5 Things Every Parent Should Do Before the School Year Starts

I've been tutoring students since I was one myself, back in high school, all the way through today, working with students of every age. Every August, I see the same pattern: the families who walk into the school year with a plan have a noticeably smoother fall than the ones who wait to react once things get hard. Here are the five things I tell every parent to do before the first bell rings.

1. Get the Syllabus for Every Class

Before the first week is even over, get a copy of the syllabus for each of your student's classes. This one document tells you almost everything you need to plan around: how often exams happen, roughly how much time homework and test prep should take, and what's expected across the semester.

This isn't just useful for you, it's useful for your student too. A syllabus turns a vague, looming school year into something concrete and plannable. Half of school-year stress comes from not knowing what's coming.

2. Get the Right Materials, Especially the Right Calculator

Pens, notebooks, and pencils are the easy part. Where families most often get tripped up is the calculator.

Every school (and sometimes every teacher) has a preference, some advanced math courses require a TI-84, others use a TI-Nspire. Even if your student's school provides calculators, I still recommend getting your own. Your student needs to practice with the exact model they'll use on tests, and that calculator won't just serve them for one year. It'll likely follow them through several more math courses, into science classes, and often straight through college.

Check with the school first so you know exactly which model to buy.

3. Line Up Support Early, Office Hours and Tutoring Alike

Find out early what support is actually available: does the teacher offer office hours? What's their availability like for extra help?

And if your student is going to need a tutor this year, don't wait. Good tutors book up, and finding a specific weekly time slot gets harder as the school year goes on. Getting on a tutor's schedule early, even for just an hour a week, gives you priority placement before things get chaotic. It also gives your tutor time to actually learn how your student learns, so they can offer real guidance on how much independent practice your student needs and what habits will serve them best.

4. Build a Positive Relationship With the Material, On Purpose

School can be genuinely exhausting, and it's common for students to lose confidence after one bad experience, a rough teacher, a hard unit, a moment where they felt like they "weren't a math person." That belief tends to stick around far longer than the moment that caused it.

This is something I prioritize in every tutoring session: making sure students understand how capable they actually are. But that message shouldn't only come from a tutor, the more places it comes from, the more it sticks.

The research backs this up. A large national study published in Nature found that a short, one-time online intervention teaching students that intellectual ability can grow with effort measurably improved grades among lower-achieving students, and increased enrollment in advanced math courses. A more recent study of middle schoolers in Georgia found that students who received math instruction built around growth-mindset messaging showed significantly greater improvement in math performance than students in traditional instruction, a difference of about one full letter grade, along with more positive attitudes toward math itself.

In short: telling a student they're capable isn't just encouragement. It measurably changes outcomes.

5. Preview New Material Before It's Taught

When possible, I like to walk students through a preview of upcoming material before their teacher introduces it. Going into a lesson with a little background knowledge does two things: it reinforces the material once they see it again in class, and it gives students real confidence walking in, since the concept isn't landing on them cold.

That small head start tends to compound over the course of a unit, then a semester.

None of these five things require a total overhaul of how your family approaches school. They're small, deliberate moves made early, before the year picks up speed, that make an outsized difference by spring.

If you're looking for support building any of this into your student's routine this year, from getting a head start on tricky material to building that consistent confidence, I'd love to help.