Parent Service Agreement

Since founded almost sixty years ago, Seattle Chinese School (SCS) has been a non-profit volunteer-based organization. From school board members and administrative staff to weekly traffic/safety patrol, event planning teams, support staff, and scholastic contest judges, all school operations are accomplished via parent volunteer service. The purpose of the Parent Service Agreement is to fairly distribute the work necessary for successful school operations. It aims to involve all parents in contributing to a safe, supportive, and enjoyable learning environment for all students and teachers. New processes and tools are in place to empower parents to decide and commit to when and how they will complete the volunteer service.

1. All registered families are required to volunteer a minimum of 10 hours during one school year; annual volunteer service guarantee deposit is $200 per family and is required at the time of registration.
2. Towards the end of school year, families who have completed the minimum 10 hour service requirement will receive a $200 service deposit refund from SCS Treasurer. The school will send a school‑wide email for parents to select their preferred refund method.
3. If a student withdraws after the 4th week of the school year, his/or her parent is still required to fulfill the 10-hour service requirement in order to receive the $200 service deposit refund.
4. For families who are not able to provide any volunteer service, a signature is required to authorize the school to forfeit the service deposit.
*Note: The following in‑class duties are required and cannot be waived or counted toward volunteer service hours.
Classroom Duty: If requested by the classroom teacher, all parents are required to serve in‑class duty. These hours of assisting the teacher in the classroom do not count toward the school’s required ten volunteer service hours. When class sizes are small, parents may be required to serve multiple times.
Classroom Roles: If no parent volunteers to serve as the Room Parent or Treasurer, the PTA will conduct a fair and random selection to appoint representatives. Parents selected through this process are still expected to fulfill the responsibilities of the role and may not decline on the basis of having forfeited the service deposit.
5. Regarding the process of volunteer service scheduling and completion:
1) All families are responsible for signing up online for volunteer jobs via the Parent Service Registration Platform.
2) All volunteer time slots will be available one week before the start of the school year. Volunteer jobs and time slots are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
3) During the sign-up window, parents can update or modify their selections. *Registration and modifications for all roles will close two weeks prior to the scheduled service date.
4) Before the end of the school year, Parent Service Director will assign families who have not met the 10-hour requirement to any remaining unfilled slots. Depending on availability, the total assigned hours may range from to 10~12 hours to fulfill the minimum requirement.
5) Upon completion of the job, the volunteer supervisor will record the actual volunteer hours served.
6) Parents can look up their completed volunteer hours on the school website, and are responsible for seeking clarification with the Parent Service Director should there be any questions or disputes.
7) If a family is not able to attend a scheduled volunteer shift they have signed up for, the family is responsible for finding their own replacement and informing the job supervisor or Parent Service Director 7 days prior to the scheduled shift.
8) If a family fails to show up for a scheduled volunteer shift without finding a replacement nor informing the job supervisor/ Parent Service Director, two hours will be deducted from the accumulated service hours of that family.If a family arrives late or leaves early for a scheduled shift without informing the job supervisor, one hour will be deducted from the accumulated service hours of that family.
9) Service hours cannot be banked or carried over to future school years.
10) In the event of school cancellations, SCS reserves the right to reassign parents to other volunteer jobs or make other adjustments.
11) If a parent volunteer signs off before completing the actual service time, all hours served that day will be forfeited (for example, signing out at 11:50 but actually leaving at 11:00).
6. For more details about the volunteer jobs, responsibilities and number of service hours, please reference “Seattle Chinese School Parent Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities” or send your inquiries to .

This policy is approved by the School Board on June 10, 1997; with the first revision on July 29,2001; second revision on Oct 17, 2009; third revision on September 30, 2013; fourth revision on February 5, 2015; fifth revision on March 24, 2016; sixth revision on April 28, 2018; seventh revision on March 1, 2025, eighth revision on January 17, 2026.