Survey Questions to Ask Parents
Parent survey questions for a principal, teacher, PTA, childcare director or youth program lead who is writing a form for families. They are grouped the way a form runs: overall ratings first, then communication, learning and homework, wellbeing and safety, getting involved, and a short About you group for sorting the answers. Where a question says school, put in the name of your center, club or program, and pick ten to fifteen for one survey instead of sending all of them.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Overall
Overall, how satisfied are you with your child's experience at our school this year?
Why ask it
This is the one number a board or a head will ask for, so fix its wording and its five points, very dissatisfied to very satisfied, and reuse them every year. It asks about the child's experience because that is what a parent sees; 'How satisfied are you with the school?' invites a verdict on things they have only heard about. Place it ahead of the homework and pickup questions, which can drag one sore point into the overall score.
How likely are you to recommend our school to another family?
Why ask it
Most telling where families chose you: a childcare center, a private school, a club. Where children are assigned by address, a low score can be about the lack of choice and not about you, so put an open 'Why?' box under it before reading anything into the number. Use 0 to 10, or five points from very unlikely to very likely, and do not switch between the two from one year to the next.
What do we do best for your child?
Why ask it
Parents answer with specifics: a teacher's name, the greeting at the door, the reading program. Keep the box to a line or two, and pass named praise on to the people it is about, which is the easiest thing a parent survey ever gives you to act on. When a budget or a timetable has to change, the same replies are your list of what families would miss.
What is one change that would most improve your child's time here?
Why ask it
Limiting it to one change makes each family rank its own list, and the top item is what you want. Leave the box optional and tally replies by theme. Expect some answers you cannot act on, such as a later start time, and say so when you report back instead of ignoring them.
How welcome do you feel when you visit or contact the school?
Why ask it
In practice this rates the front office, the gate and the first phone call, so share the result with the people who staff them. Read first-year families on their own, since they remember most clearly what it was like to walk in knowing nobody. Five points, from not at all welcome to very welcome.
How well does the school respect your family's culture and background?
Why ask it
Ask about the family's own experience; 'Does the school value diversity?' asks for an opinion on a slogan and collects agreement. Rate it from not at all well to extremely well, with an optional box inviting an example. A holiday nobody planned around or a name said wrong all year is something you can put right.
How often does your child look forward to coming here?
Why ask it
A frequency is easier to answer truthfully than 'Does your child enjoy school?', which leans toward yes and has no room for a child who only likes Tuesdays. Offer most days, some days, rarely, and not sure. For a childcare center or an after-school program this is the nearest you get to asking the child, and 'rarely' deserves a box asking what the parent hears at home.
Communication
How well informed do you feel about what is happening at the school?
Why ask it
A parent can be flooded with newsletters about events and still know nothing about their own child's week, and this rating cannot tell the two apart. Use it as the headline for the group, from not at all informed to very well informed, and let the questions after it say which kind of information is missing. A childcare center should give the daily report a line of its own, since that is the message those parents wait for.
How do you prefer to hear from us? Select up to two.
Why ask it
The cap of two is the point: with no limit, people tick every box and you learn nothing. List only channels you can keep up, such as email, text message, the app, paper sent home or a phone call. If paper still wins in some grades, that is a finding about who opens the app, and worth acting on before the next permission slip goes out.
Is the amount of communication you get from the school too little, about right, or too much?
Why ask it
A three-way choice tells you which direction to move, which a satisfaction rating cannot. 'Too much' tends to come up where every teacher, club and office sends its own messages, and one weekly digest is a common answer to it. Split the result by grade, since families of the youngest children may want far more detail than families of teenagers.
How easy is it to reach your child's teacher when you have a question?
Why ask it
Low ratings here often trace to parents not knowing which channel a teacher checks or how soon to expect a reply. Telling families what reply time to expect is a cheaper fix than asking staff to answer faster. Run the scale from very difficult to very easy and add 'I have not needed to', so guesses do not flatten the score.
If you raised a concern this year, how satisfied were you with how it was handled?
