Guidelines for Volunteers

Thank you for volunteering your valuable time to help make our school a better place for teachers to teach and for students to learn.

The following guidelines will hopefully make your stay a pleasant and productive experience.

1.    If you promise to be here on a certain day and time, please don’t let us down.  We really do need you!

2.    Tell us what you really enjoy doing and what skills you have to contribute.  We want you to enjoy your visit here.

3.    Always wear your volunteer tag.  We require our staff to challenge anyone who is not a staff member and/or who is not properly identified.

4.    If you see or hear students do or say things that are obviously inappropriate, let a teacher or administrator know who the students are and what they did.  Please do not attempt to correct the problem yourself!

5.    If you are stationed in the Main Office, always identify yourself as a parent volunteer when addressing visitors or answering the phone.

6.    If there is a school problem, refer it to someone on the school staff.  It is our job to solve school problems.

7.    When you volunteer to work in the office, remember that you must respect every student’s and parent’s right of confidentiality.

• Volunteers who work in the office will invariably become aware of situations in which a student is there for disciplinary reasons.  If this happens, we insist that the student’s name not be discussed with anyone inside or outside of school.

8.    If you are volunteering to work in the classroom, make sure your presence is as unobtrusive as possible.  Teachers need help, but a volunteer who doesn’t follow directions becomes an added burden rather than a support.

9.    If you have concerns after a visit, make sure you either discuss them with the administrator, or counselor or, even better, write your concerns down and give them to the principal.

10.  Have a good time!  A school filled with happy volunteers is a better place to teach and learn.

11.  Understand that under current GA Law (O.C.G.A § 19-7-5), school-affiliated volunteers are considered as “mandated reporters” of suspected child abuse.  Should you gain information as it relates to a suspected case of child abuse through a verbal/written communication, direct observation, or some other manner, you must report this information to your school’s administration immediately.  It will become that administrator’s (or designee’s) responsibility to then report the suspected abuse to the appropriate state or local investigative agency.

Our common goal is to have the best schools possible.  Together we can make it happen!

Document Link:  printable version Guidelines for Volunteers and Indicators of Possible Child Abuse