Strong Parent Communication in Special Education

It is essential that teachers are intentional about parent communication. Whether you are a first year teacher or veteran teacher, parent communication is a must. Teachers and parents need to be on the same team, and here’s some ways to help you get started with parent communication and collaboration!

Parent Communication Basics

Working with parents is so important. Parents have the opportunity to make or break your day. How many times have you come home feeling defeated because a parent made a comment about your teaching? Or blamed you for their child’s struggles? 

You need to find a way that works for them. Communicate with your families as early as possible to find their preferred mode of communication.

• Phone Calls
• Emails
• Notebook home
• Secure Texting Apps

You also should ask how often they’d like to be communicated with. Many parents want daily communication and others prefer weekly. Take their preferences into account.

Keep open parent communication

Parent collaboration and communication needs to start before the school year begins. As soon as you get your caseload, you should begin communicating. If you haven’t created a system yet, it’s not too late to start.

Meeting with parents before the school year begins should be a high priority. You can begin to gain trust and build relationships. The extra initiative will go a long way with families.

A couple ways you can do this is by sending an email, making a phone call, sending a meet the teacher letter in the mail, or scheduling a video chat. A little bit of effort goes a long way with parents. Take the time to show them that you care. 

When I reach out to parents before the school year begins, I am always mindful of their time. Ask if it is a good time to talk and if this is the best way to contact them. Some families prefer email, while others prefer phone calls. If this is not a good time to talk, try to schedule a time to talk in the near future. 

Questions to ask parents

1. Tell me about your child.
   1. Nicknames 
   2. Favorite items
   3. Triggers 
   4. Medical information, allergies
2. Child’s strengths?
3. What would you like your child to improve on this school year?
4. What would you like for your child’s future?
   1. Where do you see them in 5 years?
5. What is your biggest concern for your child in school or in life? 
6. If nothing else, what 2 things would you like your child to be able to do by the end of this school year?
7. How often would you like me to communicate?

It is amazing to talk to parents about the hopes, dreams and fears they have for their child and their growth. Some of these questions scare parents. However, listening to them and their story makes a huge difference in gaining their trust. 

Finally, I ask parents how often they would like me to communicate with them. This helps give me an understanding of their expectations from me. If a parent asks for daily communication, I would set up a daily communication notebook. If a parent asks for a weekly update, I may use a website (listed below) or send a weekly email at the end of the week. This ensures that I am communicating enough to meet the needs of the family. 

How to communicate

As the school year starts, it may become difficult to keep up with parent communication. I get it. Make it a habit to schedule time each week to communicate with families. Take one planning period a week to send an email, post in your Seesaw class, or send home some photos of their child.

I typically use Fridays to communicate with parents. I may spend an additional 10-15 minutes at the end of a day to send out an email or make a meaningful phone call to recap the week.

Here are a couple helpful websites/apps that help parent communication:

• Remind
• Class Tag
• Class Dojo
• Seesaw
• Schoology
• Google Classroom

At the beginning of the school year, I always communicate with families once a week. 

As the school year progresses, I communicate with parents bi-weekly. This can be by sending reminder emails about an upcoming no school day, sending photos of their child in class, or just a general email about how their child did in a particular activity. 

Read more about what parents can do with their children at home!

Set up Office Hours

Another way that you may want to communicate with parents is to have office hours. Set up a time where you are available to meet 1:1 with parents that have questions or concerns. I know some teachers may not have that freedom. Try to use a planning period once or twice a week to offer parent meetings. 

A little bit can go a long way

Above all, take some extra time to show you care about their child. Some ideas are:

• Send cards on birthdays
• Every couple weeks send positive messages home (make sure they’re authentic and not general). For example, “Josh did a great job in reading today” is a general comment. Try to be more specific and say, “Josh raised his hand and participated in reading today. I know reading can be a struggle for him and I loved seeing his willingness to participate. When he did his reading activity, he was able to correctly answer all the WH- questions about our story! I was so proud of him.” 

Over my last few years of teaching, I’ve realized that a little bit goes a long way with families. That extra time before the school year starts, that extra phone call you make during your school week, really means a lot to families. 

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