Our Impact
Since our founding, SF Parents has been a driving force in creating a more responsive public school systemBy building a strong community and running parent-led campaigns and initiatives, we’ve uplifted parent voicesand shaped policies and practices that directly impact their children and families. By channeling parents’ collective power, our coalition has been critical in moving the needle towards important educational reforms at SFUSD. In just a few years, we’ve achieved many wins for SF’s kids.
About Us
SF Parents was founded in summer 2020 amidst one of the worst crises for public education in our history—when the pandemic disrupted learning, widened inequities, and shook the very foundation of our schools. Our mission was clear from the start: to ensure that educational leaders prioritize the needs of students and their families. We began by reaching out to parents from diverse communities, engaging with those who were deeply concerned about how the school district was failing to address their children’s needs. Our foundation is built on the belief that parents are the foremost experts on their children’s well-being and learning, and our initial efforts focused on identifying and advocating for community-driven solutions that would support every child.
As we uncovered a groundswell of parent frustration with broken systems failing children in myriad ways, our movement of parent-led advocacy pushing for systemic changes gained momentum. In just five years, SF Parents developed arobust network of over 7,000 parents and supporters, representing more than 100 schools across SFUSD. This fast growth underscores the widespread demand in San Francisco for a more responsive and parent-centered public school district.
Since our founding...
SF Parents has been a driving force in creating a more responsive public school systemBy building a strong community and running parent-led campaigns and initiatives, we’ve uplifted parent voices and shaped policies and practices that directly impact their children and families. By channeling parents’ collective power, our coalition has been critical in moving the needle towards important educational reforms at SFUSD. In just a few years, we’ve achieved many wins for SF’s kids:
- Successfully advocated for SFUSD to overhaul its failed early literacy program and replace with an evidence-based program (‘23-24)
- Accelerated by 2X SFUSD’s timeline to fix its K-8 math program (‘23-24)
- Ensured the district added supports to get more students ready for advanced math by middle school (‘23-24)
- Pressured the School Board to pass a balanced budget, buying time to address the threat of state takeover (‘22-23 & ‘23-24)
- Held an influential citywide forum with the five frontrunner candidates elevating the topic of public education in the 2024 Mayoral race
- Held a parent-run meeting with the new Superintendent Dr. Maria Su on her third day on the job with 80+ parents in attendance (‘24)
- Cited in over a dozen news articles and regularly published opinion pieces in the S.F. Chronicle, EdSource and other local news and education media each year
Representing more than 100 schools
Equity Statement
SF Parents defines equity as the practice of providing and increasing just inclusion that enables all students and their families to contribute and thrive. Just inclusion = elevating the voices of systemically underserved groups. Equity is NOT about supporting solutions that create larger gaps between traditionally advantaged groups and people of color. Example: we advocate for solutions that elevate BIPOC students and their families’ voices so that they can contribute and thrive. SF Parents is in support and alignment with SFUSD’s equity values that provides all students the quality instruction and equitable support required to thrive in the 21st century.