Families and schools are two of the primary contexts that affect the development of children and adolescents. The school-parent relationship literature focuses on both parent involvement in schools and the connections between home and school that are fostered by both sides. In the United States, as a result of historical precedents and recent changes in educational policy, institutional expectations of parental knowledge about and involvement in their children's schools has increased sharply, and schools are expected to improve and maintain connections and communication with parents. However social, cultural, and economic limitations on parents' abilities to interact with schools and schools' abilities to communicate with and involve parents across these lines can make this relationship difficult to strengthen in practice.