Why ask it
Only people with something to rate should be counted, so make 'I did not raise a concern' the first option or use your tool's skip logic. Satisfaction here is as much about being heard and told the outcome as about getting the outcome wanted. Follow a low rating with an optional box, and do not ask who the concern was about on an anonymous form.
How well do report cards and progress updates help you understand how your child is doing?
Why ask it
Asking whether reports are 'clear' gets a polite yes; asking whether they help a parent understand tests what a report is for. The scale goes from not at all well to extremely well. If scores are low, hand three parents a sample report and ask them to explain it back to you, which finds the jargon faster than a second survey would.
Do you know who to contact first if you are worried about your child?
Why ask it
Here you are testing your own signposting, so a large share of 'no' or 'not sure' is fixed with one line on the website and in the welcome pack, not with a meeting. Yes, no and not sure are all the options it needs. A youth program or sports club can name the role in the question, using whatever title the organization gives it.
Do messages from the school reach you in a language you read comfortably?
Why ask it
The trap is the form itself: sent in one language, it will be answered by the families who would say 'always'. Translate the survey into the languages your enrollment records show before you trust the result, and offer a paper copy or a phone call to parents who find any written form hard going. Always, sometimes and rarely are enough for the answer.
How useful was your most recent parent-teacher conference?
Why ask it
'Most recent' pins the answer to one meeting, where 'How useful are conferences?' gets a general impression. Beside the scale, not at all useful to very useful, include 'I did not attend' and show those who pick it a short list of reasons such as timing, work or no interpreter. Low usefulness with comments about running out of time is an argument for longer slots, not for fewer conferences.
Do you get enough notice of events, closures and schedule changes to plan around them?
Why ask it
Parents on shift work, or with children at several sites, feel short notice hardest and are often the least likely to fill in a survey, so even a modest share of 'rarely' deserves attention. The choices are usually, sometimes and rarely. An optional follow-up asking how many days' notice they need gives you a number to work to.
Learning
How satisfied are you with the progress your child has made in their learning this year?
Why ask it
What this measures is the parent's impression, which can run well ahead of or behind the grades, and both gaps are worth knowing about. Give the five satisfaction points plus 'I am not sure'. A large 'not sure' group is a communication result that happens to sit in the learning section.
Is the work your child is given too easy, about right, or too hard?
Why ask it
Parents judge this from homework and from what the child says at dinner, so read it as how the level of challenge looks from home. Add 'I do not know' to the three choices. A grade where answers split between too easy and too hard is describing a wide spread of students, which is a conversation about grouping more than about the curriculum.
My child's teacher understands my child's strengths and needs.
Why ask it
An agreement statement, strongly disagree to strongly agree. For older students with many teachers, reword it to 'at least one of my child's teachers', or nobody will know whom to picture. Disagreement in the first weeks of a year is to be expected, so the same statement asked in spring is the fairer test.
On a typical school night, about how long does your child spend on homework?
Why ask it
Report it by grade and set it beside what teachers believe they are assigning. A gap usually means the work takes some children far longer than planned, and those are the families to hear from. Give ranges with no overlap: none, under 30 minutes, 30 to 60 minutes, one to two hours, more than two hours.
Is the amount of homework your child gets too little, about right, or too much?
Why ask it
Ask it directly after the time question and read the two together: parents who report 20 minutes and say 'too much' are telling you something different from those who report two hours. Homework divides a good many parent groups, so expect a split and resist treating the larger half as a mandate.
How often does your child need an adult's help to finish homework?
Why ask it
Worded this way it asks about the child and the task; 'Do you help with homework?' sounds like a test of the parent and gets flattering answers. Offer never, sometimes, most nights, and 'there is no homework'. 'Most nights' across a class suggests the tasks assume help that some homes cannot give.
Which of these does your child have at home for schoolwork? Select all that apply.
Why ask it
The choices: a quiet place to work, a computer or tablet they do not have to share, reliable internet, none of these. Send this one home on paper as well, because a form that only exists online undercounts the very homes with no connection. Use the result to set a floor for what homework may assume, and never to single out a family.
