Why Consistent Parent-Teacher Communication is Key to Student Success

There are so many factors that contribute to the success of a student’s school year and some of these factors aren’t in our control. However, one thing that we can influence throughout the year is how often we reach out to the parents and guardians of our students. Strong parent-teacher communication can have a huge impact on the success of the school year. In this post, I’m going to share some tips and resources to help you communicate with parents more consistently.

The Importance of Consistent Parent-Teacher Communication

With so much on your plate, it can feel like reaching out to parents for anything other than necessities is just too much. However, it’s worth the effort in many ways!

Build Relationships

If you were on a road trip and looking for a place to stay overnight, would you reach out to your distant cousin that you’ve only spoken to once at a reunion ten years ago? Or would you just book a hotel?

It’s important that parents feel comfortable reaching out to you if their child needs something throughout the school year. However, if that relationship has not been established, parents might not feel comfortable bringing those things to your attention.

Plus, when families don’t feel like they have a strong relationship with the school, things like attendance and skill practice at home can suffer. Ultimately, this will have an negative impact on student performance throughout the school year.

Consistent communication with parents can help you build lasting relationships. These connections will help your students be more successful throughout the year. Their parents and guardians will feel comfortable approaching you with questions and concerns, which will help you ensure that students have what they need to succeed.

Create a Partnership

When parents feel like they are connected with you and what goes on in the classroom, they are more likely to feel like they are partnering with you in their child’s learning. Too often we see parents (or even teachers) use an “us vs. them” mentality when it comes to working together. Consistent communication is the key to helping parents and teachers feel like they are partnering together for the success of the student. 

Balance Positive and Constructive Feedback

Communicating only when you “need” something or when things go wrong will start to rub parents the wrong way. This can have a negative impact on the success of your school year. It’s important to celebrate student successes and wins, too!

Consistent communication with parents can help you ensure that you’re keeping positive and constructive feedback in a good balance. You’ll be able to 

How to Communicate More Consistently with Parents

With a full classload, it can feel daunting to keep up consistent communication with parent all year long. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming to maintain consistent communication with parents.

1. Start Strong (and Positive)

The first thing you can do is start strong with parent-teacher communication from the very beginning of the school year. This could be a welcome-back letter prior to the beginning of the year (if your district encourages that) or starting your communication folder routine right away.

The important thing is to get families in the habit of watching for communication from you. This could be an app like SeeSaw or a daily folder. Whatever you choose, just be sure that it’s something you can use consistently.

The other important part of the first communication of the school year is that it’s positive. If you can tell that some of your students will need more parent contact about misbehavior than others, be sure to prioritize a positive contact home as soon as possible. You don’t want your first contact with parents to be about something negative.

2. Make It a Routine

Once you’ve made that first contact and established your method for communicating with families, be sure to set aside time to make routine contact with families beyond the daily back-and-forth. 

This could be writing an email during one prep period per week or jotting down positive feedback in communication folders for a couple of minutes at the end of each day. The important thing is that reaching out to parents becomes a regular part of your routine. You are much more likely to maintain consistent parent-teacher communication when it is a habit.

3. Keep It Simple

The key to having a consistent routine for parent communication is to use simple communication tools. You don’t have to write lengthy emails or have long phone conversations in order to share a quick win with parents.

This is why glow and grow notes are so helpful! They include a simple (editable) checklist that you can use to quickly share about what happened that day. There are also blank lines for more details or context if you have time. Otherwise, you just need to check a few boxes, add the child’s name, and slip it into their communication folder. 

My students were always so excited to see who received the glow note at the end of the day. Their excitement ensured that I kept up the routine since they would undoubtedly remind me if I ever tried to end the school day without handing one out.

Printable Tools for Parent-Teacher Communication

If you would like to become more consistent with parent communication in your classroom, be sure to check out my bundle of editable communication tools. This set of easy-to-use templates includes everything you need to communicate consistently with parents all year. 

You’ll find behavior notes, parent information flyers, calendar templates, parent conference forms, and more! These tools will help you keep your communications professional and organized. If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this bundle, you can find it in the Teaching Exceptional Kinders shop or in my TPT store.

Save These Tips for Communicating with Parents

Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these tips and resources for parent-teacher communication whenever you need them.