How do you plan a school assembly with a guest speaker?
Get the principal’s yes and a date, check your district’s speaker policy, ask the speaker the hard questions, line up the money, and set up the room. Then plan the next morning, because the follow-up is what makes an assembly stick. Each step has its own guide below.
The guides, in the order you’ll need them
Questions to ask a speaker before you book
Safety, background checks, insurance, hard topics, follow-up and cost.
How to get a guest speaker approved
The principal, your district’s speaker policy and form, the parents and the purchase order.
Does a speaker need a background check in Idaho?
What Idaho law requires and how districts treat a supervised speaker.
What does an assembly speaker cost?
What changes the price, and every one of my rates.
How to get a speaker for free
Who pays instead, the letters to send, and whether a speaker can apply for a grant for you.
How schools pay for an assembly speaker
Title IV-A, Title I, state money, the PTO and local sponsors.
How to introduce a speaker
Who reads it, what goes in, and a fill-in script.
Assembly day checklist
Mic, screen, seating, the day-of timeline, and the best day of the week.
What teachers do after an assembly
A five-minute plan for the next morning.
Do school assemblies work?
What the research on teenagers says, and what the ones students remember do differently.
Do scare-tactic assemblies work?
What the research on Scared Straight and fear messages found.
I’m a speaker, so I have a stake in this. Every rule here links to its source, so you can check it yourself. School and district policies vary, so check yours.