By Kevin Lungwitz
Communication with Parents
Keeping parents reasonably informed is key. Expectations for students and parents are best defined at the beginning of the school year when each teacher should clearly communicate in writing the rules for success in the class. At the elementary level, each teacher should document the classroom rules and expectations were communicated to parents, including information on how teacher-parent communications will work (e.g., school phone, school email, backpack notes, etc.). If a problem arises during the year, the expectations will become the framework for the conversation. If rules were not communicated to parents or students, school officials will be on their heels when disputes arise.
Your staff must let parents promptly know when their child is underperforming, missing work or has behavior issues. Failing to promptly let parents know when something significant happens to their child will set some parents on a march to central office with complaints about you and your staff.
Use Only School Platforms for Student and Parent Communications
Although proper communication attempts were made, there will be a parent who claims to have never been told about the classroom rules and expectations; never been told the child was missing work; only now hearing that the child is under performing, etc. The wise teacher/administrator only communicates with parents on the school-approved platforms. This does three important things:
- It makes the communications easy to retrieve when a dispute arises;
- It psychologically mitigates against the expectation you and your staff are available 24/7; and
- It reduces the appearance of improper communications between staff and parents/students on private phones.
More About Not Being Available 24/7
You and your staff have a right to refuse to give out your personal cell phone numbers to parents and students, and you should refuse.1 Once parents become comfortable reaching school staff on personal cell phones, professional boundaries erode. You should inform parents at the beginning of the year they are expected to contact school staff through school email, campus phones, or other school-approved platforms, and not to expect a reply after school hours. On the other side of the coin, you should inform your staff of their right not to disclose their private phone numbers. You should empower your staff to only contact parents though school platforms and only during school hours, absent extenuating circumstances. You and your staff work enough beyond the school day. Regular parent communications should not be a part of this. This will boost morale if your staff knows you have their backs.
Disciplinary Communications
Each Texas school campus must have a campus behavior coordinator (CBC), who is primarily responsible for maintaining discipline.2 The CBC can be the principal or another administrator designated by the principal. The name, email address, and phone number of the CBC must be posted on the district’s website.3 The CBC shall:
- Promptly notify the parent/guardian by telephone and by written notice to the student (for delivery to the parent/guardian) on the day the action is taken, when the student is placed into in-school suspension (ISS), out-of-school suspension (OSS), DAEP, JJAEP, is expelled, or is taken into custody by law enforcement.
- If the parent/guardian has not been reached by phone by 5 p.m., written notice shall be mailed to the parent/guardian on the next business day.
- If the campus behavior coordinator is not available to provide these notices, the principal shall do it.
Staff-to-Staff Communications Should Also Be on School-Approved Platforms
For efficiency and expediency, principals, APs and teachers routinely use their private cell phones to talk to each other about business—before, during, and after school hours—so this may be an unrealistic wish. But like parent communications, you should strive to communicate with other staffers only on school platforms when conversing about school business. There is at least one very good reason why you should not discuss school business with fellow staffers on your private cell phone. Stay with me.
Your Texts About School Business on Your Private Phone May Be Public Information
We learned years ago that formal school communications (e.g., memos, documentation, disciplinary reports, evaluations, school emails, etc.) might be disclosable as open records to the public or to relevant parties under the Texas Public Information Act. We know a teacher is entitled to see your documentation and your emails to human resources. We know a parent is entitled to see the child’s grades and all the formal emails and memos shared between educators. Those written communications are professional and usually squeaky clean. If an angry parent obtained one of these and sent it to the news, you could defend it.
This may not be the case with your texts sent on the fly. Those are quick, easy to create and send, and they often contain unvarnished opinions and maybe some snark. Sometimes they are sent after hours between you and your assistant or between two teachers, on private phones, private ISPs, on private time. So, these texts can’t possibly be subject to the Texas Public Information Act, right? Not so fast. If your texts contain school business, there is an argument they are disclosable to the public or to relevant parties. There are also complicated records retention issues which arise if you have school business on your private phone. It is definitely less expeditious, but it is the best practice to limit all your professional communications to school-approved platforms where they can be properly retrieved, retained, and most importantly, where they will instill the aura of professionalism associated with more formal communication modes. In conclusion, follow the Grandmother Rule: Don’t send it if you would be embarrassed to show it to your grandmother.
Kevin Lungwitz practices law in Austin and is a former Chair of the School Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.
Endnotes
1Tex. Educ. Code Sec. 38.027. See policy DH.
2Tex. Educ. Code Sec. 37.0012. See policy FO (Legal)
3Tex. Educ. Code Sec. 26.015
TEPSA News, January/February 2026, Vol 83, No 1
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Note: Information from Legal Ease is believed to be correct upon publication but is not warranted and should not be considered legal advice. Please contact TEPSA or your school district attorney before taking any legal action, as specific facts or circumstances may cause a different legal outcome.
