Differences in parent and teacher trust levels: Implications for creating collaborative family-school relationships

Abstract The purposes of this exploratory study were to determine differences in: (a) levels of trust between parents and teachers; (b) parent trust as a function of income, ethnicity, school site, type of services, and level of special education service; and (c) current level of involvement for high-, moderate-, and low-trust parent groups. Surprisingly little research that addresses trust in the parent-teacher relationship exists. Furthermore, trust is often treated as an important characteristic of family-school relationships. In this study, data were collected from parents and teachers of special and regular education students. One interesting finding, particularly for creating collaborative family-school relationships, is that parent trust is significantly higher than teacher trust. Five implications for school personnel to build trust between families and schools are described.