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A Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) is a voluntary organization bringing together parents and teachers of pupils in a particular school or school district, usually for fund-raising, building parental involvement at school and other activities relating to the welfare of the school, rather than the progress of individual pupils. The term PTA is used in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and also in some other Commonwealth countries.
In the United States the generic term "PTO" is used to refer to all parent-teacher groups regardless of acronym, and the term "PTA" is technically reserved only for those parent-teacher groups formally affiliated with the U.S. National PTA. Estimates show that over 90% of all U.S. schools have some form of parent teacher group. Roughly 25% of existing parent-teacher groups are formally-affiliated PTAs. Roughly 75% of existing parent-teacher groups are independent PTOs.
Groups going by the "PTA" or "PTSA" name are technically associated with their state PTA and the National PTA. There are also tens of thousands (best estimate typically: 40,000-50,000 -- there is no national register of PTOs) of independent parent groups not associated with the formal PTA. These groups go by many acronyms (HSA, PTO, PCC, etc.), but are known generally as PTOs. At the local level, PTAs and PTOs do very similar work, supporting their schools, growing parent involvement, supporting teachers, family events and the like.
Since 1999, PTOs and PTAs (though the service is more generally associated with PTOs) have also had access to the services of PTO Today, a for-profit publishing and services firm focused on the work of parent-teacher groups. PTO Today's magazine has a circulation of 80,000, primarily to K-8 parent/teacher groups in the U.S. All PTOs are independent of PTO Today, though some choose to join and pay for an added-value membership groups called PTO Today Plus for access to discounts, group liability insurance and additional resources.
PTOs are not part of and do not have to report in to a national organization and because most PTOs do not charge dues, there is no current count of the number of parents who belong to PTOs nationwide.
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