As part of a longitudinal study over one year 1629 parents of children from the 2nd to 4th grade in 19 elementary schools from Vienna and Lower Austria were questioned about the collaboration with school, the homework and the familial support of the reading and spelling development. This could be contrasted with statements of the teachers about the collaboration with the parents and with the further development of reading and spelling during the school year. The results show that more than a third of the parents of children with marked reading and spelling difficulties (according the test results) at the end of 1st grade and still a fifth in the 4th grade were reassured by the teachers that the difficulties are not severe and the necessity of special educational measures was rarely pointed out to the parents. Only half of the parents of poor readers and spellers were satisfied with the educational support their children received at school. The parents often were confronted with a difficult homework situation, searched for remedial help and engaged themselves in additional reading exercices. The teachers on the other side also criticized the support poor readers and spellers received from their parents and often informed us that they recommended additional exercises to the parents. There was little concordance between the statements of teachers and parents about the recommendations. Nevertheless - at least in the view of the parents - there was an influence of the recommendations by teachers on the actions of the parents. The further development in reading and spelling during the school year correlated negatively with the severity of problems in the homework situation and with critical statements of the teachers about the support parents provided for their children.