Some parents, for a variety of reasons, have problems with their child's school, a teacher of the school or procedures that operate within the school. In many cases, these parents do not deal with their problems through the school’s complaints processes.
Sometimes this is because the complaints processes are not well known, not easily accessible or considered to be too difficult, or perhaps the parents believe that they will not be given a fair hearing. In other instances, parents use the correct channels and procedures but do not wish to abide by the outcomes of the grievance process. Although the school may have followed correct procedure, parents who do not accept the determination are challenged for not ‘following the umpire’s decision’.
‘One of the reasons that is often cited by schools for not effectively managing complaints is that they would be overrun with complaints from pushy Type A parents and they can’t avoid to allocate resources to this process. Unfortunately, this amounts to letting pushy Type A parents control the agenda whilst the legitimate feedback of other parents that really does reflect on your school’s standards of services is not captured effectively.’ The issue of complaints handling has been detailed in a paper written by James Field, Managing Director of CompliSpace and presented at the 2014 ANZELA Conference. The paper can be accessed here.
Regardless of the reasons behind the failure to use the school’s complaints processes, parents see their problems as very real and their perception of the complaints handling process is often exacerbated by the school's opinion on 'correct' parent behaviour at the school, in public venues or on social media or towards specific staff.
However, it is arguable that an angry parent is better than an absent parent. While not ideal, this anger often conveys advocacy. Parents generally will cooperate if they believe that the teacher or the school genuinely cares about their child, has their child's interest at heart and respects them as parents.
These are not new issues and all schools have to deal with parents who, for a variety of reasons, require careful management and/or a good deal of time. For example, “Teacher Retention and Attrition: Views of Early Career Teachers” Buchanan and Prescott et.al. from the University of Technology Sydney state:
“Learning how to deal with parents can also be a problem for inexperienced teachers. Participants complained about some parents’ lack of interest on the one hand or their hostility on the other. They also reported their discomfort at being effectively child-minders for some students in later years of high school, who were staying at school even though they and their parents had little apparent interest in their education.”
Gruber and Gruber, in their article ‘10 Tips to Deal with Difficult Parents Effectively’ provide some excellent advice for teachers who are experiencing either disengaged or ‘helicopter’ parents. And while a quick internet search brings up dozens of references for teachers, it reaps very little information for schools on a broader level.
Some schools believe that if they have a ‘Parent Code of Conduct’, and if they ensure that this is incorporated into the enrolment contract, that they can exercise their ‘right to admonish’ parents who breach the Code, by ending the enrolment of the child.
If schools choose to use a Code of Conduct for parents, they should consider the following terms: Parents are expected to follow the Parent Code of Conduct. Serious breaches of the code may lead to the withdrawal of your children from the School. The terms ‘serious’ and ‘may’ both allow a generous scope for interpretation by the school. In addition, each case would have to be judged on its own merit–with the addition of legal advice.
In most schools, the enrolment contract usually only identifies who is legally liable to pay the fees. Codes of Conduct, although valuable tools to ensure that parents are aware of their rights and responsibilities, can be more difficult to enforce. If a parent fails to pay school fees, in general, this can be a fairly clear process. If the enrolment contract is well written, the school is in a reasonable position to seek legal recourse or can end the enrolment of the student and then seek legal recourse for the outstanding fees. Generally, it is a standard breach of the contract.
However, it can be extremely problematic to end the enrolment of a student solely on the basis of the behaviour of a parent. Schools should seek legal advice before thinking about progressing down this path for a number of reasons:
If the school believes that they have followed due process and that they have given the parents time to present their grievance, or if the school sees the behaviour as problematic or unjustifiable behaviour, then there are other steps that can be followed before immediately seeking to end the enrolment of the child.
Note that escalations of this type are rare and sometimes they can also result in legal actions against the schools. If the school shows that it has followed a fair, transparent, and reasonable process (as per their policies), the school will be in a far better position to fight any possible legal claim.
Does your school have a culture of openness regarding parent complaints? Do you have documented processes in place to deal with problematic or aggressive parents?