Schools are experiencing an “exponential rise” in AI-generated parental complaints, experts have warned, with headteachers warning they “aren’t sleeping” due to the stress.
Parents made more than five-million formal complaints against schools last year, according to analysis by ParentKind. Teacher Tapp data suggests 61 per cent of heads have noticed the use of AI in complaints they’ve received.
Heads, trust leaders and lawyers told Schools Week about formal complaints over a school giving a child a cold lunch rather than hot, for following a family court order and even for covering a child’s verruca with tape in a PE lesson.
AI-generated complaints are often lengthy, cite multiple pieces of legislation, have “antagonised and inflamed language”, and demand “draconian consequences” for teachers involved in incidents.
However, other heads have said using AI has been “enabling for parents” who otherwise would not have the voice or confidence to speak up. And legal experts warned the complaints are “symptomatic of a wider problem, signalling underlying relationship issues, breakdowns and communication failures”.
An ‘exponential rise’
School complaints processes first seek to resolve issues informally.
But when a formal complaint letter is sent, leaders must launch an investigation. Complaints can then be raised to a governors’ panel or the Department for Education if parents remain unsatisfied.
John Walker, partner and data protection officer at PHP law, said schools have experienced an “exponential rise” in AI-generated complaints since January 2024.
Estimating that about one third of complaints he dealt with were written by AI, Walker said he had seen “masses” of threats of direct legal action against members of staff, or tribunals for disability discrimination.
“I haven’t seen a single case where the legal action that’s being threatened against people would be relevant,” Walker said.
Adam Jackson, senior associate at Winckworth Sherwood Law, said his firm had “seen parents quote case law from hundreds of years ago, or quote US legislation and very much missing the point, claiming rights where they absolutely have no rights”.
Jackson has dealt with complaints “as small as parents using AI to generate ridiculous arguments about the state of the school menu, all the way up to these huge claims of negligence against the governing bodies that then go through the court”.
‘Harshly worded’ letters
At Lakenham Primary School in Norwich, a teacher covered a child’s verruca with gym tape before their gymnastics lesson.
The next morning, headteacher Cassandra Williams received a “harshly worded” four-page formal complaint from the child’s mother, which set out steps of “what they were going to do towards us because of us breaching human rights”.
Williams spent hours going through the complaint only to “find out there was nothing of real substance for a letter like that to ever be sent”.
At Bellevue Education Trust, CEO Mark Greatrex received 13 complaints last year and four so far this year – the majority of which were generated with AI. His headteachers dealt with “significantly more”, Greatrex said.
Greatrex said his schools, spanning London and Berkshire, had received multiple complaints following court orders over separated families.
Daniel Cusani, deputy head of Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Kent, received a 58-page long AI-generated complaint about exams, which quoted “absolutely everything” with a “huge” level of detail.
“I want to know actually what the main source of the complaint is and what they want to get out of it – but that gets lost in a 60-page document”, he said.
‘People aren’t sleeping’
For Chris Taylor, headteacher of Linden Primary School in Leicester, AI-generated complaints demanded the leadership take a clearer stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“I think there’s been a genuine feeling – and AI has been used to articulate this – that the school, the city, should have done more to fundraise for Palestine…I think AI has been used as a particular vehicle to channel people’s emotions, understandably, about a world conflict.” But in some cases, he added, there was a “level of aggression and AI was used to channel that aggression towards me”.
Louise Clements McLeod, an NAHT union representative in Norfolk, said a headteacher in her area – who wanted to remain anonymous – had received a complaint about a teacher giving their child a cold packed lunch, rather than warm meal.
Clements McLeod said the complaint was asking “what was going to happen to the teacher, wanting really big draconian consequences for the member of staff”.
At her own school, Drake Primary, an AI-generated complaint involving one five-year old child hurting another was followed-up by the police.
“What will happen is a parent will email at six, seven, eight o’clock at night…people aren’t sleeping and they’re worrying about it.”
‘Parents are struggling massively’
Nearly all leaders who spoke to Schools Week said complaints generated with AI were not upheld.
Antonia Spinks, CEO of Pioneer Educational Trust, said although complaints received have “antagonised and inflamed language”, under the surface it shows that “parents themselves are struggling massively”.
Spinks, whose trust received six complaints in six months, said they often concerned SEND provision or cost-of-living struggles.
“What we find it that behind those things, there’s something that the family is grappling with that we’re unaware of. That’s probably why they’re feeling emotional.”
Greatrex said parents were choosing the formal complaints process “because it looks professional” over “actual genuine relationships and conversations”.
But Carolyn Ellis-Gage, headteacher of Parkside School in Norwich, said using AI for complaints has been “quite enabling for our parents” and has “given them a way to voice” their concerns.
Her special school has about 53 per cent of children receiving pupil premium, while many parents have “particularly low literacy levels”.
She said: “For them, to be able to follow a complaints procedure and really clearly put out what their concerns are, is often really challenging…that doesn’t make their concerns any less appropriate or any less worthy.”
‘Symptomatic of a wider problem’
Claire Archibald, legal director at Browne Jacobson, said complaints are a “symptom in schools” and “not the disease itself”.
According to ParentKind, more a quarter of 2,000 parents polled thought there had been a breakdown of parent-school relationships.
“They’re symptomatic of a wider problem, signalling underlying relationship issues, breakdowns and communications failures,” Archibald said.
PHP Law is considering introducing a policy around a parent’s reasonable use of AI in their communications. And Pioneer Educational Trust has developed a standardised response to complaints that can be bespoked to parents’ concerns.
Around 40 school have started to use their own AI-assisted tool, Companion, to streamline the complaints process.
Sam Flood, who co-founded the tool with Jack Allen, said it aimed to “turn complaints into an opportunity for schools to reconnect with their parents”.
The platform allows schools or trusts to log complaints and follow its own step-by-step process. Internalised AI-tools can be used to draft responses, but these must be approved by a member of staff before being sent. Schools can also assign the complaints to categories, to allow patterns to emerge.
When asked whether AI was the answer to the problem, Flood said: “Provided we are really careful explaining how the app works and making sure the benefits are always focused on how it can improve the relationship between parents and schools, people don’t mind.”
Jackson said it was “about bringing it back to a human level” but that government needs to provide “more substantial up to date guidance that acknowledges these pressures that AI generated complaints are making” for schools.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said in June the current system was “working for no one”, with ministers promising to draw up new guidance.
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