Children spend six hours of their day with you in school; the other 18 hours of their day, plus weekends and holidays, they spend at home with their parents. For this reason alone your assessment of a child would not be complete without parental input. They can tell you more about their child than anybody else can. In addition, their home is a different environment from your classroom. How a child behaves in your classroom and does not behave at home, or vice versa, can help you understand what motivates him and under which conditions he operates best in.
Also it gives you an idea of whether parents are contributing to or helping alleviate their child’s problems. You may find that parents do not perceive their child’s problem as a problem to them, and for this reason have done nothing to correct it. For instance, parents may let their child kick and hit other children because they see it as a legitimate way for him to stick up for his rights, or they have a high tolerance for misbehavior. In some cases, the best way you can help a child is by helping his parents. Giving parents advice on child management, or going over the rules for classroom conduct, may be enough to change their child’s behavior at school.