Our kids spend 6+ hours a day at school and what goes on there can be a real mystery to parents. Often our “How was your day?” queries are greeted with a shrug and “fine.” Not a helpful response from the one who is supposed to be an important conduit of home-school communications.

Good thing that parents today have the benefit of many means of communication--both high and low tech: email, social media, parent portals, homework blogs, school websites, robocalls, electronic newsletters, notes in a folder, parent-teacher conferences, back-to-school night, personal phone calls, and, of course, the kids.

Yet the sheer number of the forms of communication available means that there are many opportunities for things to go wrong--anything from a teacher who never checks email to a kid who loses papers to a rarely updated website.

A 2011 survey by the National School Public Relations Association reports that parents preferred email, parent portals, e-newsletters and school websites over print publications as a means of communication. And yet parents still receive an awful lot paper, even when electronic communications are available. Every family, like every school, is different so schools often employ multiple methods to make sure information get to everyone

So how is a parent to keep it all straight?

• Know how the school communicates best. While schools are moving toward electronic communication, many are just not there yet. Attend the back-to-school night and parent-teacher conferences to learn what modes of communication the school is really putting its effort behind. Ask your child's teachers what is the best way to contact him or her, and find out what should be coming home on a weekly basis. Learn what is expected of you as a parent in terms of returning forms, signing papers, etc. The first few weeks of school is the best time to gather this information.

• Don't procrastinate. Schools typically publish a full school-year calendar at the beginning of the year or even in the summer. Start off the year with all of these upcoming events already in your own personal calendar. You will thanks yourself later it reminds you of something that you had forgotten. More events will be added as time passes and so be diligent about putting them in too.
• Use networking. Pinpointing the gaps in your information can be tough, unless you do some networking. Being proactive and staying in touch with other parents and teachers can tip you off when there is an event on the horizon that isn’t on your schedule. Room parents can be a great resource, particularly if you are new to a school.
• Expect responsibility from kids. Emphasize to your child the age-appropriate responsibility expected. For a kindergartener this might be removing the day’s work from the backpack and delivering it to a specified place. For a middle or high schooler this might be adding events to the family calendar. If your child’s school handles a lot of communication electronically, it can be easy to cut the child out of the loop. Mom checks the website, makes the plan and the child is informed. Be sure to give children responsibility in this and to keep increasing it as they grow.
• Stay on top of it. Just like your school morning routine, home-school communication tends to break down over time, if proper attention isn't given to it. Once you were religious about checking the parent portal, by February you've forgotten your log in. Don't let that happen!