It depends on the type of cheating. I just make sure that I
have every piece of evidence taken care of and photocopied,
etc. before I approach the parents or even the kids. If the
kids get tipped off too soon, they will come up with a story
for mom and dad before you can get your story home. Once I
have everything in order, I email it to the parents so they can
see the physical evidence and then follow up with a phone call.
I just explain the situation and tell them what I plan to do.
For instance, I had a kid plagiarize his research paper last
year. The kid was notorious for lying to his parents and then
they'd come in and yell at me or other teachers because they
believed everything he said. When presented with the website
he copied his paper from almost entirely word-for-word, along
side the paper he turned in, before he got a chance to come up
with a story, it was a pretty easy sell.

If it is a situation where you have two kids that turned in
homework or a test with the same answers. I usually show the
work to both sets of parents and then let them know I will be
talking to both children to get to the bottom of the story.
Usually, the kids will admit to the facts and I don't have to
do too much investigating. But, unfortunately, I can't say
that is always the case.

Short answer...I just present the facts as professionally as
possible and let them figure out that their kid is a cheater.

My favorite response from a parent last year when I caught
their daughter plagiarizing. I sent the mom an email with a
paper I found on the internet that was identical to the one she
turned in. The mom (who I already had a very good relationship
with) emailed back and said, "Looks like a teachable moment for
[daughter]. We'll support anything you do."

On 11/02/09, sb wrote:
> In the past I've had some not so supportive parents when
> it came to cheating. Some of it is obvious "my kid is
> perfect" syndrome where I'm tole "he has never been
> accussed of cheating before!" (I've never been acussed of
> murder before, but if I kiled someone I don't think a jury
> would buy that as a defense...)
>
> any tips on how to say this in a way that gets parents to
> support you?

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