Preschool parent survey best questions: how to get actionable feedback and deep insights with ai-powered surveys

Running a preschool parent survey is one of the best ways to understand what’s actually working—and what isn’t—for families in your early childhood program. Collecting direct feedback helps directors uncover satisfaction levels and target the areas that matter most to parents. But even the best questions sometimes miss the deeper “why,” leaving leaders with surface-level data. That’s where AI-powered follow-ups and summaries come in. Here are 15 essential questions—and examples of how AI turns answers into real insights.

Questions to measure overall satisfaction and program quality

Asking about overall satisfaction and program quality lays the foundation for improvement. Strong surveys don’t just stop at “How happy are you?”—they dig for context and stories. Given that 84% of early years educators have boosted their use of AI to help with exactly these kinds of tasks, it’s clear that technology is reshaping the way we collect and interpret parent feedback. [1]

• How satisfied are you with your child’s overall experience at our preschool?
  AI follow-ups:

  • What’s the most important factor influencing your satisfaction?

  • If your rating was less than perfect, what would make it a 10?

• Do you feel the curriculum supports your child’s growth and development?
  AI follow-ups:

  • Can you share any changes you’ve noticed in your child’s skills?

  • Are there topics or activities you wish were included?

• How would you describe the classroom environment (welcoming, inclusive, engaging)?
  AI follow-ups:

  • What aspects of the environment stand out most?

  • Can you give an example of something that made your child comfortable?

• How easy is it to communicate with the school about your child’s needs?
  AI follow-ups:

  • Have you had any challenges getting information or support?

  • What could we do to make communication smoother?

• Would you recommend our preschool to other families? Why or why not?
  AI follow-ups:

  • What specific experience led you to this opinion?

  • Is there anything that would affect your recommendation?

Example analysis prompt:

“Summarize the top reasons parents recommend our preschool and the main concerns among those who wouldn't.”

AI summaries help preschool directors spot recurring themes—like shared praise for nurturing teachers or common suggestions around communication. Instead of wading through open-text fields, you get patterns crisply summarized with tools like the AI survey response analysis feature from Specific. This means you spend less time decoding feedback, and more time acting on it.

Safety and well-being assessment questions

Safety and well-being are non-negotiables for parents. Careful, open-ended questions—especially with AI follow-ups—reveal both confidence and concerns in your protocols.

• How safe does your child feel at our preschool?
  AI follow-ups:

  • Is there anything you’d like to see improved about safety?

  • Have you or your child ever felt unsafe here?

• How confident are you in our preschool's emergency procedures?
  AI follow-ups:

  • Were any situations unclear or stressful for your family?

  • What more could we communicate about our procedures?

• Does your child’s emotional well-being feel supported during school hours?
  AI follow-ups:

  • Can you share an example of when a teacher supported your child emotionally?

  • Are there times your child felt left out or upset?

• Are you satisfied with the preschool’s health and hygiene practices?
  AI follow-ups:

  • Have you noticed any gaps or lapses in our practices?

  • Did any policy changes make you feel more or less confident?

• How well does our staff handle bullying or conflicts?
  AI follow-ups:

  • Was there a time you felt we managed a conflict especially well or poorly?

  • Does your child talk about peer problems at home?

Safety insights: When parents share safety concerns, those issues require urgent follow-up and clarity. AI-powered conversational surveys help parents open up about sensitive topics—with 25% of surveyed parents reporting increased trust in centers that use AI for safety monitoring, and 40% saying they’d choose AI-enabled centers for better safety and learning. [2] Many parents are simply more comfortable sharing concerns in a dialog-style flow than a traditional static form.

With automatic AI follow-up questions, it’s easy to keep the conversation going until you’ve surfaced the “why” and “how” behind each response. This adds context that directors and staff simply can’t afford to miss.

Teacher communication and parent engagement questions

Parents want confidence that their needs and perspectives are understood, that teachers stay in touch, and involvement opportunities are open. If your preschool skips these questions, you miss out on some of the most actionable feedback possible on engagement and retention.

• How satisfied are you with communication from your child’s teachers?
  AI follow-ups:

  • Which communication channels do you prefer?

  • Was there a time you didn’t get the information you needed?

• Are you kept updated about your child’s daily activities and progress?
  AI follow-ups:

  • Would you like more or fewer updates?

  • Have you ever been surprised by something about your child’s day?

• Do you feel there are enough opportunities for parent involvement?
  AI follow-ups:

  • What types of involvement appeal most to you?

  • Have you wanted to participate but found it hard to do so?

• How responsive are teachers when you reach out?
  AI follow-ups:

  • How quickly do you typically get a reply?

  • Was there a time you felt ignored or not heard?

• Are meetings or conferences useful for understanding your child’s progress?
  AI follow-ups:

  • What would make these meetings more valuable to you?

  • Were there topics you wanted to discuss, but didn’t have a chance to?

These follow-up questions effectively turn a survey into a real conversation about communication, making it significantly easier for parents to share specifics that you can act on. AI summaries roll up those nuanced conversations into sharp, actionable intel—like spotting a drop in satisfaction around lack of timely updates.

Example analysis prompt:

“Analyze recurring issues about communication delays and summarize preferred update channels among parents.”

Neglecting engagement and communication questions in your preschool parent survey leads to lost opportunities for connection and improvement. The simplest way to build an effective survey every time? Use the AI survey maker, and let Specific guide you to the right mix of questions and follow-ups for your community.

Turning parent feedback into actionable improvements

AI-powered summaries—backed by 72% of educators who say AI tools save them time on administrative work—pull together hundreds of responses into a list of core themes, strengths, and recommendations. [1] You no longer have to manually read each answer; the AI does the heavy lifting, giving you clear next steps.

Theme analysis: When questions like “How safe does your child feel?” or “Would you recommend us?” become trends in AI-generated summaries, directors know exactly where to focus improvement efforts. With Specific, directors can chat with the AI about specific issues—like digging into all quotes related to communication gaps, or generating “top 3 opportunities” for staff discussion. The conversational approach means insights are accessible, not buried in a spreadsheet.

Want to make sure improvements stick? Here are a few practical ways to act on survey learnings:

• Share key findings and themes with staff in regular meetings.

• Post highlights for parents, showing what actions you took in response.

• Schedule pulse surveys (every semester or quarter) to track progress—AI-powered conversational surveys make this painless.

• Encourage staff to use AI-powered tools to brainstorm solutions for recurring issues.

When you run regular, engaging parent surveys powered by Specific, you track satisfaction, safety, and engagement over time—building a stronger preschool community day by day. Feeling inspired? Go on and create your own survey using these questions as your starting point.