The Montessori Parent Partnership Playbook 2026

Enrollment is only the beginning. The schools that keep families for years, and see them come back as alumni with their own children, are the ones that plan the relationship as carefully as the admissions process. In the second session of this parent journey series, Tim Seldin, President of The Montessori Foundation, and Dr. Lindsey Pollock of Sarasota University joined Purva Goyal of illumine to focus on the first 90 days and the ongoing partnership that follows. This is the written recap. The full recording is at the top of this page.

Key takeaways

The parent journey in five phases

Tim explained that it is a serious mistake to think onboarding ends once a family has toured, signed agreements, filled in health forms and named who can pick up their child. The goal is a long-term relationship, and that needs a pre-organized plan, which The Montessori Foundation calls a parent onboarding handbook. Once the school year starts, he said, there is no time to work out what comes next, so it should all be planned ahead and ideally set up in a tool that sends it automatically, with small tweaks each year.

From the very first contact, Tim's approach is to ask rather than sell: tell us about your child, about your own childhood, and what you are looking for. In his words, the school is not converting anyone. It is inviting families to look, observe and decide whether they can see their child blossoming there.

He also reminded leaders that many parents do not read school emails, and that the same few people tend to show up to every meeting. It takes several attempts before a family even knows you are talking to them, which is why the journey is built on many touch points.

Where schools can improve most

The first poll asked where attendees saw the biggest opportunity to improve the parent experience. Community and belonging received the most votes, followed by long-term engagement. Tim's view was that these are hard because schools often do not do enough in the earlier stages of welcoming families and communicating with them.

Dr. Lindsey reflected on her own time as a school principal. She said she was very intentional about recruiting and onboarding families, but often handed long-term engagement to the parent-teacher organization or classroom teachers, and missed the chance to make the most of it.

Why the first 90 days matter

Tim noted that many teachers love children but find parents challenging, and every child arrives with parents, grandparents and others who all have opinions. How teachers greet families, how they interact and how often they communicate changes the relationship, and the odds that a family stays one year, two years or for the whole of their child's schooling.

Dr. Lindsey added that the relationship should reach the whole family system, since grandparents are often raising children or doing pickups on certain days. At her former school, alumni came back to enroll their own children, and alumni and extended families supported events, volunteering and fundraising.

Parents want a partnership, not an education

Tim was blunt about one habit in the Montessori community: wanting to teach parents about Montessori. Most parents, he said, want to know what happened for their child today, whether their child has friends, what comes next, what they should do at home and what the school needs from them.

What to cover in the first 90 days

Dr. Lindsey said the foundation is safety. Parents first want to know their child will be safe, and part of emotional safety is knowing exactly who to contact and how if they have a question or concern. A pre-scheduled communication plan makes sure none of those steps get missed.

She also noted that most families do not come with Montessori experience. Fathers and grandparents in particular sometimes came to her office asking why the children seemed to be playing all day, so the conversation has to feel like a partnership rather than a correction.

Back-to-school night, rethought

Tim's warning was against an evening of teachers lecturing parents on tiny chairs under fluorescent lights while they would rather be at home. Families need to know practical things, such as how drop-off works, but in a way that leaves them feeling these are good people. The same care applies to families moving up a level or returning for another year.

Building the ongoing partnership

Tim pointed out that schools pour effort into the start of the year, conferences and written reports, yet from a parent's point of view, they barely notice. A weekly list of lesson names is, to most parents, "all Greek." Ongoing partnership means far more frequent communication in language parents understand.

Parents don't just need information.

What they want, Tim said, is a relationship and people they can trust. Dr. Lindsey added that she was encouraged to see younger generations of parents recognizing the value of early childhood and the hard work of early educators, and that anything that lightens teachers' load helps build relationships that last.

Dr. Lindsey said she would have been glad of a tool to schedule a whole year of communication against the school calendar, rather than missing a deadline or sending emails at 1 a.m. when a fire marshal visit or a burst pipe threw her day off. Purva added that scheduling was a feature many school owners had specifically asked for.

How illumine supports the parent journey

Purva showed three ways schools keep in regular touch with families in illumine:

• Newsletters. A builder for regular newsletters, such as a check-in two weeks after the start of school or a monthly roundup with photos of events and activities. Schools choose which families receive each one and set a cadence.
• Scheduled posts. Announcements and reminders, such as arrival times or what to pack, can be written ahead and scheduled for the night before or 7 a.m. on the first day. Each post reaches parents in the app and can also go by email or text message. See parent communication for Montessori schools.
• Forms. Schools can build any form, or describe it to the AI form builder. In the demo, a short prompt created a field trip volunteer sign-up, and a two-week check-in form asked families how settling in was going and what could be improved. Responses arrive in one place. Read about the AI form generator.

Questions from the session

How can we be sure children's faces and identities are not shared beyond our account?

Purva explained that photos are only processed by AI with parental consent, and staff can opt out any child whose family has not given it. A school's information never leaves its own account and is never shared with another school. Within an account, children's photos and profile information are not processed alongside data from other rooms. Photos are processed for two purposes only: to recognize faces so staff do not have to tag children by hand, and to identify what activity is taking place. She offered to share illumine's full documentation on how this works. Tim added that if a family does not want their child's photo shared with others, illumine blurs that child's face in group photos, and the teacher checks every photo before it goes out. See how illumine approaches child privacy and protection.

Is this a Montessori-specific challenge?

An attendee pointed out that teachers finding parents challenging is not unique to Montessori. Tim agreed, and said the answer is the same in any school: help teachers see how much their everyday interactions with families matter.

What would make the biggest difference for your school?

In a closing poll, attendees chose better family engagement and higher parent retention most often, with a stronger school community a close second, followed by more parent advocates.

Resources mentioned

• A parent journey checklist, sent to attendees after the session, covering all five phases with suggested information packs, forms and questionnaires for each.
• A sample parent onboarding handbook with example emails, which Tim recommended adapting into your own version.
• The first session in the series. Watch The Ultimate Montessori Parent Onboarding Toolkit 2026.

What to do next

For more on welcoming new families, read the recap of The First Hello. To see how illumine supports Montessori schools, explore Montessori school software or book a live demo.