Trust plays a central role in the organizational life of a school. Trust facilitates exchanges among individuals and enhances cooperation and coordination. It also contributes to more effective relationships among all school community members. Principals and teachers need to build trusting relationships with students and parents in order to accomplish their essential goal of fostering student achievement and equipping students for citizenship.

In the context of organizational/relational trust, this study explored such relationships with fifteen purposefully-selected, Latino students and their parents. My hope was that these families would openly and honestly share their thoughts regarding one suburban public high school system’s ability to adequately partner with them in building trusting relationships necessary to better meet the academic needs of their sons and daughters. This study took place in a comprehensive public high school for grades 9–12 located in southern California. Qualitative analysis was based on data collected from parent interviews, student interviews, and observations.