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The Parent Program supports students’ school readiness by expanding each family’s capacity to wrap protective factors around their children, while also developing concrete sets of knowledge and skills related to school success.

Building Family Capacity
Early in the school year the Director of Parent Program works with each family to establish meaningful goals around capacity building and school readiness. Parents choose goals (often informed by observations of teachers, therapists, administrators who are working with the children) in the following categories:
  •  Family Environment (housing stability & habitability, safety, income/employment, financial Dancemanagement, food & nutrition, personal hygiene, transportation, learning environment)
  • Social Support (social relationships, accessing regular & emergency services, immigration status, accepts help/support)
  • Family Characteristics (parenting skills, parental supervision, stress & mental health, substance abuse, adult literacy, English language skills, family violence)
  • Family Interactions (bonding with child, communication with child, marital relationship, mutual support, developmental expectations)
  • Child Well-Being (physical and mental health, behavior, school performance, safety, relationship with caregiver and peers, motivation/cooperation)
  • Community Connections (neighbors, religious institutions, civic groups, volunteer organizations, cultural acclimation, adult education opportunities, school participation)
  • School Readiness (self-regulation and management, peer relationships, respecting authority, appropriate intellectual tasks, healthy habits)

Parent Program Evaluation
Initial goals are set early in school year.Those goals are re-evaluated at the end of the each trimester during parent-teacher conferences and final achievement is measured at the end of the school year using qualitative and quantitative measures such as culturally sensitive surveys, Protective Factors Instrument, interviews, focus groups, anecdotes.

Achieving Goals
Families are offered support to achieve their goals through coaching/modeling workshops, volunteering in classrooms, service through the Parent Association, community referrals, special events that include fathers, mentoring, individual coaching/counseling.

Topics will be developed in response to articulated goals but a menu of offerings will include things such as:

  • Basic literacy and school readiness skills for children
  • Daily reading & “activities at home” logs (sent by teachers)
  • Ages and stages of child development
  • Child nutrition
  • Habits for healthy living for young children (sleep, meals, play, outdoor time, screen time, interaction, hygiene)
  • Discipline and communication
  • Technology support
  • Financial budgeting, planning
  • Creating child/parent bonds
  • Critical role of early learning (infancy!)
  • Navigating community resources
  • Father’s role in shaping identity and educational leadership
  • Adult literacy
  • English language acquisition
  • Advocating for your child at school

All offerings are designed to be culturally and individually responsive, and therefore are:

  • high context, relational
  • focused on trust building
  • confidence building
  • respectful of native cultural norms
  • respectful of family values and individual needs
  • clear about cultural paradigms related to developmental delays/definitions of “normal”
  • respectful of parent intuitions
  • mindful of gender roles