Tuckahoe PTA Equity Team

Tuckahoe PTA Equity Team Mission Statement

The Tuckahoe PTA Equity Team (formerly TDEI) goal is to foster a school community that honors and welcomes every child and family to Tuckahoe Elementary School. We value and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in our school environment.

Diversity can take many forms and have many benefits for our children, including academic, social, and emotional. An academic focus on equity seeks to remove barriers for historically marginalized groups that lead to unequal outcomes. Inclusive environments ensure that the needs of all of our children are met and all children are accepted.

We believe that raising issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the instructional, developmental, and structural levels is necessary to prepare our children for an increasingly diverse and global society.  We commit to highlighting our multifaceted identities, addressing difficult topics related to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and educating our children to be thoughtful and engaged citizens of the world.

For more info and to be a part of the committee, please contact equity@tuckahoepta.us  

Resources

The PTA Equity Team is excited to share the Family and Teacher Resource Guide with our Tuckahoe community! Please be sure that you are logged into the PTA website to view. This robust spreadsheet, developed to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, offers suggestions for books, lesson plans, videos and much more for use in the classroom and at home. 

Have a resource to add? Wonderful! Our plan is for the TDEI Steering Committee to continue adding to this resource guide. Please contact equity@tuckahoepta.us to submit additional resources. 

How to Get Involved

Come to events and activities...or be a part of the committee and help us plan the events & activities, discuss important issues, and work with the school and our families to strengthen community awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Please know you can come as you are, and there is no requirement to be ‘perfect’ as you/we talk about issues in this space. We are all on a journey to learn and grow.

The PTA Equity Team holds periodic meetings throughout the school year which will be announced in the PTA newsletter and website. Parents and teachers are welcome to attend. Some activities for the 2022-23 academic year include sharing resources with school staff and families; partnering with the school’s Equity Team; and organizing community-building events, such as movie night, Global Dance Party, parent meet-ups, and discussions focused on DEI topics.

Tuckahoe Learning Differences Community (TLDC) - A chapter of the Equity Team

The Tuckahoe Learning Differences Community (TLDC) is part of the Equity Team focused on working collaboratively with school staff and administration to ensure our kids receive the appropriate support to help them thrive - specifically geared toward families with students on IEPs or 504 plans. TLDC works to help parents in how to navigate learning differences their children face, how to access resources, and how to assist teachers to ensure the availability and active use of training, tools and strategies for recognizing and addressing learning differences. TLDC also sponsors Neurodiversity Week each year in partnership with the school.

TLDC Goals:

• For kids - to ensure they get the appropriate (to an individual situation) support to succeed emotionally, behaviorally, academically - supporting the whole child.
  
  
• For parents - to facilitate resources and communication to help them be informed and effective advocates for their children.
  
  
• For teachers - to facilitate the availability of resources, tools and strategies to help students thrive.

TLDC Resources: 

• Share Information - Download the TLDC Flyer
• Join our Facebook Page to stay in touch with TLDC updates and to meet other TLDC families
• TLDC Learning Differences Starter Guide - highlighting ins and outs of the IEP and 504 processes and listing resources within Tuckahoe, APS, Arlington, and the broader special ed community
• APS Parent Resource Center
• Arlington Special ED PTA (SEPTA)