How confident do you feel helping your child with schoolwork at home?
Why ask it
Low confidence is not low interest; plenty of parents stop recognizing the methods once the math moves on from what they were taught. Use the answers, from not at all confident to very confident, to decide what to send home, such as a worked example or a short video of the method used in class. Never report it as a failing of families.
If your child needs extra support, how well is the school providing it?
Why ask it
Make 'my child does not need extra support' the first option, ahead of a scale from not at all well to very well. The group that answers is small, which means their ratings matter a great deal and can also point to individual families, so do not break this result down by grade or class. What you may ask about a support plan or a diagnosis differs between places and providers; check how it works where you are, and keep the wording as general as this.
How satisfied are you with the clubs, sports and activities offered outside lessons?
Why ask it
The parents who tick 'my child does not take part' are the interesting group, so show them a short list of reasons: cost, transport home, timing, nothing that appeals, did not know what was on offer. Each reason has a different fix, and only one of them is adding more clubs. Everyone else gets the same satisfaction scale as the first question on the form.
What do you most want your child to gain from this year with us?
Why ask it
Open text, and at its best in a survey sent near the start of the year or the season. Youth programs and childcare centers get especially varied answers, because families join for very different reasons: confidence, friends, a skill, somewhere safe until six o'clock. Sort the replies into a handful of themes and check your own aims against them.
Wellbeing
How safe do you feel your child is while in our care?
Why ask it
'Safe' covers a fall from the monkey bars and being picked on in the hallway, so a low rating alone tells you little. Ask it on five points, not at all safe to very safe, and follow it with the question about where the worry is. Send the results to whoever is responsible for child safety under your own rules.
Where, if anywhere, are you concerned about your child's safety? Select all that apply.
Why ask it
List real places and times: the journey to and from, drop-off and pickup, the playground, restrooms, the bus, online, and 'nowhere'. Including 'nowhere' keeps the question from presuming a worry. The answers turn a vague unease into a supervision schedule, and one location picked by many families is a job for this month.
My child has at least one adult here they would go to with a problem.
Why ask it
Parents are guessing at this, so treat it as their confidence and put the same statement to students directly if they are old enough. It needs a 'not sure' beside the agreement scale. Where disagreement is high, the practical response is to make sure every child is known well by one named adult.
As far as you can tell, how much does your child feel they belong here?
Why ask it
'As far as you can tell' admits that the parent is reporting secondhand, which keeps people from skipping it. The scale runs from not at all to a great deal. Compare families who joined this year or mid-year with everyone else, since newcomers and long-standing families can describe the same school very differently.
How often does your child seem worried or stressed about school?
Why ask it
Offer never, now and then, most weeks and most days, with a box asking what the worry is usually about: tests, the amount of work, friendships, one particular class. A parent can report what they see at home and nothing more, so do not present the results as a measure of children's mental health. 'Most days' clustering in one grade or around exam season tells you where to look first.
As far as you know, has your child been bullied here this year?
Why ask it
Print a one-line definition above it so that everyone means the same thing by the word, and offer yes, no and not sure. State beside the question that the survey is not a way to report an incident, and give the name or address to contact instead, because an anonymous form cannot be followed up. Count 'not sure' separately: it is neither a yes nor a no.
If your child was bullied, did you tell someone at the school?
Why ask it
Show it only to those who answered yes, with three answers: yes and it was dealt with, yes and I saw no change, and no. Under 'no', ask why; the reasons for staying quiet, such as the child begging them not to or expecting nothing to happen, are worth as much as the count. A parent is seldom told what was done about someone else's child, which can keep 'I saw no change' high even where staff acted.
How fairly are the rules on behavior applied to students?
Why ask it
Most parents see discipline only through their own child's account, so expect many to choose 'I do not know enough to say', and that is fine. The others rate it from very unfairly to very fairly. If your form has background questions, check whether one group of families rates fairness lower than the rest, and take that seriously even when the overall number is good.
