Here are some of the best questions for a parent survey about school safety, along with practical tips to get the responses that matter. If you want to build your own Parent survey about School Safety in seconds, just use Specific’s AI to generate one effortlessly.

Best open-ended questions for parent survey about school safety

Open-ended questions let parents voice personal experiences, feelings, and suggestions, picking up details that closed questions can miss. These are perfect when you want honest, unfiltered feedback and stories that go beyond just numbers.

Given that 38% of U.S. parents fear for their child’s physical safety at school as of 2023 [1], open-ended questions are critical—they capture the true reasons and emotions behind these concerns.

1. What is your biggest concern regarding your child’s safety at school?

2. Have you or your child experienced any incidents that made you feel unsafe at school? Please describe.

3. What steps do you wish the school would take to improve safety?

4. How well do you think the school communicates with parents about safety procedures and incidents?

5. In your opinion, what could make your child feel even safer at school?

6. Are there any parts of the school environment (e.g., playground, bathrooms, hallways) you’re especially concerned about?

7. Can you share any positive experiences where you felt school staff prevented or handled a safety issue well?

8. How do you talk to your child about school safety, and what have they shared with you?

9. What improvements would you suggest for school safety drills or emergency preparedness?

10. Are there any additional resources or support you wish the school provided for student well-being and safety?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for parent survey about school safety

Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal when you want to measure opinions, quantify trends, or kick off a discussion. For busy parents, it’s sometimes easier to pick a predefined option than come up with a detailed written answer. These questions also help you quickly spot patterns or identify top concerns, which you can then explore further with smart follow-ups.

Multiple-choice questions work well when you’re looking at broader trends—such as the fact that 14% of parents report their children have felt unsafe at school in the last year. [1]

Question: How concerned are you about your child’s safety at school?

• Very concerned

• Somewhat concerned

• Not concerned

• Not sure

Question: Which of the following do you believe poses the greatest risk to student safety at your child’s school?

• Bullying

• Physical violence

• Unauthorized visitors

• Weapons/guns

• Online threats/cyberbullying

• Poor emergency preparedness

• Other

Question: How well do you think the school currently handles reports of bullying?

• Excellent

• Good

• Needs improvement

• Not sure

When to followup with "why?" A "why" follow-up is essential when you want more context or motivation behind a chosen option. For example, if a parent chooses "bullying" as their top concern, asking "Can you tell us why bullying is your primary worry?" can reveal detailed stories or specific incidents that the initial answer alone doesn’t show.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add an "Other" option if your pre-set choices might not cover every perspective. This lets parents introduce unique or unexpected risks, which automated followup questions in conversational surveys can instantly dig into for richer detail.

Should you use a net promoter (NPS) question for school safety surveys?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) questions help you gauge overall satisfaction and advocacy in a snap: “How likely are you to recommend your child’s school to other parents when it comes to student safety, on a scale from 0 to 10?” This is a powerful high-level metric—if lots of parents pick low ratings, it’s a signal you’ve got a widespread problem that needs immediate attention. Specific makes it easy to add an NPS question for parents about school safety and immediately follow up to understand detractor and promoter perspectives in depth.

The power of follow-up questions

To turn every parent response into actionable insight, you need great follow-up questions—that’s where Specific stands out. Our AI-driven follow-up questions adapt in real time, probing for detail, context, or motivation in a way that feels natural and smart.

The value is obvious: in traditional surveys, unclear answers force you to email parents for clarification, leading to delays, drop-off, and missed nuance. Here’s how it plays out:

• Parent: “I’m concerned about mornings.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you explain a bit more—what feels unsafe to you about mornings at school?”

Without the follow-up, you’re left guessing. With Specific, you immediately get clarity and richer data—no email chain or time wasted.

How many followups to ask? In practice, 2–3 targeted follow-ups are enough to get the full story, and Specific can be tuned to move to the next question once you have what you need. You can configure this in the platform, so you gather just the right amount of detail—no more, no less.

This makes it a conversational survey: Each answer prompts further exploration, turning surveys into genuine two-way conversations, not static forms.

AI-powered analysis & summarization: Worried about sifting through text? Our AI response analysis makes sense of any amount of unstructured feedback in seconds, spotting themes, urgent issues, and actionable takeaways—even if you get hundreds of detailed replies.

These automated follow-ups are a new way of collecting feedback—try generating a survey with Specific and experience it yourself.

How to prompt ChatGPT to come up with great parent survey questions about school safety

If you’re experimenting with ChatGPT or another AI, you can get quality custom questions with smart prompting. Here’s a basic starter:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Parent survey about School Safety.

For the best results, always add background—the more context the AI has, the sharper the questions:

I’m a parent of a 9-year-old at a public elementary school. The school recently updated its safety procedures and communicates with parents via a mobile app. My goal is to understand where other parents feel improvement is still needed and whether students are worried about safety at school. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a parent survey about school safety, focusing on concerns, communication, and recent changes.

Once you have your initial list, categorize and refine for even sharper targeting:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then, if you care most about, say, “Bullying” or “Emergency Preparedness”, focus in:

Generate 10 questions for categories Bullying and Emergency Preparedness.

What is a conversational survey?

Traditional surveys fire off the same blunt questions to everyone, then force you to interpret incomplete or confusing answers. In contrast, an AI-powered conversational survey adapts on the fly—it’s like sitting down with each parent individually and having a real dialogue. The AI picks up on cues, digs into vague responses, and doesn’t move on until you get clarity.

Why use AI for parent surveys? The stakes are high: two-thirds of Tennessee parents have discussed school gun violence with their children [2], and 1 in 5 high school students report bullying [3]. With an AI survey example, you don’t just save time—you capture every relevant angle, and eliminate worries about follow-up, data quality, or slow analysis. Specific’s surveys make data collection a breeze and feedback feel like a genuine conversation, not a chore.

We've written a practical guide to how to create a survey for parents about school safety, breaking the process down step by step. With the right tools and methods, including Specific’s AI survey generator, your next survey will land right the first time—saving hours and helping you focus on your actual school safety goals.

Specific’s best-in-class conversational survey UX ensures that both parents and organizers enjoy a smooth, human-centric feedback loop from start to finish. This is what keeps response rates high and data actionable.

See this school safety survey example now

Your next move is simple: see a model survey in action and discover how conversational AI uncovers insights you’d otherwise miss. Get richer, more nuanced feedback from every parent—fast.