When it comes to education, families have more choices than ever—and as a result, school funding is growing ever more competitive. As such, school leaders across the country are considering what parents want from their schools as they work to build districts that can not just survive, but thrive.

While it’s safe to assume that most families have the same general goals for their children—that they will be happy, safe and have a bright future—it is becoming increasingly challenging for schools to know how to best respond to parents’ often disparate desires. At a time when the U.S. populace—including families—is more fractious and polarized than ever before, how can school leaders balance parents’ wants and needs with other concerns, like budget and capacity? Many school leaders are in the process of figuring this out. For some, responding to families’ wishes means including more after-school programs, while others are adding full-day pre-K or increased offerings in career and technical education.

But parents and guardians don’t just have opinions about your district’s academic and extracurricular offerings; they also have preferences about school communication. As families have grown accustomed to interacting with large corporations, their expectations have changed. They’ve been trained to expect near-instantaneous, personalized communication about everything, including their children. 

In conducting this study, we wanted to understand exactly what today’s families want when it comes to school communication. While districts once relied on notes sent home in backpacks, in-person check-ins during school pickup and the occasional flyer, most now employ a diverse range of communication channels, from apps to social media to newsletters. Many schools doubled down on this diversified communication in 2020, when the pandemic forced schools to go virtual and families, for better or worse, developed a desire for more visibility into their children’s educations. 

But school districts often operate at a disadvantage to the businesses that have shaped families’ expectations around communication. Corporations often put major marketing funds toward creating a cohesive communication experience. Most school districts, though, do not have robust marketing budgets, and families often receive an overwhelming onslaught of communication—sometimes redundant—from the classroom, school and district levels all at once.

At SchoolCEO, we have long stressed the critical role of school communication in building school brands that families trust. But when it comes to how different school communication strategies can actually move the needle on trust, research has been scant. In this newest research study, we seek to change that. In our survey of over 1,400 U.S. parents, we wanted to learn:

Through which communication channels do families prefer to receive important information about their children’s schools?

Which school or district employees do families most trust to relay important information to them?

How does school communication—or the lack thereof—influence families’ overall satisfaction with and trust in their school districts?

We'll answer these questions and more as we uncover what parents want from school communication. 

Our Findings

Our survey included over 1,400 responses from parents of children aged 4 to 18 enrolled in public or charter schools. The parents themselves ranged from their early 20s to their 60s; 53% of respondents were between the ages of 30 and 44, while 37% were between the ages of 45 and 60. Respondents hailed from 48 U.S. states and were representative of all major U.S. geographic regions.

Families prefer your school website over any other school communication channel. 

It’s no surprise to you that school districts use a lot of communication channels. For this study, our team identified nearly a dozen that school districts commonly use. To keep things simple, here, we’ll focus on how families felt about the most common options.

First, we wanted to understand how families currently experience school communications. We asked them, “Through which avenue do you most often learn essential, but non-emergency, school-related information for the first time?” (Figure 1). The top five answers were as follows: 

1. The district or school website
2. Email or newsletter
3. The district or school app
4. Automated call
5. Text messages

Our team wasn’t too surprised by any of these findings, except that social media was so didn’t rank in the top five sources for new information.

But then we asked our respondents which channels they preferred to receive this information through (Figure 2). In order, parents most preferred to learn information for the first time from:

1. The district or school website
2. Text message
3. Email or newsletter
4. The district or school app
5. Automated call

Notice how important your website is to families for accessing new information. We often say that your district homepage is your first impression, but it turns out that it’s also one of the preferred places families look to—and return to—for new information. This means that the tools you’ve invested in are working for your district. But what steps are you taking to ensure that these tools are regularly updated with information families need? Reinforce this preference by ensuring that your website is both easy to navigate and frequently updated. 

Communication channels were also a common concern brought up in the open responses. We asked our families what, if anything, they would like their district to do differently when it came to school communication. Many parents said that text messages were helpful for time-sensitive information and that they wished they could sign up for reminder texts about their child’s upcoming events. For information that isn’t time-sensitive, most parents said that email was best. One parent explained: “Text messages for major things like reminders of a school closing or early dismissal are helpful. Anything major should be a text. The rest can be a newsletter or something else.” 

Many parents also said that they liked having some choice in how they received district communications. “I always read my text messages, but it feels like spam when I get a lot of simultaneous notifications about the same thing,” one parent explained. Another said that while they read their district’s newsletter, they wished that it was easier to skip sections irrelevant to themselves or their child.

Finally, it’s also interesting that, for the most part, parents prefer the channels that school districts already commonly use. This may indicate that you can train your audience to prefer your existing communication norms. 

More than half of parents use their school apps regularly.

It’s not surprising that the school website is a popular channel among parents—but school apps are also gaining steam. In the world of school communications, apps are still relatively new, but our data shows that families have bought in.

In our study, we asked parents about their experiences with their district’s branded apps—not third-party communication apps like ClassDojo or GroupMe. Nearly half of families reported that they have both downloaded their school or district’s app and use it regularly. Only 15% of families said that their school or district didn’t have an app or that they hadn’t downloaded it (Figure 3).  