How easy has it been for your child to make friends here?
Why ask it
It suits the first few months for new families, and any time of year for a club or camp, where friends are a large part of why children keep coming. Use very difficult to very easy. A 'difficult' with a comment attached is worth passing to the class teacher or group leader, but only if the form told parents their comments might be shared.
How confident are you that we would notice if your child was unhappy or struggling?
Why ask it
It asks about attention, which a parent can judge from whether anyone has ever called home about something small. Answers run from not at all confident to very confident. In a large school a low score may reflect size more than care, and a named contact for each child answers it better than reassurance does.
If your child uses them, how satisfied are you with each of these: school lunch, the bus, before- and after-school care?
Why ask it
Only some families use each of these, so the 'does not use this' column matters as much as the satisfaction scale beside it. A parent may not know that the kitchen or the bus is run by an outside contractor, and should not need to: pass each row to whoever can change it. Leave buildings and cleanliness off the grid unless parents come inside often enough to judge them.
How satisfied are you with each of these: meals and snacks, rest or nap time, outdoor play, supervision?
Why ask it
Written for childcare centers and camps. Rolled into a single 'Are you happy with daily care?', a good lunch would hide a bad nap room, so give each its own row with the same scale across and a 'does not apply' column. Change the rows to match what you provide, and keep the list short enough to fit a phone screen.
How well do drop-off and pickup work for your family?
Why ask it
The detail is the point, so put a comment box under the rating, which runs from not at all well to very well: the line of cars, the gate that opens late, the wait at the after-care handover. It mixes convenience with safety on purpose, and you sort the comments into those two piles yourself. Hours and late fees are set differently by every provider, so if you ask about them, describe your own policy in the question.
Involvement
In which of these ways would you like to be involved this year? Select all that apply.
Why ask it
Give a range that includes things done from home or in ten minutes: attending events, helping in a classroom, preparing materials at home, chaperoning a trip, joining the parent group, giving feedback like this. Add 'I cannot take anything on right now' so nobody has to tick a box out of guilt. Volunteering around children comes with screening rules that differ by place and provider, so find out yours and mention that a check may be needed.
What gets in the way of taking part in school events? Select all that apply.
Why ask it
It assumes good will, where 'Why don't you attend?' accuses. Offer work hours, care for other children, transport, cost, language, not hearing about it in time, not feeling comfortable, and 'nothing gets in the way'. Most of that list is logistics you control, so the top two answers tell you what to change about the next event before you plan it.
Which times suit you best for meetings and events? Select all that apply.
Why ask it
Look for the slot the largest number can make and then rotate, because a time that never moves shuts out the same parents every time. The list: before the school day, during it, straight after pickup, evening, weekend, online. People who answer surveys are often the people who already come to things, so their preferred time is a starting point and not the whole picture.
Which of these events did your family come to this year?
Why ask it
Its main use is to split everything else: families who came to nothing may rate communication and welcome very differently from the regulars. Make it a checklist of the real event names with 'none of these' at the bottom. On a form that carries names, sign-in sheets may already tell you who came, and the question can go.
For each event, should we keep it as it is, change it, or drop it?
Why ask it
Three verbs get a decision where a five-point rating gets a row of fours. Lay it out as a grid with the events down the side and a 'did not attend' column. For a PTA it settles arguments about traditions with something better than the loudest voice at the meeting: an event few attend and nobody would drop is a different problem from one people quietly want gone.
How much say do parents have in decisions that affect their children here?
Why ask it
Ask it only if there is a real route for parent input, such as a council, a board seat or open meetings, because a low score with nothing to point to just confirms the complaint. Where the route exists and the score is still low, the likelier problem is that parents have not heard of it. The scale goes from none at all to a great deal.
How well do you understand what the parent association does and how to join in?
Why ask it
For a PTA or parent council to ask about itself. Committees tend to assume everyone knows who they are, and three options (not at all, a little, well) are enough to check. A large 'not at all' among families new to the school is a reason to change how you introduce yourselves, and a better use of effort than another fundraiser.
