Written by Colette Momartin

When you’re working with your tutee, maintaining a quiet and distraction-free environment is key to their success. In some cases, parents or guardians may unintentionally disrupt your session. In other cases, they might want to be more involved in their child’s learning. If you find that these disruptions are impacting your sessions, it is important to address them respectfully and professionally. 

Decide whether or not this needs to be addressed during the session or can wait until afterwards

1. 1. If it needs to be addressed immediately, you can ask your student if their parent/guardian can come to their device and for them to take a snack or stretch break in the meantime. 
   2. This might be more appropriately addressed at the beginning or end of a session.
   3. Another option is texting your tutee’s parent/guardian in between sessions.

What you should include in your message/discussion

1. 1. 1. Explain that you are very grateful that they are interested and invested in their child’s success. However, in order to have an effective session, we want to ensure distractions are minimized.
      2. Utilize the weekly progress update form, where you can provide feedback directly to the parent/guardian’s email. Or, you can send short check-ins through text after every session or on a weekly basis.
      3. Suggest check-in sessions moving forward. Some tutors have had success with setting up short monthly calls with parents/guardians to discuss their child’s progress.
      4. Ask the parent/guardian if they have any other suggestions to make sure their questions and concerns are being answered.

If any issue cannot be resolved directly, contact Tutor Support (tutorsupport@stepuptutoring.org) for further guidance.

FAQs

1. Communicating with Your Student’s Family

2. Poor Chronic Student Attendance