Back to school time! After you get settled in, what to you do to welcome parents & teachers back and remind them of your role? Each year, I like to send letters out to the parents & teachers of students I work with for counseling on IEPs, and parents of the 504’s I case manage. First and foremost, it reminds them of who I am and what I am working on with their student/child, and second, it establishes communication from the beginning of the year. I think that this is so important. Get the lines of communication open quickly! Also, it helps if your first line of communication with them for the year is “Hi! How are you?” rather than “your child is misbehaving” or “we need a meeting…”.
This tool takes a short time to put together, and then you have the template to use every year. I print off a bunch of copies and hand write in details, but you could also just type everything and print or email, depending on how your school does things. I also like to jazz them up with some fancy clipart :).
As always, check out my Keep Calm Freebies for a Google Drive template for the following:
- Beginning of the year letter to parents (of students you service)
- Beginning of the year letter to teachers (of students you service)
- Beginning of the year letter to parents of 504 students.
