: Legislators, overwhelmingly, react positively to invitations from their constituents to become more familiar with important issues. Each legislator may represent many schools. Recognize that a legislator may need to limit the number of school visits during the December - January timeframe, but do encourage them to come to your school.  Let them know how much it would mean to you to have them visit.
  
  Another Option: If your legislator has been a strong ally of your schools, ask your legislator to invite a colleague who represents a district different from yours (rural-suburban-urban) to visit your school along with a parent from h/her district.  Also offer to accompany your legislator on visit to a school in that district in the spirit of mutual exchange.
  
  
• If the first legislator you contact can’t make it, call the next one on your list.
  
  
• Inform the school principal of the date and time the legislator will visit.
  
  
• Fill out the Confirmation Form, giving the information about your legislators visit and return it to Parents United.

Next