Rules of Engagement

At three schools in Spokane, children whose parents promise to volunteer enjoy plenty of enrichment activities. But what about the others?

By Debra Viadero

Spokane, Wash.

Children often have a sharply defined sense of justice, focusing with laserlike vision on what is fair and what is not. Maybe that's why Michelle Heacox took it to heart when she noticed that some of the children at her public elementary school got to do things that others didn't.

It was 1997, and Michelle was a precocious 2nd grader at Franklin Elementary School, a friendly looking, red- brick building perched on a hill here on the south side of town. The school had—and still has—a special program called APPLE. The acronym stands for Alternative Parent Participation Learning Experience, because the program is designed for parents to become partners in their children's schooling. To get into it, students had to meet two hurdles. First, they had to have a parent who was willing to sign a contract to volunteer in the school for 90 hours a year, and second, they had to win a seat in a special lottery.

Michelle was not in the program. Her mother was willing to put in the hours, but the family hadn't been...