Volunteer needs vary by school and time of the year. Often, schools are looking for volunteers who have skills that make them a good fit for their specific school community.

You can often find out more about volunteer opportunities at local schools by visiting the school website or the PTA website. When looking at school websites, look both for highlighted volunteer opportunities and for a list of community partners.

Families of SPS students:

Below are some ways families of SPS students can support their schools, but please be open to the most urgent needs the school may present you with:

• Lunch and recess support.
• Classroom or library help: Read or listen to students read in your native language, organize books, prepare materials, tutor math, and more!
• Before and between classes: Help for 30-40 minutes during recess, in the lunchroom, or as students arrive in the morning. Your positive presence will brighten students’ day and help them be safe.
• Lost & Found: Offer to organize lost and found items once or twice monthly.
• Special talents: Schools have unique needs. Are you fluent in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, or Chinese? Can you lend a hand in the learning garden or the robotics club?

Community members:

Volunteer opportunities for community members vary greatly among SPS schools. Some schools focus on engaging their students’ families only, while others seek volunteer support from the community.

Our online registration process is not designed to match applicants with volunteer needs. Please do not complete the online volunteer application until you have a volunteer role confirmed with an SPS staff member.

Often, community-based organizations provide before and after-school programming and recruit volunteers as well.

Volunteer with East African immigrant and refugee students!

Horn Of Africa Services (HOAS) focuses on closing the achievement gap for East African students, improving literacy and math outcomes, and empowering students to reach higher levels of education. HOAS is recruiting volunteers for the After School Tutoring Program:

• Get to know East African refugee and immigrant students grades K-12.
• Assist with homework and engage in fun activities.
• Please complete the online volunteer application form to get started.

Youth Tutoring Program

Youth Tutoring Program (YTP) serves elementary, middle and high school youth. YTP is a great place to volunteer with SPS students if you are only available in the afternoon or evening. Choose among five tutoring sites throughout Seattle: Lake City, West Seattle, Beacon Hill, First Hill, and Columbia City. Tutoring centers are open Monday – Thursday between 4 p.m. and 7:40 p.m. and each volunteer commits to at least one one-hour session per week. Learn more and apply to volunteer here!

Please note the Lake Washington Apartments location is no longer available.

Communities in Schools of Seattle

Are you looking for ways to meet people, get involved, and give back to your amazing community? Our goal is to connect volunteers. Watch a video with some of our outstanding volunteers and visit our Communities in Schools of Seattle website to consider current opportunities.

Volunteer as a Coach

• Looking to volunteer as an athletic coach? Athletic coaches (both volunteer and paid) are required to complete additional Adult Sexual Misconduct prevention training and national-level background checks. Apply for athletics/coaching.
  • Please note that athletic coach volunteer applications follow a separate onboarding process led by the athletics department. 
• Some schools also have club sports volunteer coach opportunities (LaCrosse, Cheer, Ultimate Frisbee, etc). Please visit your preferred school’s website for more information.

• Seattle Public Schools is committed to creating a culturally responsive workforce to better serve students furthest from educational justice. Consider volunteering with us to network with staff, gain mentorship opportunities, and discover if a teaching career is right for you!
• Need observation hours to apply to a teaching program? Our school district welcomes future educators to actively fulfill this school application requirement through volunteering. Since processing volunteer applications, orienting, and training new volunteers to support educators and students takes time, we require a three-month commitment of at least one reoccurring weekly volunteer shift per week. This timeline allows staff to provide thoughtful feedback, mentoring, and potential recommendations to teaching candidates while guaranteeing your hourly requirement will be met. You can complete our Volunteer Interest Form to be matched with a school.
• Are you in an undergraduate program for future educators and seeking an internship placement?  Please ask your internship coordinator to contact our volunteer program to discuss undergraduate internship partnership opportunities.
• Student teaching and graduate-level internships:  Please do not apply to volunteer with SPS; instead, inquire with your university about their placement arrangements with SPS. Graduate programs must have affiliation agreements with SPS before placing student teachers and interns.
• Graduate-level internships unrelated to teaching: SPS staff interested in hosting a graduate-level intern should contact their central office program manager or their principal to find out if SPS has an affiliation agreement with the prospective intern’s university. Graduate interns may not apply to be volunteers—they must be cleared through an affiliation agreement.

The Volunteer Enhancement Program regularly needs volunteer groups to implement school building or ground improvements, including:

• Developing a school garden
• Weeding and mulching landscape areas
• Installing new playground equipment
• Creating a mural
• Landscape renovation
• Developing a conceptual master site plan

Olympic Hills Elementary engaged more remote volunteer tutors during the 2020-21 school year than in previous years when all learning took place in physical classrooms. Staff at Olympic Hills created targeted volunteer opportunities that help advance the school’s continuous improvement plan (CSIP). Volunteer Program Liaison Danielle Vaillancourt matches volunteers with students to ensure their volunteer service advances the school’s strategic goals:

Goal # 1: Improve 3rd-grade reading levels for Black boys and Spanish-speaking English Learners.