Do you have a skill, job or interest you would be willing to share with students?
Why ask it
A yes here comes with a name, which breaks the anonymity of everything else on the form, so either warn people beside the question or link out to a separate sign-up. Keep it to yes or no, with a box for the details that opens on yes. Reply to every offer within a couple of weeks, even with a 'not yet', or the offers stop coming.
Is the total we ask families to give or raise in a year too much, about right, or lower than it could be?
Why ask it
This is one of the places where an anonymous form earns its keep, since few parents will say 'too much' with their name attached. Add up the asks before you write it: trips, uniforms, raffles, teacher gifts and the annual appeal feel like one total to a family. Leave it off if no one is prepared to change the calendar of asks.
Which of these parent workshops or information sessions would you come to? Select up to three.
Why ask it
List sessions you could really run: reading with a young child, the math methods taught in class, online safety, moving up to the next school, applying for financial aid. Ticking a box is easier than turning up on a Thursday evening, so read the result as an order of preference and not as a head count. Hold the top one first and see who comes.
About you
Which grade or age group is the child you are answering about in?
Why ask it
Families with more than one child need an instruction before the first question: answer for your oldest child here, or fill in the form once for each. Without it, parents average their children together and the grade-level results blur. Use bands, such as kindergarten to grade 2, if single grades would leave only a handful of families in each.
How long has your family been with us?
Why ask it
First-year families are answering about their welcome; families of four years or more are answering about how things have changed. That makes it worth more than most background questions, and it asks nothing personal. Three ranges will do: this is our first year, 2 to 3 years, 4 years or more.
What is your relationship to the child?
Why ask it
Some of the adults filling this in are grandparents, stepparents or foster parents, and the best reason to ask is that it reminds the writer to say 'parent or guardian' or 'your family' in the invitation and in every question. Offer parent, stepparent, grandparent, foster parent and other guardian, with a line for anything else. In a small program leave it out, because one grandparent in a class of twelve is no longer anonymous.
Would you like someone from the school to contact you about anything in your answers?
Why ask it
Ask for a name and a phone number or email only after a yes, and say who will make the call and roughly when. A yes also puts a name on that family's whole response, which they should be told before they tick it. If nobody has been given the job of calling, leave the question off; a request for contact that goes unanswered does more damage than not offering.
What else would you like us to know about your family's experience this year?
Why ask it
Optional, with no word limit, and last on the form. Decide before sending who reads the comments that name a member of staff or a child, and keep those out of any report that is shared. When several families write about something the form never raised, such as the bus or the lunch line, give it a question of its own next year.
How to run a parent survey families will answer
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Planning the survey
Write down what could change
Before choosing questions, list what is open to change: the homework policy, how often messages go out, which events run next year, pickup arrangements. Pick the questions that feed those decisions and leave the others on this page alone. Ten to fifteen questions that a parent can finish on a phone in the pickup line is a sensible size for a whole-school survey; a PTA or a single classroom can do with fewer.
Anonymous, or only confidential
Anonymous means nobody can tell who answered. In a small center or a single class, a grade, a length of stay and a turn of phrase can identify a family even without a name, so the smaller you are, the fewer About you questions you should collect. Say at the top which kind of survey it is and who will see the replies. Rules on collecting and storing information about families and children differ by country, state and provider, so ask whoever handles that for your organization before you send.
One form per family or one per child
Decide, and say so in the first line. One per family is shorter and asks less of a parent with three children; one per child gives cleaner results by grade and suits a school where siblings are having very different years. A middle course is to ask parents to answer for their oldest child at the school and offer a second link to anyone who wants to answer again.
Pick a time when something can still change
Midway through the year leaves time to act and to report back before summer. Avoid the week report cards go home, the last days before a long break, and the days after a difficult incident, when every answer is about that one event. A childcare center with rolling enrollment can send a short version a couple of months after each family starts.
