Why Parents Don't Attend School Events

Twelve parents RSVP'd. Four showed up.

You bought the pizza. Translated the flyers. Posted on Facebook three times.

And still…the same four families.

It's frustrating — especially since your last Panorama survey said parents want more workshops to help them support their kids at home. You just did that. And no one showed up. Why is this?

As a former school leader who organizes and leads dozens of parent events a year, I know there are a myriad of factors that can cause low attendance: time of day, transportation, childcare, parents working multiple jobs. These make sense. Parents have a lot on their plate.

In fact, every adult, even educators, can relate to how stressful adult life is. Sometimes the stars just don't align for us to attend the workshops, webinars, and seminars that might actually help us — a real estate webinar on saving money, a session on starting a side business, a class on losing weight and living healthier. We skip them all, regardless of the time, the venue, or how badly we might need them. Kids or no kids; an extra engagement is an extra to-do.

Here's the reality, though: we still make time for things that don't "serve us" the way one of those self-help seminars would. Why go to a workshop when Netflix has already cultivated a playlist that fits your taste, mood, genre, and culture? That playlist shows you actresses you adore, movies that champion your beliefs, and illustrations that leave you awe-struck.

Now.....imagine you posted your last school event flyer into Netflix. You know, that AI generated flyer with a colorful book, a few smiling cartoon kids, and your school logo. All centered below the title at the top: Family Reading Night.

Would you click on that? Probably not. Yet, we're hoping that parents will see our flyers and run to our events. No deal. Nothing about Family Reading Night, the school logo, and cheap graphics says "this was made for you" to a parent.

The question is what can we offer that actually fits our parents' taste, mood, and culture?

Which brings me to the argument of this article:

1. Our event titles sound like professional development ("Reading Power Strategies for All Ages") or Sunday school ("Family Reading Night") — not something a tired parent wants to spend their evening on.

2. Our flyers need attention grabbing images that hold the interest of parents.

Parents scan flyers looking for an answer to one question: what does this do for me?

Compare two flyers for the exact same event:

• Family Literacy Night: Strategies for Supporting Readers at Home

• He'd Rather Watch YouTube Than Read - Ideas?!

Same content. Same presenter. Same room. But one sounds like homework, and the other sounds like someone finally gets it. Every parent with a kid glued to a screen reads that second title and thinks: that's my house.

The fix isn't clever marketing — it's specificity about the parent's problem instead of your program's name. "Literacy Workshop" describes what you're doing. "Get Your Kid Reading Without a Fight" describes what happens for them. One is your agenda. The other is their relief.

In my full talk on this subject, I show attendees how to craft a stronger title and match the right images to that target audience.

For help leading parent literacy events and workshops, visit us at www.raisereaders.net.

Article written by Wes BakerPrincipal Partner, Raise Readers Workshops