That said, one thing that worked well for us was to get our sons their own email accounts fairly early and communicate to the teachers directly.
Children in my school district are not allowed to communicate with the staff directly via electronic media of any sort (email, social networks, etc) to avoid any inappropriate contact (grooming, etc) or its appearance. All communications must pass through the parents' accounts.
It's so interesting to read about all the different school policies, and I appreciate the perspective they bring to each discussion. This makes complete sense, but I had never heard of this kind of policy previously (probably why I didn't understand the earlier reply that it might be difficult to tell the identify of the person sending the email!). We have had a few teachers over the years very specifically say that they don't want parents involved in these discussions, and if it gets to the point of a parent being involved, they want an administrator there as "witness." Perhaps that is part of the reason that I am suspicious about teachers who ONLY want to talk to the kids and not to the parents-these are usually the same teachers that allocate 2 minutes at the end of class for these student-teacher meetings (even when one is requested before or after school or during lunch) and try to steamroll the kid and shut him or her down.
