50+ effective parent survey questions and templates for meaningful feedback

Parents worldwide want to be more involved in their children’s learning, and schools that listen to parents are in a better position to meet these expectations, according to the Global Parents’ Survey by the Varkey Foundation.

Parent surveys not only help educators make informed decisions, but they also give parents a say in their children’s education. Parent surveys gather valuable feedback that can enhance communication, foster engagement and ultimately support improved student outcomes.

In this article, you’ll gain access to 50+ parent survey questions and expert-written survey templates to engage parents and improve student outcomes.

A parent survey is a tool used by school administrators and educators to collect feedback from parents about their child’s education.

Parent surveys typically include questions about the school environment, academic support, communication with teachers and overall satisfaction with the school experience. By giving parents a chance to share their perspectives, schools can gather direct input from one of the most influential stakeholders in a student’s education.

Dr. Karen Mapp’s 2002 paper, ‘A New Wave of Evidence’, highlights the fact that in the US, parental involvement boosts student academic performance, standardised test scores, social competencies and completion rates.

Parent surveys are essential for understanding what parents need, what concerns they have and how schools can support student learning and success more effectively. Schools can use this information to:

To ensure that parental involvement has a positive impact on education, we have partnered with Dr. Hunter Gehlbach of the US’s Harvard Graduate School of Education to help K–12 schools ask the right questions.

Our partner Dr. Gehlbach and his team employed a rigorous process to develop survey questions that assess key areas of family/school relationships. Drawing on academic literature, parent interviews, focus groups, expert panels and survey design best practices, the team developed our parent survey template to address the following key areas.

Here are the 50+ additional parent survey questions for your next survey.

Related: Top student survey questions to ask

Headteachers, boards of governors and parent/teacher organisations from any K–12 school – be it a state, independent or public school, or an academy, whether urban or rural – should use parent surveys to understand how they’re doing with parents.

It can also be helpful to obtain some context for your survey results by comparing them with results from other schools or organisations. Finding a benchmark to compare your parent engagement data can help you set actionable goals and gain a better understanding of your strengths when it comes to school-parent interaction.

A parent engagement survey is ideal for gauging how involved parents feel in their child’s school life. It helps schools understand how effectively they’re communicating and where there may be opportunities to boost parent involvement. Use the parent engagement survey template to identify areas where parents feel most engaged and areas where they’d like to play a more active role.

Designed to explore the types of support that parents need from the school, the parental support questionnaire template helps uncover which resources or forms of assistance would help families support their child’s learning more effectively. It includes questions about academic guidance, extra-curricular support and more.

This all-purpose survey is designed specifically for families with children in K–12 education. The K–12 parent survey template gathers feedback about school programmes, teacher communication and overall satisfaction, offering a well-rounded view of the parent experience.

The child behaviour survey focuses on how parents perceive their child’s behaviour both at home and at school. The child behaviour survey template is a valuable tool for identifying behavioural concerns and building collaboration between families and educators to address those challenges.

This survey helps schools to assess how confident parents feel in terms of supporting their child’s academic progress. The parent self-efficacy survey template is especially helpful for identifying areas where parents may need additional resources, training or encouragement.

School programme fit surveys assess how well the school’s programmes align with parents’ expectations and students’ needs. The school programme fit survey template is a practical tool for identifying programming gaps and guiding future improvements.

The parent roles and responsibilities survey explores how parents perceive their role in their child’s education. The parent roles and responsibilities survey template helps schools to define more effectively the parent-teacher partnership and clarify expectations on both sides.

A well-designed survey can provide valuable feedback about everything from school communication to academic support. However, a badly designed survey will lead to low response rates, unclear data and missed opportunities to understand parent perspectives.

The following steps will guide you through the process to help ensure that your survey is focused, effective and easy for parents to complete.

Before you even consider your questions or survey design, you need to determine what you want to learn from the survey. Think of it as the initial stages of a well-written research paper; it’s your research question tailored to your own specific requirements.

Are you looking for feedback about school communication, academic programmes or parent involvement? Having clear objectives will help you to craft focused questions that generate actionable insights.

You probably wouldn’t accept homework hastily scrawled on the back of a letter to parents! The same applies to the design and distribution of your survey: you should use a reliable platform for this that reflects and reinforces its importance.

SurveyMonkey offers easy-to-use tools that help you to create, send and analyse surveys, along with expert-written parent survey templates that are specifically designed for schools. Use our AI-powered survey tool to generate and analyse survey results like an expert. 

