The Department of Education receives between 25 and 30 complaints every week related to schools, an Oireachtas committee has been told.
An official from the department told the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection that most of these complaints had to do with bullying.
However, there were complaints also about the behaviour of school boards of management.
The committee discussed the operation of boards of management.
Department of Education official Hubert Loftus told the committee that the department had no role in investigating the role of a board of management.
He said all the department could do was advise them.
The board of management managed a school on behalf of the school patron, he said.
He said the next stage of recourse for parents or others who had a difficulty with a school board was the Ombudsman for Children.
Fine Gael TD Jim Daly said school boards of management were not accountable to anybody as far as he could maintain.
Mr Daly said they were a law unto themselves.
He said when things went wrong there was absolutely no avenue for a parent to get recompense.
The vast majority of schools have a board of management, which comprises eight volunteers.
They represent the patron, staff at the school, parents and the community.
Sinn Féin's Michael Colreavy raised the case of a schoolboy who was accused of bullying behaviour.
He said when CCTV footage vindicated the child, the school principal refused to apologise.
The boy left the school and has been educated at home since the incident.
Mr Colreavy said leaving issues such as this to a board of management represented an abdication of responsibility by the Department of Education.
Dr Ken Fennelly, Education Officer with the Church of Ireland, told the committee he believed there was an issue with complaints and procedures in schools.
He said there came a point with a complaint where the school board of management decision was final. He asked where did the complainant go next.
Sinéad Brett of the Catholic Primary School Management Association told the committee that it was a small percentage of complaints that were not resolved to the satisfaction of the parents.
Tom Deegan, of the Department of Education, said the department was working on a parent's student's charter, which every school would be required to implement.
The department hoped to finalise this before the end of the school year.
He said boards were required to comply with the policies of the Minister for Education.
'Constructive' meeting over Junior Cycle reform
Elsewhere, teacher representatives have described as "constructive" a meeting with the Minister for Education today to discuss Junior Cycle reform.
Delegations from second-level teacher unions the ASTI and the TUI met Jan O'Sullivan this afternoon.
The unions said they reiterated teachers' serious concerns about the proposals, including what they see as the threat to national education standards.
They said they are concerned about the capacity of schools to implement aspects of the proposals after five years of education cutbacks.
The unions said they have agreed to further serious engagement on the issue with the department in coming weeks.
