Q: It's time for our parent teacher organization to stop sending paper newsletters home, but the president is worried that going digital will cause legal problems and exclude some parents. Haven't most schools crossed this bridge?

A: Thanks to the swift migration to Internet-connected mobile devices and broadband access at home, many schools have increased the quality and frequency of communication with parents by going digital. Data shows that parents appreciate it.

Parent leaders aren't just converting their printed missives, which are often lost in the backpack, into e-newsletters; they are using a range of tools to increase information flow and engagement, including social media, online surveys, customized school websites and wikis that invite parents reviews, and apps.

Knapp Elementary in Lansdale, Pa., is a great model, according to Tim Sullivan, publisher of PTOtoday.com, a website for parents that offers advice and resources.

"Their Home and School Association (HSA) surveyed parents at back-to-school night and learned that 94 percent of families were able to access email or texts," he says. "They formed the Knapp Family Engagement Team to create a technology plan to reach out to parents."

Knapp principal Joe Mazza says it was all about "listening to parents, soliciting their feedback and responding." Mazza offers technology-training sessions for teachers and parents on how to use Twitter and other communication formats.

To avoid legal problems, district guidelines are followed closely. To protect privacy, children's names are never used and parents can opt out by signing a digital communications refusal form.

Knapp Elementary's HSA outreach program is so successful that PTO Today gave it the Judges' Choice Parent Group of the Year award for 2013.

What got the judges' attention?

-- Knapp HSA's e-book newsletter takes much less time to prepare and distribute than its paper predecessor, and the program can track response. "The click-through rate has increased from 60 to 200 readers, and growing. For a 600-student, K-5 school, that's impressive engagement," notes Sullivan.

-- Many teachers tweet what's going on in their classrooms. Parents follow posts on Twitter or on the school's website. "They might describe the day's science experiment or book chat," says Sullivan. "The tweets not only inform parents; they start conversations. Rather than ask, 'What did you do in school today?' a parent can say, 'I see you learned to count by twos! Show me how that's done.' Several teachers tweeted over the summer, keeping kids focused on learning and generating excitement for the coming school year."

-- HSA meetings, held in different places throughout the community, are live streamed using AnyMeeting, a free videoconferencing tool.

-- The Family Engagement Team created a mobile Knapp App to make it easy for parents to email staff and HSA officers. Parents find links to photos taken at school, the e-newsletter, school calendar, podcasts from student clubs and important resources (such a tool to report bullying). The Knapp Elementary app is free on iOS and Android platforms.

"These efforts don't replace face-to-face interaction," says Sullivan. "They expand busy parents' access to school news, events and policies. They can increase interaction by giving parents more insight into their children's class activities and inspiring them to come to school for visits."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: My daughter just started universal pre-kindergarten (UPK). At the open house, her teacher told us about new standards for our state and begged parents to help kids at home with skills. Single working parents like me don't have time or resources. This is the teacher's job. Does what I do at home really matter?

A: It matters. The teacher's delivery may have been awkward -- the new Common Core State Standards have many educators scrambling -- but research backs her up.

A parent's time and attention -- especially in early language development and setting expectations for success in school -- are powerful tools that can boost a kindergartner's academic success.

"Given all the roiling debates about how America's children should be taught, it may come as a surprise to learn that students spend less than 15 percent of their time in school," says Annie Murphy Paul, author of "The Brilliant Report," a popular newsletter on learning. She also has a forthcoming book, "Brilliant: The New Science of Smart" (Crown, 2014).

"While there's no doubt that school is important," she says, "a clutch of recent studies reminds us that parents are even more so."

Parents "don't need to buy expensive educational toys or digital devices for their kids in order to give them an edge. They don't need to chauffeur their offspring to enrichment classes or test-prep courses," says Murphy Paul. "What they need to do with their children is much simpler: talk."

But not just any talk. Murphy Paul points to research from psychology professor Susan Levine at the University of Chicago that shows "children who hear talk about counting and numbers at home start school with much more extensive mathematical knowledge that predicts future achievement in the subject.

"The amount of talk young children hear about the spatial properties of the physical world -- how big or small or round or sharp objects are -- predicts kids' problem-solving abilities as they prepare to enter kindergarten."

A 1995 landmark study by Betty Hart and Todd Risley found that professional parents talk more to their children than less-affluent parents, creating a 30 million "word gap" by the time children reach age 3.

"More recent research is refining our sense of exactly what kinds of talk at home foster children's success at school," says Murphy Paul. She points to one study showing that two-way adult-child conversations "were six times as potent in promoting language development as interludes in which the adult did all the talking.

"Engaging in this reciprocal back-and-forth gives children a chance to try out language for themselves, and also gives them the sense that their thoughts and opinions matter."

Don't underestimate the benefits of reading to your daughter for a few minutes each day. Reading aloud helps children build word-sound awareness, stimulates language and cognitive skills, and develops vocabulary and print knowledge. It also builds motivation, curiosity, memory and gives a child a chance to practice listening -- a critical learning skill. If all that weren't enough, a shared book at bedtime with your daughter will help her learn to love reading throughout her lifetime.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: This far into the semester, my second-grader and fourth-grader still can't get into a school-year rhythm. The younger one forgets his lunch; the older one can't remember which night is Cub Scouts. My wife leaves for work early, so I'm the "traffic cop" who feels guilty when they get on the bus in tears. Help!

A: Tears are no way to start a school day. It sounds like your kids aren't emotionally ready for the routines that school requires.

"Children need to be explicitly taught to manage and embrace the job of being a student," says Shirley Harden, a retired principal who coaches parents on how to do this. "Most families send kids to school rested and fed so they have energy. But kids also need a full tank of mental energy, with their heads clear so that they can learn, make good choices and deal with life's glitches.

"They get that energy by knowing that they have an important job -- to be a student and assume the job's responsibilities."

Parents teach these job responsibilities by establishing a structure for school days, outlining daily rules and routines and practicing them so the structure becomes a habit, says educator Marcia Tate, author of "Preparing Children for Success in School and Life" (Corwin, 2011). Here's how:

-- Spell out and model expectations: "Explain that it takes contributions from every family member to make a household run smoothly," says Tate. "Discuss what they can do to make the family function more harmoniously. Stress the importance of doing their jobs well and model it. Want them to make their beds each morning? Make yours, too."

Rather than tell children what not to do ("Don't leave your lunchbox there"), tell them what to do ("Please put your lunchbox on the kitchen counter").

-- Practice routines and procedures: "Routines can be centered around getting ready for school, what happens when the school day ends, cleaning up after meals, doing homework or getting ready for bed," says Tate. "The more routines are practiced, the faster they become a habit. It may take three or four weeks for kids to develop the habit of making their beds."

-- Hold kids accountable: "Tell your children you expect them to follow through on job commitments you've discussed and established as a family," says Tate. "Decide on consequences for noncompliance and stick with them."

-- Relieve stress the night before. Carry out tasks (laying out clothes, gathering books and getting papers signed) the night before. Are kids buying or taking lunch? Go over the next day's schedule to note nondaily activities, such as clubs. Try for regular bedtimes: Research shows that they can reduce behavior problems and increase focus for kids this age.

-- Schedule a positive ritual to end the day: "A nightly wind-down just before bed is important," says Harden. "What you call it doesn't matter -- it's the ritual that counts. You might read, recap the day or plan the weekend. Draw out concerns and deal with them. No one wants to go to sleep with a worry list."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)