9 Ways Preschool Directors Should Communicate with Parents

As long as you have open communication, and you keep your preschool parents informed, you’ll have a great year! Here are a few tips we’ve gathered along the way of the most important ways to communicate with your preschool families. 

1. PARENT CONCERNS

Anytime you have a question or a concern about a preschooler or parent, immediately jump on a phone call with them if it is something that needs to be addressed. Don’t email – just go right to the source. (It’s usually difficult to catch parents after class for conversations like these.) 

2. CLASS-WIDE COMMUNICATION

Most of our communication was done via texting using the Remind app. I highly recommend it. It came in handy anytime there was a snow day, a lockdown, or other urgent matters that needed to be communicated quickly. It also is great for field trip info, etc. 

3. ANNUAL NEWSLETTERS 

We would send out an annual newsletter at the beginning of every year in January to all current and past preschool families to remind them that registration was coming in March. 

4. DAILY STUDENT UPDATES 

We didn’t give daily student updates, but we did try to reach out to each preschool parent at least once per week with either an in-person conversation or a text during class letting them know something their child did well that week. Pictures sent via text are great, too! 

5. PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

We did assessments in September, January, and April, so we held Parent Teacher Conferences in October and February. We went on a field trip in September to build rapport with the parents so that the October conference would go well.

The October conference mostly was about how the child was doing, a few areas of strength, and a few areas we would work on. The February conference shared the progress they made as well as any skills they needed to continue working on to be able to meet the child’s goals before the school year ended. 

6. LETTERS TO PARENTS

Sometimes you need to send out “official” letters from the Director to the entire class or school. Some of these letters include: 

• Info Letter about Hand Foot Mouth 
• Info Letter about Lice 
• Change of Program 
• Change of Director 
• Change of Teacher 

7. NEWSLETTERS

Almost every preschool that we’ve ever seen has some form of a newsletter for their preschool parents. Whether in a weekly or monthly edition, or even in the form of a blog, you’ll usually find a newsletter that tells parents what their children have been learning, what fun activities they have been doing, and what field trips or activities are coming up.

You can also include pictures of the preschoolers, interesting facts, funny comments from the preschoolers, or even news about your own family. Personally, we enjoy writing a monthly newsletter, as we find weekly ones are too time consuming. 

8. POSTCARDS

Postcards are by far my favorite way to send a special note to someone. It’s way more personal than email, it shows the receiver how much time you spent in writing and mailing it, and it’s also less expensive than mailing a card. In general, we’ll mail out postcards five times a year: 

• Immediately after a preschooler signs up (I’m so excited to teach you!) 
• 1 week before a preschooler’s birthday (Bring the postcard to pick out of the Treasure Box!) 
• 1 week before preschool starts (I can’t wait for our First Day!) 
• At Christmas time (Merry Christmas and enjoy your break!) 
• After school ends (I had a wonderful year with you!) 

We also send out referral postcards to preschool parents who referred their friends to me who then signed up. We’ll send our preschool parent a postcard that says: “Thanks for referring (name) to our preschool! Enjoy $50 off your next month’s tuition! Thanks for sharing the love!” 

9. FEEDBACK REQUESTS AND SURVEYS

You’ll want to ask for feedback with your parents every 3-6 months in your first year. After that, you can go to yearly surveys. Don’t forget that any time you send out surveys, there’s always the chance that you’re going to get negative feedback. Don’t let it get you down, though. Instead, see the comments as opportunities to strengthen your preschool and make it even better! 

Don’t bend over backwards, though, for requests that are outside of your scope of what you’d like to accomplish with your preschool. You’ll always have a few parents who expect more than you can ever give them, but as long as you’re pleasing the majority of the parents, you’re doing great! In the future, you can implement any of the many wonderful suggestions you’re receiving to make your preschool even better every year!