Response time for parent emails to teachers

Question: When I email my child's teacher, how long should I have to wait for a response? How long before I should send a follow-up email to make sure they got my original message?

Answer: In today's society, instant communication has become the norm. We can get impatient when we don't get a response or at least an acknowledgement of our electronic message within minutes -- or even seconds -- of us sending it.

That being said, our teachers spend more than 90 percent of their days in front of their students -- not their computers. Because of that, they're unable to respond to parent emails as quickly as you might like.

I appreciate your question, however, because you bring up a good point: What timeframe should we consider "reasonable" for a B-P teacher to respond to a parent's email? I believe 24-36 hours is realistic -- and I will work with my leadership team to make sure all of our teachers are aware of that expectation.

So, moving forward, you should expect to hear back from your child's teacher within 24-36 hours. I'm not saying the teacher will necessarily have complete information to respond to your questions and/or concerns within 24-36 hours. But, at the very least you can expect a response to let you know the teacher has received and read your email, and the teacher should give you an idea of when he or she will get back to you with the information you're looking for.
- answered by Stephen Tomlinson, superintendent of schools