How to make scheduling conferences work for you:  Scheduling can often be the most difficult part of the parent teacher conference process.  Every school district has different rules; some require that all conferences be done in one day- a very exhausting and daunting task for everybody involved, others require that teachers fulfill their conference obligations on their own time, meaning after school.  However your district decides to handle conferences you will still have to deal with scheduling headaches.  Here are some suggestions below:

If you see most of your student's parents on a daily basis put a sign-up sheet outside your classroom door with a variety of different dates and times listed.   Send home a note or publish in your newsletter that the sign-up sheet will be posted outside of your door beginning on (date) and the times are available on a first come first serve basis.   Take the sign-up sheet to dismissal with you to catch any parents that might have missed it.  If you have any parents who did not sign-up call them personally on the phone.

If you do not see your student's parents regularly then you might want to consider sending home a note asking the parents what dates and times are best for them to meet.  Make a sign-up sheet and keep it on your desk and as the notes are returned write the parents preferences on the sheet.  Send home a note to those that responded notifying them that you have scheduled their conference according to their previous response and you look forward to seeing them on (date and time).

If you teach in a school where it is almost impossible to get parents to come to conferences then a more direct approach will be required.  Many parents will not come to school given the choice, so asking "When would you like to meet for a conference?" is not an effective method for scheduling conferences.  It is important to note that parent teacher conferences are not the norm in many foreign countries and parents may have a fear of the unknown.  However, if parents feel that attending a conference with their child's teacher is a requirement then they may be more likely to attend.  If you choose this approach it is best to know the work schedules of the parents (i.e. who works nights, who works 9-5 etc).   Create a sign-up sheet with the dates and times of all your available conferences and simply fill in the students names according to what you know about the parent's work schedule.  Send home a note to each parent stating the time and date of the scheduled conference. 

If you are unable to schedule a parent for a conference after repeated attempts have failed then you may want to ask your principal if a phone conference is acceptable.  Some parents simply cannot or will not be able to meet for a conference with their child's teacher and they may be more comfortable speaking with you on the telephone.  I once had a parent who had two sets of twins under the age of four years in addition to the student in my class and she simply could not take all of the children up to the school for a conference so she chose to hold her conference via telephone.