But what are families looking for when they go to their school app? It turns out—lots of things! They most often reported wanting to know about upcoming events, information about curriculum or what their child is learning, and updates about their child’s grades (Figure 4). 

And as you can see from Figures 1 and 2, district apps aren’t just one of the top three ways parents currently learn information—they’re also one of the top five ways parents prefer to receive communication. If you already have a district app, you should be utilizing it as a powerful tool for engaging with families. And if you don’t, consider investing in one. 

Social media is one of parents’ least favorite ways to learn new information.

In 2024, we partnered with the National Public School Relations Association to research the work of school communicators—including how they spend their time. In that study, we found that while school communicators ranked social media management as the second-most time-consuming task on their plate, they did not view it as particularly important to being effective in their roles (Figure 5). 

In our conversations with school communicators, many have expressed frustration around this topic. While social media is time-consuming, they feel a need to post frequently so that families or other stakeholders know the district is active. 

But look back at Figure 2 above. Out of ten options, social media was one of the least preferred communication channels; only around 2% of parents chose it as their most preferred communication method. If—as our research indicates—parents don’t actually care that much about social media, perhaps comms teams shouldn’t spend quite so much time managing it. 

Should your district wholly abandon social media? Probably not. For people who don’t have children in your schools, social media may be the only window into your school district’s impactful work. But you also don’t have to view social media as a primary channel for communication with families. Instead, shift some of the time and attention you’re spending on social media toward the channels families actually prefer, like your website, app, text messages and emails.

Teachers play a vital role in your school communication strategy.

In previous research, we’ve discussed how crucial it is that district personnel at all levels, from the classroom to the central office, work to reinforce the best parts of your district brand. And while national research has long held that principals have a particularly powerful role in maintaining your district’s credibility, our latest study uncovered something new. Parents want to hear from teachers, too—and even consider them to be one of the district’s most trustworthy sources of information. 

We asked our participants, “Who from your school district do you most trust to communicate valuable information?” (Figure 6). More than half of parents—58%—chose teachers, with principals and district communications directors trailing somewhat behind at 24% and 13%, respectively. Less than 5% of families selected superintendents.

Figure 6

Who from your school district do you most trust to communicate valuable information?

Your child's teacher(s)

58%

Your child's school principal

24%

Your district's communications director

13%

Your district's superintendent

4%

Someone else

1%

To clarify: This finding doesn’t indicate that superintendents, communications directors or principals aren’t communicating valuable information. But the information that teachers share is typically more specific and personalized. When families hear from superintendents or communications directors, they likely expect the information to be either more general or less pressing. 

As you rethink your school communication strategy, keep this finding in mind. Superintendents and communications directors can and should still communicate valuable information—but when you have an update you don’t want families to miss, bring in teachers as a part of your communications plan.

Families trust their school districts more when they’re also satisfied with their communications.

Through our survey, we wanted to understand not just how families felt about school communication in general, but also how it influenced their overall view of their school districts. To accomplish this, we asked the following questions:

“In general, on a scale of 1-5, how satisfied are you with your child’s district?”

“On a scale of 1-5, how much do you trust your child’s district?”

“In general, on a scale of 1-5, how satisfied are you with your child’s district’s communications?”

When we compared the answers to these three questions, the correlation was clear: Families were much more likely to trust their school districts when they also had positive ratings for their communications. At first glance, this seems pretty obvious. School districts that do most things well probably excel at communication, too, right? But when you think more deeply, this suggests something powerful about how communication can shape families’ perceptions of your district as a whole. Your schools may be doing great things, but if you don’t communicate about it, families have no way to know. The more families hear about the great work you’re doing, the more likely they are to trust your schools.

It’s often said trust is the most powerful form of currency. If school communication has the power to heighten families’ trust in your district, why wouldn’t you go all in on making sure your communications meet or exceed their expectations?

Positive, relevant and frequent school communication builds parent satisfaction.

Many school communicators stress the value of sharing positive news about their school district. And yet, we haven’t had much data on whether sharing positive news and communication actually benefits districts in the long run—until now. 

We asked our respondents the following question: “Do you perceive information or communication from your child’s district to be mostly positive, negative or a mix of both?” (Figure 7). Over 70% of respondents said that communication from their child’s district was mostly positive, and just under 20% said that it was a mix. Only 9% of respondents reported communication from their district to be mostly negative. 

Figure 7

Do you perceive information or communication from your child's district to be mostly positive, negative or a mix of both?

Mostly Positive

73%

A Mix of Both

18%

Mostly Negative

9%

By and large, this is good news. We want communications from school districts to be positive and for families to have positive feelings about what’s going on at their child’s school. But we also uncovered a particularly interesting correlation: The more often families were communicated with, found communications relevant, and perceived communications to be positive, the more likely they were to be highly satisfied with their schools. 

All too often, we hear school leaders worry that they’re blasting families with too much communication—but our data doesn’t support that fear. After all, families who were communicated with more frequently actually had higher levels of satisfaction with their schools—as long as the communication was perceived to be both positive and relevant. 