Volunteers are integrated into classrooms based on their reading support experience and provide 1-1 student “academic interventions” (targeted student support). Danielle Vaillancourt explains:

Goal # 2: Improve attendance among 3rd-grade Black boys and Spanish-speaking English Learners. Volunteers help create a warm and welcoming environment by participating in “check and connect” with students.

Early in the pandemic as online learning began, SPS rapidly created the Family Tech Support Center to support students furthest from educational justice. In partnership with the sea.citi and with financial support from the Alliance for Education, we mobilized 140 volunteers, including SPS families, community supporters, and the tech industry who collectively fielded over 2,500 calls and devoted more than 1,000 hours to getting students connected to tech. In just eight weeks, 750 SPS families received volunteer tech support for their in-home devices.

SPS Family Tech Support Center volunteer Shiva Thudi was among a core group of remote volunteers early in the pandemic helping get SPS students connected to online classrooms.

Kristina, pictured here with her children and Olympic View staff member Claudio, delivered daily school meals to food-insecure families living in a shelter for Deaf and hard-of-hearing survivors of abuse. Kristina is a super volunteer – she has been an active member of the PTA for many years, including as the PTA Board President, and is currently serving on the Olympic View’s Racial Equity Team. As a registered nurse, she also volunteered at the Lumen Field as a vaccinator.

The University of Washington’s Riverways Education Partnerships recruits amazing volunteers to support our Title I schools. This year, Briana Del Rosario is receiving the “Hustling Husky Award” from  Olympic Hills Elementary School staff. She began tutoring with SPS in October 2020 because she desired to help teachers during online schooling. She volunteers remotely in Mrs. Baumgarten‘s classroom and shared the following: “Briana’s warmth, calm charisma, engaging connectedness, and ways of deepening student knowledge have made our class a better place. Culturally and interpersonally, my Spanish-speaking students and students of color identify with Briana and deeply admire her as a scientist and general role model.  She has created a sense of safety and curiosity and introduced them to new ideas and ways of thinking. After spending time with our students, Briana decided she wanted to become an SPS teacher and got accepted to the Seattle Teacher Residency program!” Briana is committed to teaching through a social justice lens to actualize educational equity. 

Danielle volunteered her time and experience as a  former educator and also enthusiastically agreed to take on additional projects to help students get whatever they need to feel loved and supported. Danielle is very patient, reliable, and knowledgeable in leading reading groups for students. She is also very kind and warm-hearted. She instills comfort in students by harnessing positive relationships, confidence in asking questions, and excitement for class. Her support has provided more 1-1 and small group services to students ensuring more families have access to supplies and food, and has helped to bridge the equity gap in remote learning.

This is what Danielle shares about her experience: “I was spurred to volunteer because I can’t imagine teaching during this unusual time and wanted to support the incredible work our teachers are doing to promote educational justice during a pandemic. The most challenging barrier was ironing out the technology kinks for remote volunteering, once those were smoothed out, the students were reading, sharing ideas, and persevering.  This experience has enriched my life and I would encourage other community members to volunteer during the pandemic for a sense of purpose.

The Kindergarten and 1st-grade students I read with are clever and insightful making my experience as a volunteer very rewarding.  The Olympic Hills teachers and staff are supportive and patient which makes remote volunteering easy.”

In 2017, Matt Jamin and his long-time volunteer colleagues at  Seattle World School started a fund to fill gaps PTSAs in other schools focus on – field trips, technology, and extracurriculars. The COVID pandemic hit immigrant and refugee communities especially hard, so the Seattle World School Fund tripled its fundraising efforts to directly assist families with rent and groceries. Despite these additional efforts, Matt continued to volunteer remotely in the math classroom throughout the school year supporting middle and high school students from all over the world as they settle in their new country. 

Anela is a parent of a first grader at Olympic Hills, is involved in the PTA, and supports staff, families, and students in our school community at every opportunity she gets. Anela centers the well-being of children in everything she does – she has a humble, kind, and caring way about her and a can-do spirit. She has worked on the Social Justice Curriculum Committee this year helping develop and support an anti-racist, social justice curriculum for the entire student body. As a certificated teacher herself, she contributes her skill, expertise, and energy to this work. It means so much to have a parent from the community be a partner and advocate for this work, and it truly makes a difference in the lives and development of our students. Anela also helps with the distribution of supplies for all our students. She works together with others to create bags of school supplies for all our families to pick up once a month. This action supports every single child in our school, helps them feel cared for and connected, and helps with the activities they will be doing in online classes every day. When asking Anela for the support you are always received with a positive, proactive, organized energy!

Elementary school teacher Nancy Smith shared the following about Angela: “She has a global outlook for facilitating collaboration and connection across the school. The work Anela does uplifts children, families, and staff, and always makes a positive contribution to our community.”