Parents represent a critical yet often underestimated stakeholder in the digital transformation of school education. European strategic documents, notably the European Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan (2021–2027), explicitly identify parents as key partners in building a sustainable digital ecosystem in schools. Parental support, attitudes, and active engagement directly affect the successful implementation and sustainable use of digital technologies in education. Functioning as a bridge between home and school digital environments, parents influence children’s motivation and confidence in using digital tools. Despite this recognized importance, there is a lack of specialized instruments to assess parental attitudes and self-efficacy in the context of digital education.

Within the SUMMIT project (“Digitalization of the Bulgarian Educational System,” No. BG-RRP-2.004-0008), the PULSE instrument (Parents’ Understanding of Learning through School E-transformation) was developed to measure parental perceptions of school digital transformation. The instrument focuses on how parents evaluate schools’ efforts to develop students’ digital competences, the quality of technical infrastructure, and the integration of educational technologies into teaching and learning. A key component is the assessment of parental self-efficacy—how capable parents feel in supporting their children’s digital learning and participating in dialogue with schools regarding educational technology.

The study was conducted with a pilot sample (n=677) of parents of Bulgarian secondary school students, aiming to establish the instrument’s core psychometric properties. Initial analyses demonstrate excellent internal consistency across the six main scales, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from α = 0.851 to α = 0.970. Preliminary findings reveal moderate optimism among parents: while they acknowledge positive changes in the school system, they do not perceive these as a true, innovation-driven transformation of education. Parental perceptions of technical provision and pedagogical integration are differentiated—despite good access to internet and devices, parents note that the use of digital tools in actual learning activities remains limited and fragmented. A significant proportion of parents report insufficient information about specific digital practices at school, which restricts effective home–school partnership and leads to a mismatch in mutual expectations.

Keywords: Digitalization, parental perceptions, school transformation, digital practices, learning support.