The role of parental involvement in children's education has been widely studied and recognised as crucial to academic success. However, the ways in which parents can be involved and the impact of their involvement can depend on various factors, such as cultural background and socioeconomic status. Parental involvement takes a different form and is more complex when it comes to displaced people, as they often face additional challenges and barriers to accessing education and parental involvement. This quantitative study examined the role of parents in their children's education, with a particular focus on the influence of socioeconomic status. The data was collected from displaced parents, host community parents, and teachers in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Data was collected through surveys of parents and teachers of eighth and ninth graders in public schools in three provinces in the region, including their camps. A total of 569 parents and 130 teachers were involved in the study. The data was collected in the 2021–2022 academic year. The study aimed to examine parental involvement characteristics within two groups of parents by understanding the perspectives of both parents and teachers. The exploration of these characteristics and perspectives was conducted to gain insights and facilitate a thorough comparison. Descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression were applied to analyse the collected data and determine any significant factors influencing parents involvement and their role in shaping involvement. The results showed that socioeconomic factors, such as time, income, and the number of children, had a significant impact on the level of parents' involvement and their role in shaping it. It was also found that parents take more responsibility when it comes to values and moral development than academic knowledge. It also showed that parents need more knowledge and understanding of their role to be more effective in supporting their children's overall development. Teacher-parent communication channels were not varied or effective enough to address the concerns. The significance of the availability of various ways for engagement and gender roles in influencing parental involvement in their children's education was also revealed.