Communicating with parents during back to school is a BIG deal! We only have a little window where we can get as much information as possible to make sure we are designing each program individualized to the students needs both at HOME and at SCHOOL.
Running a life skills autism classroom, I don’t just care about the skills my students have at school, I spend a lot of time making sure I am generalizing each skill to home too. I am lucky enough to do home visits a few times a year, and communicate with parents daily via my home/school communication sheets (you can find mine HERE), and at these times, am I able to get some really valuable information from parents.
But the beginning of school is an even bigger chance to get information. EVERY YEAR I send home parent surveys– even if I already had the student in my class. Our students are constantly changing and it’s our job to keep up with it all!
I send my forms home on back to school night, but you may have curriculum night or meet the teacher. I give my parents the option of filling it out there, or bringing home and sending in the next day.
Here is what I am sending home this year, each year I tweak it a little bit- and I’ll make it available here on my blog for you! It should give you some ideas of what you should be asking parents each year to get an idea of what their child needs to work on. I pay close attention to the goals for their child section- I hold this near and dear to my heart and really place a focus on just that for the year. Parents are also a bit more honest in this setting- rather than being placed on the spot at IEP meetings and asked the same question.
You can find it here for free!! Good luck!
Do you have an interest survey or student preferences with pictures for kids who are nonverbal to fill out?