Best questions for parent survey about discipline policies

Here are some of the best questions for a parent survey about discipline policies, plus practical tips to help you design your own. Using Specific, you can build robust parent surveys about discipline policies in seconds.

Best open-ended questions to ask parents about discipline policies

Open-ended questions give us access to insights we’d never get from simple tick-boxes. They let parents explain the “why” behind their answers, surface emotions, and highlight unexpected experiences. While it’s true that open responses can increase nonresponse rates—as Pew Research Center found, open-ended survey questions averaged a notable 18% nonresponse rate, compared to 1%-2% on closed-ended ones [1]—their value is in the richness you gain from every parent who does respond. Plus, a PubMed study revealed that 76% of people provide additional comments and the vast majority of management teams find these extremely valuable for quality improvement [2]. When you want clarity, stories, and actionable suggestions, these are your go-to.

1. What aspects of the school's current discipline policies do you support most, and why?

2. Are there any discipline practices that you believe are not effective? Please explain your perspective.

3. Describe a situation where you felt the school handled a discipline issue particularly well or poorly.

4. How would you like to see discipline handled differently in the classroom?

5. What concerns, if any, do you have about the way discipline is addressed at school?

6. How do the school's discipline policies align or differ from how you approach discipline at home?

7. What additional support or resources could help you reinforce discipline strategies at home?

8. Are there cultural or personal values you want the school to consider in its approach to discipline?

9. How comfortable do you feel discussing disciplinary issues with school staff? Please elaborate.

10. What changes to the current discipline policies would make you feel more confident as a parent?

Open-ended questions let us uncover concerns or priorities we might never have thought to ask about. As a recent study found, 60% of responses to open questions were outside pre-coded closed-ended options [4], showing just how much valuable knowledge parents can share when given the chance.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for parents about discipline policies

Single-select multiple-choice questions are a quick, reliable way to quantify parent opinions. Use them when you want a clear snapshot (“most parents feel X”) or when you need to warm up respondents with easier questions before diving deep. Sometimes, multiple choice makes it easier for parents who might struggle for words—or might otherwise skip an open question altogether. Then, once you spot a trend, you can always follow up with open-ended questions for more detail.

Question: How satisfied are you with the current school discipline policies?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neutral

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: Which of the following discipline methods do you believe are most effective at school?

• Positive reinforcement

• Time-outs

• Loss of privileges

• Verbal warnings

• Other

Question: How frequently do you discuss discipline strategies with your child’s teacher?

• Regularly (monthly or more)

• Occasionally (a few times a year)

• Rarely

• Never

When to follow up with "why?" When you get a multiple-choice answer that doesn’t explain the reasoning, a “why?” follow-up unlocks context. For example, if a parent selects “Very dissatisfied,” you can prompt: “Can you share what specific aspect makes you dissatisfied?” That’s where real improvement starts.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Adding “Other” lets you discover needs, opinions, or experiences you hadn’t anticipated. When a parent selects “Other,” always follow up and ask them to specify—these insights often point to issues or solutions you’d never think to include and can reshape your discipline approach for the better.

NPS question: should you use it in parent discipline policy surveys?

NPS—Net Promoter Score—asks parents how likely they are to recommend your school’s discipline policies to other families, using a 0-10 scale. It’s a fast, universal metric that quantifies parent confidence, letting you benchmark improvement over time and spot promoters and detractors instantly. For discipline policies, this makes real sense: it gives you a read on overall parent satisfaction and trust, plus serves as a launchpad for targeted follow-ups.

If you want to see what this looks like, try a ready-made NPS survey for parents.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are what set modern surveys—and platforms like Specific—apart from traditional forms. With automated AI follow-ups, your survey transforms into a dynamic conversation. Specific’s AI listens to each reply, asks smart clarifying follow-ups, probes gently for detail, and always keeps the context in mind. This means you get responses that are richer, clearer, and far more actionable—without needing to chase parents down for clarification by email.

• Parent: "I don’t think the rules are fair."

• AI follow-up: "Can you share a specific example of a discipline rule you feel is unfair, and why you think it doesn’t work?"

How many followups to ask? In most cases, two to three well-placed follow-ups are enough. Specific lets you configure this—so if you’re getting what you need, you can skip ahead to the next topic without making the parent repeat themselves or get survey fatigue.

This makes it a conversational survey: Parents don’t feel like they’re filling in a cold, static form. Instead, the survey adapts—it’s like talking to a caring administrator who wants to get it right.

AI survey response analysis: Worried about all the extra unstructured feedback follow-ups generate? Don’t be. You can analyze dozens or hundreds of conversational responses fast using AI. You get instant summaries, consistent coding, and trend highlights, even for long-form, nuanced feedback.

Automated follow-up questions are a new frontier—generate your own survey with Specific and experience how conversation can change the quality of insights you get.

How to prompt ChatGPT for great parent discipline policy survey questions

Crafting survey questions with AI tools is easy—if you guide them well. Start with targeted prompts, then add context for best results.

Get basic open-ended questions by saying:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for parent survey about discipline policies.

For richer, more relevant ideas, always give extra context. For example:

We are a K-8 school looking to revise our discipline policies. Please suggest 10 open-ended questions for a parent survey that help us learn what’s working, what’s not, and what changes families want. Focus on actionable feedback we can use in policy updates.

Next, group your questions into themes to spot patterns. Ask:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then, dig deeper by asking:

Generate 10 questions for categories “Communication with parents” and “Effectiveness of current discipline policies”.

The more specific your prompts, the better the questions—and the insights—they’ll yield.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys turn boring forms into active, two-way dialogues. Instead of a static list of questions, parents are guided by AI through an engaging back-and-forth—making it feel personal, human, and much less tedious. Unlike manual forms that are rigid and linear, AI-powered conversational surveys can clarify a parent’s meaning, react to concerns, and go deeper where needed—all in real-time. They meet respondents where they are, on any device.

Why use AI for parent surveys? AI survey generators like Specific are purpose-built to engage busy parents, collect nuanced stories, and analyze responses without drowning in the data. For example, field research shows that AI-driven chatbots can significantly enhance the specificity, informativeness, and relevance of open-ended responses—improving data quality and participant engagement [5].

If you're curious about building conversational surveys from scratch, check out our step-by-step guide for parent discipline policy surveys.

AI survey examples show that a conversational format—backed by real-time follow-up questions—empowers parents to speak honestly, drives higher completion rates, and makes feedback genuinely actionable. The result? You capture things static forms miss, and everyone (admins, parents, and teachers alike) saves time. If you want best-in-class experience for conversational surveys, Specific delivers smooth, effective tools designed specifically for these challenges.

See this discipline policies survey example now

Make your next parent discipline policy survey a true conversation—get in-depth, actionable feedback with minimal effort. Unlock richer insights, higher engagement, and easier analysis with an AI-powered survey experience from Specific.