Parent Statements and Preschool Reports

Two documents, two authors

When a school asks for a parent statement and a preschool report, it is asking for two views of the same child. It is tempting to treat these as one assignment with two signatures. They are not.

Your document is about the child you know across a whole week: how they walk into a new place, what they do when the block tower falls, what they ask in the car. The teacher's is a classroom view. Where the two differ, nothing has gone wrong; most children are slightly different people at snack time and at bath time. Do not write yours to match the report you imagine the teacher will write. You will end up describing nobody in particular. Where these two documents fit in the whole application is covered in the Kindergarten admissions guide.

Open the actual prompt first

Before drafting anything, open each school's own application page and system, not a summary of it, and copy the prompt into a document with the school's name on it. Ravenna is the system in the three examples below; your schools may use something else. These three show how much the ground varies.

Horace Mann's prompt asks how your family's and child's experiences so far have shaped who they are, who you imagine they will become, and what part you hope the school will play.

Separately, it asks for a paragraph or two on what a good school experience would look like. That instruction covers only that part, not the whole statement, so check the portal for length guidance before trimming a good page.

Dalton's statement is optional, and I would take that at face value rather than hunting for hidden meaning. A sensible test is whether you have something true to say that the rest of the application would not show.

At Packer, order matters in practice. The statement goes in with the application and fee, so you may well write it before the teacher has sent anything. Write it from your own notes rather than waiting to see how the teacher describes your child.

Write the child, not the adjectives

A statement gets easier when you stop asking what the school wants to hear and start asking what a new teacher would need to know by the second week. Probably: what the child does when they walk into a room of strangers, what they do when something is hard, what they can talk about for forty minutes without being asked, and what they need from the adults nearby. Those answers live in ordinary days, so start with ordinary days.

Then add some movement, because a four- or five-year-old is a moving target. Something that was hard a year ago and is easier now says more than any trait does. It also keeps you from branding the child as the shy one, the leader, the gifted one. Adults hand out those labels at roughly the speed of stickers, and they rarely stay stuck.

Fictional illustration only, not a real family. Before: “Our daughter is curious, empathetic and a natural leader.” After: “She wants to know why the crossing guard waves at some cars and not others. At the start of the year she would not speak at drop-off; now she briefs her teacher on the weekend before we reach the door.” The second version guarantees nothing to anyone. It simply sounds like a child.

If the statement asks why this school, answer with something you can verify: a visit, a conversation, a line in the school's own program description, something you saw that matched something your child needs. A quick test is whether you could swap in another school's name without changing a word. If so, keep digging. A reason that fits only one school reads as more honest than one that flatters all of them.

When learning support or family context matters

Some children need support that shapes their daily learning: help with hearing or vision, a speech or attention plan, or a medical routine. Home language and a family change, such as a move or a loss, can also be useful context. Describe what you see, what helps, and what you would want a new teacher to know on an ordinary Tuesday. You do not need to produce a medical history to do that, and a diagnosis is not a requirement of a good paragraph.

Where more sensitive records belong is a question for the school, asked privately. Ask the admissions office whether it wants those details in the statement, in separate documents, or in a conversation, and by what route, before you upload anything. Asking is routine, not a confession, and many children need something.

We suggest having someone read the draft for typos and for any sentence that sounds like a brochure. If English is not the language you think best in, drafting in your own language, translating, and then reading the English back for what sounds like you is a reasonable way to work. If you are unsure what outside help a school expects, ask the admissions office.

Asking for the teacher's report

Start by asking the preschool who handles these. It may be the teacher or an administrator such as the director, and a two-minute conversation beats three guesses. Then send each request through that school's own system (Ravenna, in the three examples above). Dalton suggests checking your account periodically to see whether the report has arrived, and that habit is worth copying for every school. A request sent is not a report received.

Teachers may get several requests, since each school runs its own process, so send one tidy message listing your schools and when each wants the report.

The ISAAGNY form asks about this year's child in that class, with relative age in mind, and it is meant to stay confidential from parents. So your part is to ask, not to draft, script or preview. If a preschool uses a school's own form, such as Horace Mann's, check that school's instructions instead.

On timing, the ISAAGNY kindergarten and Grade 1 instructions suggest teachers not send the form before November 1, so they can get to know the child. That is for the teacher's sending date, not your request. Ask now; each school's own deadline decides when the report must arrive.

If your situation does not fit the form

If your child has no current preschool, or has only just joined one, ask each school's admissions office what report it accepts and who it suggests as the author. Get the answer in writing if you can. Do not assume a school will waive the report or take a substitute, and do not assume it won't. The answer is theirs, and it may differ from school to school.

Early notification has its own rules. If a school offers an earlier route and you think your family may be eligible, read that exact school's early instructions for what is due and when, and do not borrow another school's calendar. If the instructions are unclear, ask the admissions office, not another parent in the pickup line.

One thing to do this week

Open the application system for each school on your list and paste its actual statement prompt into one document, with a heading per school and a line saying whether it is required, optional, or tied to the application. Beside it, write the name of the person at your child's preschool who will handle the report request, and then send those requests. Once the logistics sit in a document instead of in your head, you can write one honest draft of your child on an ordinary day and adjust it for each school afterward.

Read the school profiles: Horace Mann, Dalton, and Packer.