With the back-to-school season upon us, I’m reminded of the hysterical Staples commercial that aired a few years ago, showing a father dancing through the aisles to Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year”. He’s dancing and tossing school supplies into the cart while his kids look-on, all sad and droopy-eyed. My kids are older now, but like most parents, I still can relate to that joyous feeling of sending the kids off to school and getting our household back into a more normal routine.
These days, however, with school shootings, bullying, and other dangers that are seemingly on the news non-stop, I feel like being a parent of a school-age child must be tougher now than it ever was for my wife and me this time of year. I mean, are parents even able to focus on the most important thing – their kids’ education – or are other concerns distracting from it?
I was curious what parents are concerned about, overall, in terms of the upcoming school year, so in our latest VeraQuest poll, we asked this very question of 761 parents of kids in kindergarten through high school.
About half of parents express concern about the quality of education their child is receiving (52%) or about their child getting good grades/succeeding (49%) – both are likely where parents’ concerns should be, I’d imagine. But about the same amount go on to express similar levels of concern about safety/security in school or on the bus (50%) and/or bullying in schools (45%). Another 30% express concern regarding exposure to drugs/alcohol, and 28% mention being concerned about their child falling-in with the “wrong crowd”. So there certainly appear to be heavy non-education-related factors weighing on the minds of parents these days as they send their kids back to school. Not that I never worried about such things, but I would just expect that some of these concerns are likely more prevalent or more strongly-felt today.
We do see a few interesting differences based on the child’s school-level and school type, which are worth sharing:
- Parents of kindergarten/elementary (53%) and junior high school kids (50%) are more likely to be concerned with safety/security than those with kids in high school (43%). Perhaps there’s a feeling that high schoolers are better able to fend for themselves in a safety situation, compared to younger kids.
- Those with kids in public schools (52%) are much more concerned about safety/security than those in private schools (36%), where perhaps greater security precautions are in-place? Bullying and drug/alcohol exposure are also far greater concerns for public school parents, however.
- Public school parents are also more concerned than private school parents when it comes to quality of education (53% vs. 44%), as well as their child getting good grades/succeeding (51% vs. 40%). I’d imagine that those paying for private schools are expecting a better education for their children.
What are you most concerned about as your child heads back to school? Are you able to “enjoy” the back-to-school season, or do any non-education-related concerns weigh on your mind?
Leave a Reply