Tip 19: Use FAQs to Support Your K-12 Parents and Save Staff Time

We’re noticing great examples of FAQs going out to students and their families. The question-answer format is easy to absorb and a great way to make sure the most important information gets through. Here are many examples worth a look.

Oxnard Union High School District created and sent out a very good video FAQ when they shifted to remote learning: 

Other schools have created documents for more in-depth FAQs. Oak Park USD in California sent out a parent message linking to their FAQ document:

If you go this route, make sure your document format will work on all types of devices — PDFs and Google Docs (view-only) usually are good choices. (Pssst… if you’re a ParentSquare user, consider posting this school-wide in the Resource Hub so it’s always available and easy to find.) 

Rutherford County Schools in North Carolina created a FAQ web page for parents and students: 

We also like this easy approach by Miami-Dade in Florida — their FAQ is an image, so parents don’t have to download and open a separate PDF — and it’s dated! It’s a good idea to date your FAQ, in light of how fast things are changing.

We like how Windsor CUSD in Illinois posted both a Parent FAQ and COVID-19 FAQ.

The Success Academies in New York posted their FAQ for families, organized into the categories School Closure, Remote Learning, Exams, Work, School Lunch, and General (AND they have resources linked at the bottom too).

K-12 Remote Tips

We send out an email with each new remote communications tip for K12. Some examples use ParentSquare, but these tips will work with any comprehensive communications tool. Sign up to receive them straight in your inbox.

We’d love to know what you are doing — what great examples or ideas would you like to share with other schools? Simply comment below or submit your tip via our web form.