This study offers an explanation of the relationship between the inclusion of parents/guardians and teachers in Michigan K-12 public school decision-making processes, perceptions of school quality, and subsequent parent/guardian and teacher retention by the school. Decision-making structures and participation in those structures, participants’ own childhood experiences, trust, agency, relatedness (belonging), and usefulness were considered in constructing a model of best fit to explain the relationships between decision-making inclusion, perceptions of quality, and retention. What emerged from this 225-participant (121 parents/guardians and 104 teacher) survey was a model that affirms that professional learning communities (PLCs) are a structure that supports greater inclusion—depth and frequency—in school decision-making processes, greater inclusion in decision-making positively influences overall decision-making satisfaction, and inclusion in decision-making processes generates trust. The model supports that trust is the pathway through which inclusion in decision-making positively impacts perceptions of school quality, which are strongly connected to the likelihood of parent/guardian and teacher retention by the school. This pathway, which identifies inclusion in school decision-making processes as a precursor to positive perceptions of school quality and retention, may help schools attenuate high mobility rates. Given the devastating impact of both teacher and family mobility on a child’s educational achievement and social well-being, this study has important implications for future research, theory, and practice.
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