The Effingham County School System is conducting a parent survey in preparation for its five-year district accreditation visit in 2015.

The input from parents will be used to improve system practices, school officials said. Parents have until April 19 to take the survey, which is available on the school district Web site, www.effinghamschools.com, and the Web sites for each school in the county.

Parents may complete a survey for each school where a child is enrolled. Any comments regarding Effingham College and Career Academy should be included in the survey of the home high school the student attends.

The survey includes a series of multiple-choice questions about the particular school’s purpose and direction, leadership, teaching and learning assessment, resources and support systems. Parents answer each question on a rating system ranging from "strongly agree" to “strongly disagree.”

Parents are also asked open-ended questions on what they like best and least about their child’s school, and what one suggestion they would make to improve the school.

The survey is processed by the accreditation organization AdvancED and all responses are anonymous, school officials said. Parents’ identities are not collected in the survey application.

The only tracking provided by AdvancED is the number of responses completed by school. Only school aggregate data is reported and no individual survey reports are available to the system.

Parents can direct any questions about the survey to their child’s school principal.