As kids start a new school year, some of their parents are going back to school, too.
Parent University has been part of the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District for the past few years, but it's being revamped this year.
The biggest change is that the sessions will now be held in school classrooms instead of at the district office.
"We went ahead and revamped Parent University a few years ago and wanted to make that connection with parents," said Monica Silva, the community communications specialist at PRJUSD. We understand, as parents and administrators, that if we connect with our families, we'll have more power to help our students succeed."
KSBY went to the first meeting of the school year, where parents were learning how to access Aeries, the student web portal.
Some parents said the course was very helpful.
"I learned how to open the app, and see information about the children as well," said a parent participating in the class.
"As Hispanics, sometimes we don't know how to use a computer and it's great that we had a team of people to help," said another parent.
This school year, Parent University will be held at least twice a month.
Parents will learn everything from how to access school info online, to bullying prevention, and even social media safety.
"When the family engages in learning they'll talk about it at school, hopefully, the kids will open up a bit more because the parent already has that bit of knowledge," said Silva. "They can talk about the same stuff, and the kids are actually very excited when they see their family or parent be fully engaged because then they see okay, we can have something in common, we can talk about school, they can help us, we can help them."
Silva said that after a parent completes three module sessions, which are color-coded on the schedule, they get a t-shirt and certificate of completion.
The modules are broken down into parent engagement, parent empowerment, curriculum and instruction, English language proficiency, and community resource.
"I will definitely be coming to more classes because I am interested in knowing more about my son's school," said one parent.
The courses are open to any parent within the school district.
School district officials said Parent University is offered in both English and Spanish.
