Your child spends a lot of time at school, so you might be wondering whether you need to tell the school of your impending divorce. There is no obligation for you to do this, but it is often recommended that you do so, especially for younger children.
Here is why informing the school is a good idea.
The school needs to be able to contact you
Your child’s school needs to be able to contact both you and your spouse in an emergency. It can more easily do this if it has accurate and complete contact information. Most of the time they will just ring your cell phone or email you, but landline numbers and addresses are necessary backups, just in case they can’t reach you through the usual means. Be sure to update them if one or both of you moves.
It gives the school a more complete picture of your child
Schools see plenty of children with divorcing or divorced parents. They won’t hold that against you or your child. What they can do, is use the information about the change in home circumstances to understand your child better and offer support where needed.
If a teacher understands your child’s home situation they can make allowances for any out-of-character behavior that might arise due to what is happening at home. Be that failing to hand in homework because the books are in the wrong house, or getting into an argument because they are feeling emotionally unstable.
This is just one of the things you can do to help your child through the divorce. Learning how to create a good, workable parenting plan is another.