A healthy student culture and a healthy faculty culture are keys to your school’s success. And there is one more key … a healthy parent culture.
Parents are a demanding bunch. They pay you to educate their child. What often happens is they develop a contract mentality—“I pay you to provide me with a service.” But a child’s educational experience isn’t the same as buying a meal in a restaurant, or having windows installed in a house. You need to work toward moving your parents from a contract mentality to a sense of community—“I believe, endorse, and support the mission and the core values of the school.” Once parents are in that camp, they will understand that the education experience at your school is not just an item to buy.
A Parent Education Plan is a giant step in the right direction—one that will give you the foundation of the healthy parent culture you seek. Your Parent Education Plan is the way you convey information to parents that is well-thought out, predictable, and supportive. A reliable flow of information to parents helps build a strong, trusted relationship with the school community.
An effective Parent Education Plan has five characteristics.
- First, it should be proactive, especially in times of conflict. Your plan should have strategies to deal with potential conflicts.
- Second, you should have various ways to reach your parents. Not everyone will respond to e-mails, and those who want their information from e-mails may not want to be bothered with phone calls. And sending important messages home with students? Have you checked a middle-school backpack recently? Understand you need to generate key information in several ways to maximize the opportunity for parents to see it.
- Just as you want your school marketing/recruitment message and materials to be consistent, you want your parent communications to have a consistent focus.
- The Parent Education Plan should be steeped in mission. That means you are consistently communicating your school’s mission and values, and its institutional identity (and function).
- An effective plan is predictable and supportive for parents. Your communications should not give off an “us vs. you” vibe at all. Parents need to be treated fairly, with compassion—and they should know what to expect.
When you keep parents in the loop, you minimize anxiety in times of uncertainty. Anticipate their questions and concerns—provide the answers in advance. Parents will rely on getting accurate information when they need it, which will mitigate any emotional reactions to situations.
To learn more about effective Parent Education Plans and how to create one for your school, register for our Parent Relations: Recruit Them and Keep Them in the Family workshop, July 15–18 in Philadelphia. ISM Consultant Bill Simmer shows you how to make your school more open and welcoming for parents, understand your role as liaison with parents, make your publications dependable sources for rumor control and positive word-of mouth, and much more. Register here.
Additional resources of interest
ISM recorded Webinar The Art and Science of Systematic Bragging: The Fundamentals of Effective Parent Relations and Education
ISM publication Parent Relations: Strengthening Parent-School Ties
Additional resources of ISM Consortium Gold Members
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 31 No. 6 Your Parent Education Plan: Predictability and Support
To The Point Vol. 9 No. 5 The Parent Association’s Role and Structure
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 29 No. 13 Use Your Parent Education Plan to Shift Parents from a ‘Contract Mentality’ to a ‘Sense of Community’