Consider the five-paragraph essay structure: it begins with a thesis statement, is followed by three supporting paragraphs and concludes with a summary. The key to an outstanding essay lies in supporting paragraphs that are clear, relevant and effectively bolster the argument presented in the thesis statement.

The use of survey questions that are aligned with your research goals makes for successful parent surveys. You should also ensure that your questions are simple and specific. Use a mix of multiple choice, rating scale and open-ended questions to capture both quantitative and qualitative feedback. 

Moreover, you should consider your audience when crafting your survey questions. Avoid leading or overly complex wording that may lead to survey bias or abandonment.

Before distributing the survey to the entire parent community, it is crucial to conduct a preliminary test with a small, representative group.

This pilot phase, which works in a similar way to a classroom peer-to-peer review, allows you to identify ambiguities in order to ensure that the language is clear and concise and can be easily understood by all respondents.

Furthermore, testing helps to pinpoint potential usability issues, such as confusing navigation or technical glitches. This guarantees a smooth and effortless experience for parents.

This initial feedback loop is invaluable for refining the survey instrument, enhancing its overall effectiveness and maximising the quality and reliability of the data collected from the broader parent population.

Share the survey via channels that parents use regularly.

For example, if you regularly send lunch menus to parents via email, then that might also be a good way to distribute a survey, as they already expect to find communications from the school there. Alternatively, heads of department may choose to embed a survey on the area of the school website devoted to their subject area.

You should communicate the purpose and importance of the survey clearly in order to encourage participation.

Once you’ve received survey feedback, you should act on it! Review the data to identify trends, concerns and opportunities for improvement.

You may find that an increasing number of parents would like information about the school’s tutoring provision or that parents do not know how to support their child’s education at home.

You should use these insights to make updates to the curriculum and school programmes and to communicate any actions that you plan to take based on the feedback received. Parents will want to understand shifts in their child’s learning environment and how they can support them most effectively throughout these transitions.

Related: Benchmarking school performance

There is more to conducting parent surveys effectively than merely sending out a list of questions. To gather meaningful feedback, you need to plan thoughtfully, communicate clearly and create an environment that fosters honest responses.

The following tips will help you to boost participation, enhance response quality and maximise the insights that you collect.

Collect data about the parents’ background, including their household income and highest level of education, etc., to identify trends. Asking parents demographic survey questions can help you to tailor programmes, improve communication and enhance engagement strategies.

Formulate clear and actionable questions that comprehensively address relevant aspects of the school experience. This should include enquiries about communication, support services and the overall learning environment.

Ensure that each question encourages thoughtful reflection and covers aspects such as student engagement, mental health resources, safety measures and parental involvement, fostering a holistic understanding of the educational journey.

Quantitative data only reveals half the story. Imagine that you received feedback indicating that the majority of parents think the school’s tutoring provision is inaccessible. You likely also need to know why this is the case. An open-ended question can explain why parents can’t access tutoring for their child.

For example, a multiple choice question may ask the following: “How accessible is the tutoring provision offered by the school?” The follow-up open-ended question may be as follows: “Tell us about your experience of accessing tutoring for your child.”

You may find that parents don’t know how to sign their child up for tutoring or they may want to see tutoring hours extended.

Education is fundamentally a collaborative endeavour and often likened to a team sport where teachers, parents and students collaborate to achieve the best educational outcomes.

It is essential to present the survey results to parents in a clear and accessible manner. This transparency will help parents to understand the current state of the classroom environment, any upcoming changes in curriculum or teaching methods and specific strategies that they can employ to support their child’s learning journey.

By keeping parents informed and engaged, you can foster a stronger partnership that enhances student success and overall school community involvement.

It’s important to recognise that, unfortunately, some parents may be reluctant to voice critical feedback due to concerns about potential retaliation against their child. This fear can stem from past experiences, perceived power dynamics or a lack of trust in the system. To address these concerns and encourage open communication, it is essential to reassure parents that their input is anonymous. 

The use of anonymous surveys will ensure that personal identifiers are not collected or linked to responses. By emphasising anonymity and communicating how responses will be used to improve the school environment, parents will feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts without the fear of negative consequences for their children.

Related: Boost school engagement with student polls

Creating meaningful parent and guardian surveys doesn’t have to be complicated. With our expert-designed templates, school administrators can quickly build parent surveys that assist academically aligned goals, boost classroom wellbeing and create a sense of camaraderie between teachers and parents.

The tools and resources offered by SurveyMonkey make it easy to collect feedback, analyse results and drive positive change in your school community. Ready to get started? Explore SurveyMonkey for Education to create powerful surveys that support student success.