Ask AISAP #14: Guidance on withholding an invitation to return

Debby Murphy responds to this question from an AISAP member, "How do you communicate with families regarding a withholding of an invitation to return?"

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Have an enrollment question? Just ask AISAP I am joined today by Debby Murphy and the focus really is on the other half of the enrollment equation, not admission or recruitment, but retention. So here's the question that was asked in our AISAP community. And it's focusing on withholding of an invitation to return. And our practitioner wrote, How do you communicate with families prior to enrollment or re enrollment regarding future enrollment? For example, this school and many schools, by the way, say we have the right to reserve a withhold in of an invitation to return. And this person is asking for guidance as to where this information not only is stated, when it is stated and also various policies and procedures. So, Debby, again, in your training and your listening, in your knowledge of as we then share this with our community, what might be your advice to this person and to our community as it all impacts and affects that retention element of our enrollment equation? Yeah, that's a really good question. And you know, the first thing that comes to mind for me is an expression from Brené Brown. Clear equals kind. So the clearer you can be with families and this includes language obviously in the enrollment contract, but certainly in the in the whatever the the book of Rules is, whatever whatever you're asking families to sign off on, you know, kind of as they join your community. This is this is something that needs to be documented early on and needs to be clear so that you can point back to it. Please don't take anything that Janice and I say on this podcast right now as as as the the Gospel Truth or Bible without consulting, without consulting your legal counsel, because this is an area where, yes, you have every right, I think, to not invite back or not issue a contract. And I worked at at several schools that has been through this. And, you know, it's not every year let's hope. But it might you might have, you know, depending on the size of your your student body, you know, one of these every year. So, you know, this is in my opinion, this is something where the the admission office who oversees enrollment needs support and help from the head of school and that this this usually would, I think, go right to that level depending on again, the size of the school and the structure of the the admin team. But in most cases, if a family is not being invited back and it isn't something obvious like discipline, the head of school would need to be part of that conversation. And again, I imagine that would want to bring the legal counsel in and check what that person is doing. Debby, you've brought up a number of different points here, and I think some of them need to be repeated. And I think one of them that you've noted here is in this podcast scenario, we are expressing our experience, our best practice, knowledge and understanding, but also, as we say in our disclaimer, is that legal counsel, this is not to replace any type of legal counsel in any way, shape or form. And it's important to really reinforce and reiterate that. I also love that you've referenced that clear equals kind, because it has been my experience having sat on that side of the desk here, that none of these experiences should come as a surprise to anyone, that through the great conversations that we have on a regular basis with our families, from a student and faculty perspective, from the ongoing paperwork and administrative figure that is the business office for a lack of payment or. And so you're exactly right. Clear equals kind. I think the other thing I'd like to to reinforce is clarity of process, because when we talk about handbook enrollment contract reenroll met contract, the process of this happens and then this person gets involved and this document is included and so on and so on and so on. This cannot be a mystery tour, right? So again, that idea notion of clear equals kind, but perhaps clarity equals shared vision, not just one person. Vision for. Sure. Yeah. And I would just also include in there and I think schools are getting better and better about doing this, but really having their mission statement, their mission and vision and values front and center of their entire admission and enrollment process. So that again, there is no lack of understanding on what it means to be mission aligned or value aligned to your point up that shared understanding. You know, these are things that that should obviously be part of the faculty culture and the school culture, but it's really important to have them be part of the admission and enrollment process and have them be represented throughout everything that happens in the admission minimum, the process, so that, again, families will families will hopefully, you know, make some of those decisions on their own if they are not mission aligned and this is not the right fit. And then, you know, so be it. Like, let's let's kind of figure it out. Yeah. Ask at AISAP.org. Send your questions. This discussion is intended for general education purposes and not intended as specific advice. The tips and strategies provided in today's discussion are suggestions based on our experience. Keep in mind that every situation has unique facts and circumstances which could alter our recommendations in any given situation.