How Engaging At-Risk Parents With Early Home Visits Can Teach Them to Work With Their Schools for Their Kids’ Success
March 18, 2019
By: Libby Doggett and Constance Gully
Source: The 74
Parents are their children’s first and most influential teachers, so effective engagement between parent and school needs to start early. This is true for all families, but particularly for at-risk families. Parents must be able to use social capital to navigate community systems, seek out opportunities, and know how to persist effectively when a child is not getting what she needs at school. Social capital is often a missing link that keeps low-income families locked in the cycle of generational poverty.
To support young, inexperienced parents who have not gained the tools needed to effectively approach their child’s school to discuss his needs, home visiting programs can help. Using evidence-based resources, home visitors trained through programs such as Parents as Teachers, which serves almost 200,000 families with children under age 6 in all 50 states, 115 tribal organizations, five countries, and one U.S. territory, support a range of family needs. They help parents understand how to work in partnership with their school, advocate for their child, support their child’s development, and create a collaborative plan that can lead to better educational outcomes.