This year, Lawton will celebrate National African-American Parent Involvement Day (NAAPID) by inviting ALL parents to attend their child’s classes on Monday, February 8. Look for more information from your child's teacher on how you can participate in NAAPID.

NAAPID is a national call to action to get ALL parents, especially those of African-American descent, more involved in their children's educational experience. It began here in Ann Arbor by Joe Dulin, who was a longtime AAPS Principal. He was inspired to create a parent involvement day after going to the Million Man March in 1995. According to Dulin, “a young man named Ayinde Jean-Baptiste, then 12 years old, was one of the speakers, and he challenged us to go back to our communities and do something. I got the feeling that, out of a million men, he was looking at me.”  Out of this call to action, NAAPID was born.

The goals of this annual event are to:

• Promote greater caregiver involvement in student’s education from preschool to college.

• Foster dialogue among teachers, caregivers, and students to create a more supportive educational environment for African-American students.

• Develop strategies to address the serious achievement gap that exists for African-American students in Ann Arbor Public Schools and throughout the nation.