Nearly 6 in 10 parents of A and B students say their child struggled or fell behind in the past year, Brighterly national survey finds

In a national survey of 1,177 parents of students in kindergarten through 10th grade, 58.6% of parents whose child earns mostly A's or A's and B's said the child struggled or fell behind in math or reading in the past 12 months, close to the 60.7% of all parents surveyed. Online learning platform Brighterly released the full survey results.

Among parents of mostly-A students, 46.5% said the same. Yet 87% of A and B parents who noticed a problem expect their child to start the school year the same as or ahead of June.

The survey follows PISA 2025, released by the OECD on Sept. 8. U.S. 15-year-olds' average reading score fell 14 points from 2022, to 490, among the lowest results recorded for the country. Internationally, students who did not use AI chatbots for schoolwork generally scored higher in science than those who did.

Teachers are still the first call

• When worried about schoolwork, 48.4% of parents turn first to their child's teacher. Only 2.0% turn first to an AI assistant.

AI and hidden gaps

• 50.9% of parents agreed that AI tools make it easier for their child to hide that they don't understand something.
• Among parents who turn to AI chatbots for schoolwork advice at least weekly, 68.7% agreed, versus 38.6% of those who never do. 

Persistence drops in math

• 29.5% of parents said their child keeps trying until they get it in a game or app they enjoy; 17.8% said the same of math homework.

"Some skills are load-bearing. When they're missing, everything built on top of them gets shaky, and the child doesn't catch up just by sitting through the next year of curriculum," said Claire Smizer-Muldoon, a former classroom teacher who helped develop Brighterly's ELA curriculum. "This is why 'we'll catch up next year' so often doesn't work."

"A report card tells you how a child did on the work that was handed in. It doesn't tell you whether the child can do that work alone, and a lot of parents are sensing the difference," said Eugene Kashuk, founder and CEO of Brighterly. “September is the time to raise it with the teacher, not June.”

For parents comparing state rules, Brighterly also publishes a guide to AI in schools policy.

Methodology
Brighterly surveyed 1,177 U.S. parents of children in kindergarten through 10th grade, Aug. 5–15, 2026, via Pollfish. Parents answered about one focal child.