Reach the families email misses
A link in an email reaches the parents who already read your emails. Add a paper copy in the backpack, a QR code at the pickup gate, a tablet at conference night, and translations in the languages your families read. Address it to 'parents and guardians', since the adult who opens the backpack may be a grandparent or a foster parent. If one group is still missing from the replies, a few phone calls or a conversation at the door will tell you more than a reminder email.
Wording questions for parents
Ask about what a parent can see
Parents know their own child's week: the homework, the mood at pickup, the messages that arrive. They do not know how the curriculum is sequenced or whether staff are well trained, and when asked they guess kindly. Aim each question at their child and at their own dealings with you.
Split the pairs that travel together
'How satisfied are you with communication and homework?' cannot be answered by a parent who is happy with one of the two. The usual offenders on parent surveys are 'safe and welcoming', 'teachers and staff' and 'clear and timely'. Give each half its own question, or use a grid with a row for each.
Always give a way out
Many parents have not attended a conference, raised a concern or used the after-school club. Offer 'does not apply', 'I have not needed to' or 'not sure' wherever one could be true, and report how many chose it. Without the exit, people pick the middle of the scale and a result that is really empty looks lukewarm.
Use the words families use
Write 'report card', not 'summative assessment'; 'extra help', not 'intervention'. Name things the way they appear in your messages home, including the app and the after-care program. Then read the draft aloud to a parent who does not work in education and change every word they stumble on.
Keep praise out of the question
'How much has your child benefited from our enrichment program?' has decided the answer before the parent reads the scale. 'How would you rate the enrichment program?' leaves it open. Choose five labeled points, keep the positive end on the same side all the way down the form, and let the scale carry both good news and bad.
After the replies come in
Count who is missing
Set the number of replies against the number of families, and look at which grades, sites or language groups are thin. The parents who answer are often the ones who also come to events and read newsletters, so the results can lean toward the connected. State the response rate wherever you share a number.
Compare groups, but not tiny ones
First-year families against the rest, one grade band against another, families who attended events against those who did not: the differences between them usually say more than the school-wide average. Stop splitting when a group gets down to a handful of families, both because two or three replies swing a percentage and because a small group can be identified.
Handle comments about named people with care
Open boxes will bring praise and complaints about individual teachers and, now and then, about other people's children. Agree in advance who reads those, pass praise on, and deal with a complaint through your normal process and never on a results slide. A comment suggesting a child may be at risk is not survey data: follow your organization's child protection procedure, and if you do not know it, ask before the survey goes out.
Set parents' answers beside students' and staff's
On belonging, safety and homework, parents are reporting what they are told at home. Where you can, ask students and staff a matching question and look at the gaps. Parents rating safety higher than students do, or homework heavier than teachers intend, is a finding in itself.
Report back within a few weeks
Send families a short summary: how many replied, three things you heard, and what will change, including what will not and why. Keep it to a page. A parent who saw last year's answers lead to a new pickup routine has a reason to open this year's link.
Where parent surveys go wrong
Using the survey as the complaints desk
An annual form is the wrong place for a parent to report something urgent, and an anonymous one cannot be answered. Put the name and contact details of the person to go to at the top, and again beside the questions on safety and bullying.
Asking about what is already decided
If the start time, the uniform or the fee is fixed for next year, a question about it raises hopes and then spends trust. Ask only where the answer could move something, or say in the question what the limits are.
Counting a ticked box as a promise
A parent who ticks 'I would volunteer' or 'I would attend a workshop' means it at the time, and fewer will turn up than ticked. Use those answers to choose what to offer first, then judge by who comes.
Sending the long version every year
A long survey every spring teaches families to stop opening it. Keep a core of five or six questions with fixed wording for comparing one year with the next, and rotate the others by topic: communication one year, homework the next.
Reading a high score as proof
Families who are still enrolled are, by definition, the ones who stayed, and those with the most to complain about may have stopped answering or left. A good average on a low response rate, or with one grade missing, is a reason to go and ask in person, not a result to publish.