LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — The program began in the early 1980s in Missouri giving parents the tools to prepare their children for school. The program Parents as Teachers provides early detection of developmental delays and health issues and helps parents understand their role in child development. The Lee’s Summit School District adopted the state wide program in shortly after its inception. from the beginning could help improve school readiness and parent involvement.
In 2012, the Lee’s Summit parents as teachers program helped close to 3,500 children. Through at home visits and group sessions at The Great Beginnings Early Education Center, parents like Ashley Furnell are getting exactly what they need.
“You know as a mom you just don’t know? I can I read a book at the library and do other things but here`s a person, face to face, in my home, I can just ask questions and not feel judged,” said Furnell.
Furnell teachers kindergarten in the district, but used the program to help her daughter over the last two years.
“It`s guided me through things like terrible twos, which we are going through right now, and all those strategies so it has been very helpful,” said Furnell.
The concept of the program provides early detection of delays and health issues and with parental help at home, those delays are improved. Educators in the program create the right strategic plan for early development before kids ever get to a school setting. Tracy Halphin has been with the program in Lee’s Summit fro 17 years.
“We go into the home and we help families because we feel that families are a child`s first and most important teacher,” said Halphin.
According to the Lee’s Summit program about half of its funding was cut back in 2009. Despite that hurdle, the program continues to help. Last year close to 7,000 home visits were made for 1,500 families.
Furnell says she is just days away from having her second child, but has already started prenatal exercises with the program.
For more on the program, click here. For more on Lee’s Summit Parents as Teachers, click here.
