Resources for Families
These are starting points we've found useful, vetted, and worth sharing. They're not affiliated with PAACT, but they offer information families can use directly. We'll add to this list as our community surfaces more.
PACER is one of the most established bullying prevention organizations in the country. Their parent section is especially useful for two things: how to report a bullying incident to your child's school in a way that gets a response, and how to help your child build self-advocacy skills. Worth bookmarking even if you're not currently working through an incident.
This is Michigan's official portal for district and school data. You can look up enrollment trends, demographic information, test results, and reported safety data for any school in the state, including all 13 Birmingham schools.
One thing worth knowing as you use it: MI School Data only includes information that schools are required to report. Some categories are voluntary, and some have narrower definitions than you might expect. Bullying statistics, for example, reflect only "verified instances," meaning incidents that were investigated and formally confirmed. Reports that weren't investigated, or that didn't meet the verification threshold, don't appear in the data.
MAMA is a parent-led organization that formed in response to the growing evidence that smartphones and social media are reshaping children's mental health, attention, and behavior. They focus on parent education, advocacy for phone-free school policies, and connecting families who want to push back on the role of devices in their children's lives. Their site is a useful starting point if you're trying to understand the research, see what other communities are doing, or find language for the conversations you want to have with your school.
Wait Until 8th is a pledge for parents who want to delay giving their child a smartphone until at least 8th grade. The mechanic is what makes it work: the pledge activates for your child's grade once at least 10 families from the same school sign on, which removes the "everyone else has one" pressure that drives most early smartphone adoption. Even if you're not ready to sign, the site is a clear plain-English summary of what the current research says about smartphones, social media, and elementary and middle school children.
Have a resource that's helped your family? Send it our way at paact.birmingham@gmail.com.