https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2018-12-17/child-abuse-rises-after-friday-report-cards-study-finds
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2717779
Study looked at child abuse on different days of the week, including days when report cards were issued and days after report cards were issued.
I read this yesterday and it made me super sad and upset. What an awful feeling for kids who are trying but just not succeeding at mastering school skills. And that may often be simply because they lack support for their school studying habits at home - the same place they have to fear the wrath of not succeeding in school.
Very very bothersome to me. 
Slightly different article - this is the one I read. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/health/child-abuse-report-cards-florida.html
Oh, this is so sad. Yes…change the day to a weekday. What if the abuse happens all weekend? . And it could be a deterrent, knowing that the child is going back into school the very next day with teachers’ eyes on him/her.
Our district just switched to online report cards only, which I really don’t like. I feel like this puts at-risk (using that term generally, not specific to abuse) children at even more of a disadvantage in terms of parental engagement. But if it prevents abuse then that’s a silver lining.
This experience is not at the level of the article and was before online systems were common. One year, my kids’ private Catholic high school mailed first term report cards so that they arrived at families’ homes on Christmas Eve. There were so many complaints about Christmas being ruined that the policy was changed to mailing grades so that they arrived at the end of Christmas break, the day before kids returned to school.
^Many years ago, my S, always a very good student and no behavior problems, got a middle school report card with negative behavior comments the day before Christmas Eve (start of break). He was sick about it–definitely affected his Christmas. He swore he didn’t know about any issues.
Finally got to meet with his “team” to find out what was up, in January. No one had any issues with him–one teacher said there were kids fooling around or laughing (something like that) in corner of class and she just put down names of anyone in that area. He’s great, they all agreed. I told them how much it had affected him, and they felt bad. Not sure anything was changed, though I think they were carefuller about whose names they dinged.
In another family, this could have gone differently.
It may be impossible to accomplish but I think that handing anyone an assessment of themselves without face to face discussion is wrong. What if you received your job evaluation that way? Parent teacher conferences should be done with report cards in hand for discussion. And the conferences should allot more than 10 minutes to occur. And honestly, the kids should be in attendance for at least a fair portion of it - isn’t that how we can build accountability for everyone? - parent, child, teacher???
My S is a jr high 7-9 math teacher in a very urban, low income, generally low performing area. This is his 5th year of teaching - since year one one of his best tools has been the telephone. He very often calls parents all throughout the year. To share issues as well as good news, improvement, etc. He has always felt that getting parents involved early was important to try and turn a situation around - or to nurture a good situation. Most often parents are VERY appreciative of these calls. It also gives them respect for him.
Or not meeting the standards of an abusive tiger parent… (e.g. earning an A instead of a A+ in some subjects)
When my daughter was in a high-pressure magnet HS the level of parental abuse - low-grade and high-grade - was astounding. One of her teachers told me that she gets really stressed at parent-teacher conferences because she knows a lot of kids go home to a beating. The parents reinforced the culture with each other which made it a lot worse. @TS0104 I agree that online grade reporting has severely increased abusive behavior re. grades. I wish schools would abolish it.
The grading isn’t the problem, the parents are. I sure hope these abusive parents are being reported.
I took a child psychology class in college as an elective. I’d heard the professor was good but really didn’t think I’d get much out of the class. Boy, was I wrong! I learned so much about different parenting styles, stages of cognitive development, effective discipline techniques, etc. I truly feel that one class made me a much better parent.
Teachers are required to report abuse, and they have a difficult job. My hat is off to all the teachers in this country.
Oh, @CCtoAlaska your point is totally different than mine, but an eye opener (in terms of OVER involved parents, and pressure). I was thinking of under involved parents, that online-only report cards, never mailed, means that kids who are not getting parental support or engagement at home will have even less, if there isn’t that letter coming in the mail twice a year, these parents may have zero idea how their child is doing at school.
@basket it is great to hear that your S is taking this initiative, that sounds like a great plan and I’m glad it has went well.
@TS0104 I reread your point and I think most schools send paper reports, too. The online grades give parents an opportunity to react to every homework or quiz with abuse. It also fosters another kind of abuse where the child is completely micromanaged to the point where they never develop adult skills by 18.
I teach in a middle school with a very high free/reduced lunch percentage of families. We use online grades, parent calls, a free after school tutoring program, and fall/spring conference to go over 1st and 3rd quarter grades. The online grading is so that parents can see when kids are failing or missing work. That way they can work to bring up grades before they are final.
We are required to call home for failures and let families know about missing work. There is no good answer to stop abuse regarding grades. Lots of parents are great but sometimes we run into no good numbers on file and emails go unanswered.
@drewsmom17 the article is actually about violent abuse of kids spiking following report card release, not just unresponsive, uninvolved parents. I really feel strongly that, by middle school, the burden should be shifted to the students in terms of being responsible for their own work. I volunteer in a school like where you teach and constant reminding and second chances seems to have created widespread anxiety in the middle schoolers. None of the kids think they can manage on their own because they have never done it and they really choke on assessments. My daughter is in a middle school that is high need but the kids are way more relaxed and thriving because the students are expected to assume way more responsibility for their own work.
People get stressed with bad news. It was the policy at my major corporation that no one was fired on a Friday. If at all possible, the firings or lay-offs happened at the beginning of the week so that people could used resources like unemployment or counseling immediately and not brood all weekend. We had one guy who had to be fired on a Friday because they had to wait 4 weeks after his performance notice, and it had to be that Friday because we were hosting a conference starting that Monday and management didn’t want him involved. It took going to the headquarters in NY to get permission, that’s how strict the policy was. It was a sad situation.
My sister is a 4th grade teacher and she can’t call all the parents because they don’t all speak English. When there is a teacher conference (and do think they give the first report cards at teacher conferences) they have to have interpreters. The kids speak much more English than the parents.
@CCtoalaska I understand and agree with you. I mentioned the unresponsive parents because we try to help kids and talk to families before it becomes a bigger issue and failure. We have had parents get mad when they didn’t know their kid was failing until the report came home. We try to help them get their grades up as much as we can.
Surprises aren’t great but i know the constant stress isn’t either. I don’t really know what the answer is to help.