Best questions for parent survey about special education support

Here are some of the best questions for a parent survey about special education support, plus key tips to make them genuinely insightful. You can build a conversational survey with Specific in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for parent survey about special education support

Open-ended questions are the heart of a meaningful parent survey about special education support. These questions invite parents to share experiences, ideas, and worries in their own words—surfacing insights that rigid multiple-choice just can’t catch. Open-ended formats work best when we want the full story or need to spot blind spots we didn’t know existed.

Here are the 10 best open-ended questions for parents:

1. What has been the most helpful aspect of your child’s special education support so far?

2. Can you describe any challenges your child has faced that the school’s support did not address?

3. How would you describe your communication experience with the special education team?

4. What changes, if any, would you like to see in the way special education is delivered at the school?

5. Are there specific resources or services you feel are missing for your child?

6. Have there been times when you felt particularly supported by the staff? What happened?

7. In your opinion, how well are your child’s unique needs understood by the educational staff?

8. Can you share a moment when your child felt included or excluded in school activities?

9. How could the school improve its partnership with families of students with special needs?

10. What advice would you give to new parents navigating special education support at this school?

Using questions like these empowers parents to be open. We’ve often seen that the more flexible the format, the richer the feedback. In fact, a recent UK government survey found that 64% of parents of pupils with SEND felt very or fairly confident in their child’s special education provision, but that leaves a clear need to surface and address the gaps for the other 36%—something open-ended responses can really help clarify. [3]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for parent survey about special education support

Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when we want to quantify parent sentiment or quickly spot large trends. Parents often appreciate the simplicity of clicking an option—sometimes it’s less intimidating than drafting a full response, and it gives us a launching point for deeper follow-ups.

Here are three strong multiple-choice questions for this audience:

Question: How satisfied are you with your child’s current special education support?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: How clear is the communication from the school regarding your child’s needs and progress?

• Very clear

• Somewhat clear

• Not very clear

• Not clear at all

Question: Which support service do you believe is most effective for your child?

• Speech therapy

• Occupational therapy

• Small group instruction

• Behavioral support

• Other

When to followup with "why?" Always consider an immediate follow-up when parents select an answer that could mean different things (e.g., “Somewhat dissatisfied”). Asking “Why did you select this option?” helps unpack the reasons behind their choice and points to improvement areas.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? The “Other” choice is essential when you can’t predict every support service a family might use. When parents pick this, a follow-up question (“Can you describe the other service you’re referring to?”) can reveal solutions or gaps the school hadn’t considered. These answers are often goldmines for innovation.

NPS question for parent survey about special education support

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a tried-and-true way to measure overall satisfaction and loyalty—especially powerful in the realm of special education support. By asking parents how likely they are to recommend the school’s special education program to other families, we tap into their gut-level endorsement or concern. This single number is easy to benchmark and spot shifts over time. You can generate an NPS survey tailored for parents of children in special education support with a single click.

NPS fits naturally within conversational parent surveys, especially because Specific’s platform lets you add automatic, context-based follow-up (“What main factors influenced your score?”). This pinpoints what’s working well and what isn’t, in rich parent language—not just numbers.

The power of follow-up questions

Great surveys don’t just ask—they listen. Follow-up questions help us bridge the gap between surface-level responses and real insight. If you haven’t yet, check out how automated follow-up questions work in Specific—it’s a game changer for anyone collecting parent feedback on special education support.

Specific’s AI asks smart, personalized follow-ups the moment a parent responds, so we always get full context. This dynamic probing means feedback is complete, not ambiguous. Automated follow-ups save hours you might otherwise spend on back-and-forth emails, and parents appreciate not having to repeat themselves.

• Parent: “Communication could be better.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share a recent instance where communication fell short, or suggest how we can improve it?”

How many followups to ask? In most cases, 2-3 targeted follow-ups get us rich detail without overwhelming the parent. And, there’s always the option to move forward once the needed information is reached—Specific even lets you set a stop point for deeper dives.

This makes it a conversational survey. The exchange flows like a real conversation, which increases parent comfort and engagement—and, ultimately, the depth of the insights.

AI analysis, unstructured data, easier insights. Thanks to built-in AI, analyzing responses is no longer a pain—even if parents write a lot. The platform summarizes, categorizes, and highlights key themes for you. See more in our guide to analyzing survey responses using AI.

These kinds of automated, real-time follow-up questions are still new territory for many. I recommend you generate your own survey—you’ll immediately see the difference.

How to write a prompt for ChatGPT to generate great parent survey questions

Writing a good prompt for ChatGPT or other AI tools makes a huge difference in the quality of questions you’ll get. Start simple, then layer on context for more pointed, actionable suggestions.

Ask for a general list first:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for parent survey about special education support.

Want to improve the quality? Share more details about your context:

I am a parent of a child with special educational needs. I am designing a feedback survey for our school to understand where special education support is working and where it could improve. My goal is to uncover unmet needs and communication gaps—please create 10 in-depth, open-ended questions for this purpose.

Once you have your draft questions, ask the AI to cluster them into themes:

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

Now, choose the most relevant categories (for example: “Communication,” “Inclusion,” or “Resource Gaps”) and dig deeper:

Generate 10 questions for categories Communication and Resource Gaps.

This kind of strategic prompting gets you a tailored, thoughtful question set that hits the mark with your parent audience.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is designed to sound and feel like a natural chat—not a sterile, one-way form. AI-driven surveys like those we build with Specific adapt in real time, ask follow-ups, and flow back-and-forth with the parent, capturing richer details and context compared to static surveys.

One major advantage of using an AI survey generator is sheer efficiency and respondent engagement. AI-generated surveys not only draft better questions more quickly, but their adaptability leads to much higher participation and less survey fatigue.

Why use AI for Parent surveys? AI-powered, conversational surveys significantly outperform traditional survey methods in both response rates and usefulness of feedback. For example, AI surveys have reduced abandonment rates to 15-25%, compared to 40-55% for static forms—a direct result of the personalized experience. [2]

Specific was built from the ground up to provide a best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys. Every touch—from question creation to follow-up to AI-driven insights—keeps the feedback process natural and painless for both the parents and the people collecting the data. If you’re curious how to get started, see our guide to creating a parent survey about special education support in just a few minutes.

See this special education support survey example now

Your best parent survey about special education support is only minutes away—conversational, AI-powered, and tailored for deeper insights. Try it out to uncover what families truly need and help every child thrive.