Questions to Ask High Schools
Questions for a high school tour, open house, or meeting with a principal. They cover class sizes, who is allowed into advanced courses, counseling caseloads, discipline, mental health support, and what a year actually costs a family.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
What does a typical day look like for a ninth grader here?
Why ask it
Asks for a schedule instead of a philosophy. You learn passing times, how long lunch is, how many teachers a fourteen-year-old sees in a day, and whether anyone has thought about the jump from middle school.
How many students are in a typical ninth grade English or math class?
Why ask it
Ask about a core class rather than the school-wide average, which is dragged down by electives and study halls. The number that affects your child is the one in the room where they learn to write.
Which courses are offered at honors, AP, or dual-enrollment level, and who is allowed to take them?
Why ask it
The gate matters more than the catalogue. Some schools let any willing student attempt an advanced course, others require a teacher's recommendation, and that one policy shapes who ends up on which path.
How is a student placed in a track, and how do they move up later?
Why ask it
Placements made at thirteen tend to stick. Ask what the process for moving up actually is, then ask how many students did it last year, because the second answer is the real one.
What happens when a student starts falling behind in a subject?
Why ask it
Listen for a named mechanism: an intervention period, tutoring inside the school day, a system that flags a slipping grade. Answers about a supportive culture usually mean nothing systematic exists.
How do you support a student with an IEP or a 504 plan, and who coordinates it?
Why ask it
The legal obligations are the same everywhere; what varies is whether one named person owns the plan or the work is spread until nobody does. Ask who you would phone in October.
How many students does each counselor have?
Why ask it
One of the few figures that lets you compare schools directly. A caseload in the hundreds means the counselor will not know your child well unless you make that happen yourself.
What does college and career counseling look like in ninth and tenth grade, not just senior year?
Why ask it
If the only answer is a meeting in senior year, course choices in the first two years are being made without guidance, and those are exactly the choices that close options later.
Where did last year's graduating class actually go?
Why ask it
Ask for the whole list, including trade programs, the military, work and community college. A school that names only its most selective admissions is telling you which students it pays attention to.
What was teacher turnover last year, and how many positions are still unfilled?
Why ask it
Turnover is the most honest available indicator of how a school treats its staff, and unfilled posts in the fall mean substitutes teaching your child's subject. Ask for numbers, not an impression.
How does a student who joins nothing find their people here?
Why ask it
Every school will list its clubs. The useful question is what happens to the students who sign up for none of them, because that group is where disengagement usually begins.
What is the phone policy during the day, and how is it enforced?
Why ask it
Policies range from locked pouches to nothing at all, and enforcement varies even more. Ask what happens on a third violation, which tells you whether the written policy exists in practice.
How do you handle bullying, and what happened the last time it was reported?
Why ask it
The policy is already on the website. What you want is an account of a real recent case: who was informed, how quickly, and what the family was offered afterwards.
What share of students were suspended last year, and what do you use instead of suspension?
Why ask it
This is the question about what the school does with a bad day. Rates plus alternatives tell you whether difficult students get worked with or removed, and your child will be in that system either way.
What mental health support is on site, and how long is the wait to be seen?
Why ask it
On-site counseling with a two-month queue is not on-site counseling in any useful sense. Ask about the wait, and ask what happens for a student in crisis at eleven in the morning.
When do you contact parents, and what prompts a phone call rather than an email?
Why ask it
Ask for the threshold. Schools that make contact only when something has gone badly wrong leave families to discover problems from their own teenager, months after they started.
How do students get home, and what happens if they stay for an activity?
Why ask it
Bus routes usually finish before practices do, which quietly excludes any student without a ride. Better to sort this out now than to have it become the reason something gets dropped in November.
What does a year here cost beyond tuition or basic fees?
Why ask it
Devices, sports kit, exam fees, trips and activity charges arrive one at a time after enrollment. Ask for the annual total and whether any assistance exists, before you are committed.
What is the school trying to improve right now?
Why ask it
A leader who names a real weakness and describes the work underway is more trustworthy than one who cannot. If you hear only strengths, ask the question again in a different form before you leave.
Could I talk to a current parent and a current student who are not part of the tour?
Why ask it
Tour families are chosen. One name from outside the official list, or five minutes in the parking lot at pickup, will tell you more than an hour of presentation did.
What courses can a student not take here that they could at a larger school?
Why ask it
Every school has gaps, and a school that names its own honestly is easier to trust on everything else. Watch for languages, higher maths, and specialist arts or technical subjects.
What do you offer a student who is not heading to a four-year college?
Why ask it
Many schools present one pathway well and improvise the rest. Named apprenticeships, technical programs, or partnerships indicate a school that plans for all of its students.
What happens in the first week for a student who arrives knowing nobody?
Why ask it
Transfer and out-of-catchment students sink or settle in that first week. Schools with a real practice describe it in detail, while others describe an assembly.
Which extracurricular activities are actually running this year, with an adult in charge?
Why ask it
Prospectus lists include clubs that folded years ago. Asking who runs each one separates the live activities from the historical ones.
What is the homework expectation on a weeknight, and who checks that it stays reasonable?
Why ask it
Without coordination, six teachers each setting a modest amount produces an unreasonable evening. The answer tells you whether anyone is managing the total load.
What does discipline look like for a first offence compared with a repeat one?
Why ask it
This exposes whether the school escalates thoughtfully or reaches for suspension early. Ask about last year's suspension count if you want the practice rather than the policy.
If my child were being harassed and did not want to tell me, who would they go to?
Why ask it
You want a named role that students actually use, not a reporting form. Ask how a student would know that person exists in their first month.
How many students left before graduating last year, and where did they go?
Why ask it
Departures are recorded somewhere and are rarely volunteered. A pattern of students leaving for one particular alternative school is worth understanding before you enrol.
What do students here complain about?
Why ask it
Anyone who works closely with teenagers knows the answer instantly. A deflection means either they do not listen to students or they do not want to tell you.
What have you changed in the last two years because families raised it?
Why ask it
This tests whether parent input reaches decisions. A concrete example, even a small one, is worth more than any statement about partnership with families.
Choosing between high schools
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to visit
Go on an ordinary day
An open evening is a performance. Ask to visit during a normal school day, ideally at lunch and during a passing period, because how students move and speak to each other is the part nobody can stage for you.
Look at what you are not being shown
The tour route runs past the best classrooms. Pay attention to the corridors, the noticeboards, the state of the bathrooms, and who is sitting alone in the cafeteria.
Bring your child and let them ask
Their questions will be about lunch, bathrooms, phones and whether people seem happy. Those turn out to predict whether they will do well here better than the advanced course list does.
Numbers worth writing down
- Class size in ninth grade core subjects, not the school-wide average.
- Students per counselor.
- Teacher turnover last year, and posts still unfilled this year.
- Share of students suspended last year.
- Wait time to see the on-site counselor or psychologist.
- Total annual cost to a family, including fees, devices, kit, exams and trips.
Where families get caught out
- Choosing on facilities. New buildings are visible; staffing levels and counseling are not, and they matter far more day to day.
- Assuming a strong course catalogue is open to everyone. Ask who is permitted to enroll at each level.
- Missing the gap between when the bus leaves and when practice ends.
- Not asking about tracking, then discovering that a ninth grade placement quietly set the next four years.
- Taking the tour's account of the culture instead of finding a parent nobody assigned to you.