Parents not answering the phone? Part 2
I have already talked with you about what to do when parents don’t answer the phone or otherwise answer other communications when you attempt to contact them as part of a K-12 civil rights investigation. I’d like to talk more about that topic.
One important thing you should definitely do when attempting to contact parents as part of a K-12 civil rights investigation is document your attempts. In your documentation I suggest that you include who you attempted to contact including their full name, relationship to the student, whether parent guardian or other, when you attempted to contact them including month, date, year and time, as well is the method that you use to attempt to contact them.
In terms of method be as specific as possible. For example, if you called them, list the phone number you called. If they didn’t answer the phone, record that. If the call went to voicemail but the mailbox was full, record that. Again, be as specific as possible. Another example of specifically documenting the method used, is to list that you mailed something to them, how you mailed it, via certified mail regular mail for example, and what specific address you sent the mail to. This can become really important if you need to later prove your attempts at contacting these individuals.
To help you out I’ve created for you a Parent Contact Log to use to document your efforts. Just click on the link in the below to get a copy of this free Parent Contact Log.
