Parenting and Head Start/Early Head Start Renewal and Recompetition
What Does School Readiness Mean?
Head Start and Early Head Start (HS/EHS) aims to get children from low-income families ready for school. According to The Head Start Approach to School Readiness-Overview, this means, “children are ready for school, families are ready to support their children’s learning, and schools are ready for children. . . . For parents and families, school readiness means they are engaged in the long-term, lifelong success of their child. Head Start recognizes that parents are their children’s primary teachers and advocates.” As discussed in earlier posts, because parenting quality is the strongest predictor of child success, a strong focus on parenting makes sense. Following the recent report from the Advisory Committee on Head Start Research and Evaluation; the emphasis on parenting in HS/EHS programs is likely to increase.
Parenting and Head Start/Early Head Start Renewal and Recompetition
As HS/EHS programs prepare for renewal or competitive funding, you’ll find the FY2013 Office of Head Start Monitoring Protocol provides a useful resource to self-assess compliance with HS/EHS Performance Standards .
In the Family and Community Engagement section of the Monitoring Protocol, one of the five Key Indicators, Parent-Child Relationships, is fundamental to parents’ daily social-emotional interactions with their children that get them ready for school. This is where small changes in parenting behavior can make a big difference in children’s current and future social interactions at home, in school and in the community. Parent-Child Relationships are central to two HS/EHS Performance Standards cited below.
Family & Community Engagement
Key Indicator #2—Parent-Child Relationships
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The program promotes positive parent-child relationships. Compliance Measures |
Federal Regulations |
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2.1 |
The program provides opportunities for parents to enhance their parenting skills, knowledge, and understanding of the educational and developmental needs and activities of their children and share concerns about their children with program staff. |
1304.40(e)(2-3) |
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2.2 |
Program staff share observations with parents regarding their children’s behavior and development and encourage parents to share concerns and observations about their children’s mental health, identify appropriate responses to their children’s behavior, and discuss how to strengthen and nurture supportive environments and relationships in the home and at the program. |
1304.24(a)(1)(i-iv) |
Administration for Children and Families |U. S.Department of Health and Human Services September 27, 2012, page 105, http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/mr/monitoring/fy2013pdf/FY2013_OHS_On-Site_Review_Protocol.pdf
Engaging with Families to Strengthen Parent-Child Relationships
While preparing for a program review and planning for continuous quality improvement, Bringing the Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework to Your Program: Beginning a Self-Assessment, asks you to reflect on how your program collects and uses data to document each of the Parent, Family, and Community Engagement outcomes, for example, Positive Parent-Child Relationships. The Self-Assessment goes further to ask, “How do all staff engage with families to strengthen positive parent-child relationships and support families as lifelong educators?” (p. 31). These are challenging questions for programs that have been accustomed to focusing on child development rather than the parent-child relationship when getting children ready for school. However, research suggests that parenting quality is a primary driver of children’s school success.
Need a Tool to Help Staff Strengthen Parent-Child Relationships and Prove Parenting Outcomes?
To meet Performance Standards aimed at getting families ready to support their children’s early learning, consider including a parenting assessment tool such as the Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale, KIPS. Observational parenting assessments guide staff to engage parents in parent-child observation, reflection on interactions with their children, and planning family goals and learning experiences at home. Plus KIPS offers the added value of proving your parenting outcomes. With an observational parenting assessment, you can improve parent-child relationships, and document evidence of parenting outcomes.