There were a few small caveats brought up in the open responses. Some families complained that districts waited too long to communicate negative news, especially during an emergency. This may be because students, many of whom have cellphones, often communicate about situations in real time, while the school district waits to send more complete messaging once they know all the facts.

What This Means for You

We’re not going to leave you to dig through data without offering solid takeaways, too. So if you’re excited to learn how to put this information into action, read on.

School communications should be aligned at all levels.

In our conversations with school communicators, we often hear how challenging it is to keep track of who is communicating with families and when. That’s not to mention all of the school-adjacent communication families may be receiving, such as emails from booster clubs or automated alerts from different school softwares or apps. Parents also may not understand the difference between certain communication channels—like text messages and push notifications, for example.

Of course, you don’t want to overwhelm families with too much communication. But as we learned in our survey, families actually have a higher level of satisfaction with their district if communication is more frequent, as long as it’s positive and relevant. In districts where it does feel overwhelming, it’s possible that communication is simply not aligned at all levels—frustrating families who are trying to find a logical pattern when there is none. 

This means that, to the best of your ability, your district must first track what communication is being sent to families from each level: the district, the individual campus and the classroom. Then, you must build a strategy around who communicates what and when. A simple way to break this down is to make a list of your district’s communicators and establish what information is communicated by who, when and where. We’ve included an example of what this can look like below:

What?

Who?

When?

Where?

Classroom updates

Teachers

At least weekly, but as needed

School app

Early dismissal

Principals

Beginning of the applicable month

Newsletter

Football game day reminders

Athletic director

Week of

Text messages

It may be helpful to start simply by documenting what communication is already happening. After all, this process is likely going to be iterative, and it will take time for you to learn how communication ebbs and flows throughout the school year.

Then, as your team decides upon best practices and implements them internally, you can communicate these expectations to your community. This way, families can have a guide so that they understand how, say, weather-related school closures will be communicated. To make a strategy like this feasible for your team, consider using a single platform for all parent communication, such as an app that has texting and emailing capabilities.

If teachers aren’t a part of your school communication strategy, you’re missing out.

According to our findings, families trust their child’s teacher above all other district personnel to communicate valuable information. This means that teachers are some of your most powerful communicators—but what is your district doing to make sure teachers are prepared and trained to communicate effectively? 

Over the past few years, SchoolCEO has studied the role of teachers in a district’s communications strategy. Our 2022 study “Who Speaks For Your Brand?” established that teachers already think of themselves as brand ambassadors and view promoting the district’s brand as part of their jobs. In response to the statement “I feel it is my responsibility to improve the district’s reputation when I speak with someone about the district,” 72% of teachers “somewhat” or “strongly” agreed. Less than 10% of either group disagreed (Figure 8). 

Figure 8

Do teachers agree with the statement "I feel it is my responsibility to improve the district's reputation when I speak with someone about the district"?

Strongly Agree

34%

Somewhat Agree

38%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

20%

Somewhat Disagree

6%

Strongly Disagree

3%

But here’s the problem: The same study also found that teachers are rarely trained on their school’s branding and communications priorities. Nearly a quarter reported receiving no training whatsoever (Figure 9). 

Figure 9

On average, how often have teachers received training on their district's brand and messaging priorities?

Once or twice a month

15%

Once or twice a semester

19%

Once or twice a school year

25%

Less than once per year

21%

Never

21%

Your communication team’s biggest hurdle here is not getting teachers invested—it’s keeping them up to date and on brand and equipping them with tools to make all this easier. This means that you need an effective internal communication strategy—not to mention a plan to train teachers and other staff members on your district’s branding and messaging priorities.

Some school districts accomplish this by using internal communication tools, such as Slack or an employee intranet. Others have principals send daily news and reminders to teachers. No matter what your strategy is, you have to make sure that teachers are in the loop. Do they know when you need their help pushing out vital information to families? And do they know how to do that effectively?

It’s more important to know what your parents want than what all parents want. 

Our survey was nationally representative, but we have an important caveat: The best way for you to know what your own school community prefers is to ask them directly. As our open responses revealed, plenty of parents have preferences that are contrary to general trends. Your own families’ preferences are dependent on many factors, from their socioeconomic situations to the ages of their kids. 

One way to learn this information is through a community communication survey. You can also gather anecdotes informally—through conversations at events like parent-teacher conferences or feedback forms linked in every district newsletter. In any case, knowing what your unique community prefers—and how this varies at different campuses or among school levels—is the most powerful step you can take toward meeting your families where they are.

Strong communication makes families more likely to trust your schools. 

At SchoolCEO, we often encourage leaders and communicators to shine a light on the good things happening in schools. We also know that how you communicate those stories—and all your district’s information—is equally vital. Platforms matter, channels matter and, most importantly, the people communicating your district’s values matter. 

So perhaps the most important takeaway from this study is this: When done well, effective school communication can positively impact how much your families trust your school district. And since you can’t survive without that trust, an investment in communication is an investment in your schools. 

In an era of school competition and rising suspicion of institutions, trust is everything. Trust not only keeps families from choosing a different educational option, but it also empowers them to become advocates for your district. The support of your district’s families matters, and not just when you’re running a referendum campaign or implementing a new policy. Their trust and support allow your district to thrive—always.