End the homework battle for your child!
Homework battles with a child who has a learning disability or other special need can make or break a family dynamic. While that may sound like hyperbole, I know many families who can assure you that it isn’t. If your child is consistently struggling with homework completion at night due to his or her disability, or if your child is spending hours desperately trying to complete homework and you’ve become a tutor and an unavoidable nag, it may be time to set some healthy boundaries. Homework should be reasonable in both scope and content! The following email template can help you craft a respectful but assertive email to your child’s teacher about homework expectations and requirements. (Find an amended version below for typically developing kids.)
Email Template to Help You End the Nightly Homework Battle for Special Needs Kids
Dear ___________,
We are so excited for our son’s fourth grade year, and he is looking forward to being in your class! Due to his disability, (be more specific if you want here) he has previously had trouble completing homework after a long day of dealing with overwhelming sensory experiences in the classroom.
To maintain peace and progress in our home, we follow the National Education Association’s recommendation of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. This recommendation is based on an extensive study that found homework beyond this level to be detrimental to learning and student performance. Therefore, we will limit his time spent on homework to 40 minutes per day. For our child with a disability, this is a reasonable amount of time to expect him to spend on homework, and his efforts should be rewarded with full homework credit.
We would love to work with you to prioritize his homework assignments and complete first those assignments that will best support him and his individual learning needs and gaps. If we must modify his homework in any way, whether it be due to mastery or meltdowns, we will make a note on it so that together we can support his progress toward completing homework independently. Thank you for your help!
Sincerely,
Parent Name
Email Template to Help You End the Nightly Homework Battle for Typically Developing Kids
Dear ___________,
We are so excited for our daughter’s third grade year, and she is enjoying being in your class! She has had some trouble in the evenings adjusting to the level of homework, which is taking her about an hour to complete each night.
To maintain peace and progress in our home, we follow the National Education Association’s recommendation of 10 minutes of homework per grade level. This recommendation is based on an extensive study that found homework beyond this level to be detrimental to learning and student performance. Therefore, we will limit her time spent on homework to 30 minutes per day plus reading. For an eight-year-old child, this is a reasonable amount of time to expect her to spend on homework, and her efforts should be rewarded with full homework credit.
We would love to work with you to prioritize her homework assignments and complete first those assignments that will best support her and her individual learning needs and gaps. If we must modify her homework in any way, whether it be due to mastery or meltdowns, we will make a note on it so that together we can support her progress toward completing homework independently. Thank you for your help!
Sincerely,
Parent Name