81 Questions for Parents

Kristen J. Amundson is a former teacher, school board chair, state legislator, and CEO of a national education organization. She has spent decades answering parents’ questions about school. She’s a nationally recognized expert on parenting, education, and how parents can become advocates for their own child and for every child in the school system. Amundson is the author of Unfinished Learning: Parents, Schools, and the COVID School Closures.

Amundson taught in the classroom and spent nearly a decade on her local school board, but the time devoted to raising her daughter, Amundson writes, was “even more important than those professional qualifications.” This book shares Amundson's years of experience, as well as advice gathered from parents of children of all ages attending public, private, and charter schools. Amundson also draws from teachers, school administrators, and education research to get the answers parents need to know, but which schools don’t always disclose. She begins with the six “big questions all parents should ask,” and addresses the current pandemic, during which the kitchen table became the classroom for many. She moves on to the elementary years, when parents decide when and where to send their children to kindergarten; the tumultuous middle school years, when children navigate new schools, new friendships, and the influence of technology; and the high school years and beyond. Amundson's questions and valuable collection of “unwritten rules” will help parents make a child’s school experience as positive and successful as possible.