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Best Practices for Parents
Best Practices for Parents

Principles of Good Practice for Parents in Independent Schools

Trust and mutual respect are the most essential underpinnings of effective working relationships between parents and the school.

Partnership

Shared beliefs and intentions allow an independent school and its parents to forge a powerful team. When parents subscribe to an independent school's mission, follow its rules, and abide by its decisions, they play an essential and positive role in the community. By working together productively, parents and school professionals model civility, honesty, and respect, which promotes maturity and lifelong social-emotional skills for their students.

The relationship between parents and the faculty and administration is formally governed by the school's written enrollment contract and handbook, in which its procedures are clearly outlined. 

  • Independent schools should communicate their decision-making processes and protocols to parents, as well as timely and pertinent information about each child.
  • Parents, in turn, have the important responsibility to stay informed about school culture, about their child, and about important events in the life of the school.

Parents should communicate concerns openly and constructively to the teacher or administrator closest to the problem. Efforts by parents to lobby other parents are typically counterproductive. Thoughtful questions and suggestions should be welcomed by the school.

While parents may not agree with every decision made, the parent and school typically find enough common ground to continue a mutually respectful relationship. In extreme cases, however, an impasse may be so severe that the parent cannot remain a constructive member of the community. In such cases, both the parent and the school should consider whether another school would be a better match for the family.

Mutually Respectful Relationship

The Parent Association and the School

The Parent Association in an independent school provides a vital and much-appreciated service to school leadership and the entire school community.

Not only are parents advocates for their children, they also support the faculty and administration through extensive volunteer activities and events. Because the Parent Association is so important, and its volunteer activities potentially so wide-ranging, CAIS recommends the following steps to structure and clarify the Association's role.

  • The Board of Trustees, in consultation with the administration, should develop a set of written by-laws for the Association that make clear its procedures and role as a service organization.
  • The by-laws should clearly state the Association's mission to support the decisions and policies of the Board and administration. The Parent Association neither participates in policy-making by the school nor functions as a lobbying group.
  • The finances of the Parent Association should be supervised and regularly monitored by the school and should be part of the school's annual audit process.
  • The Head of School should be closely involved in the Association nominating process. Cooperation and teamwork between the Head of School and the officers of the Parent Association are crucial to the health of the school community.
  • It is appropriate that the Parent Association advertise its activities and events. However, the Association is not a public relations arm of the school and should play no role in the school's efforts to communicate about itself.

Parents and the Board of Trustees

In most independent schools, decision-making authority at the highest level resides in a volunteer Board of Trustees whose membership often includes current parents.

The Board of Trustees does not intervene in the daily affairs of the school, such as curriculum development and hiring, evaluating or firing of faculty and staff. Concerns about those areas should be brought to school administrators, not to the Board.

Volunteer Board of Trustees

The Board focuses on three areas critical to the success of any independent school:

  • It selects, evaluates and supports the Head of School, to whom it delegates authority to manage the school.
  • It develops broad institutional policies that guide the Head in running the school.
  • It is accountable for the financial well-being of the school.

In the conduct of its official business, the Board acts only as a whole; individual Trustees, including the Board Chair, have no authority to act unless specifically authorized to do so by the Board acting as a whole. Parents can stay informed about the work of the Board of Trustees by reading school publications, talking to the Head of School, and attending parent meetings.