Parents as Teachers of Catoosa County

Program Overview

Parents as Teachers is a home visitation program that works with families from pregnancy to age five. The goal of Parents as Teachers is to help families raise children to be healthy, safe, learning, and ready for school. There are four main parts to the Parents as Teachers program : home visits, group connections, connection to community resources and child screenings. During home visits Parent Educators help families learn about early childhood development, improve parenting practices, and connect families with any needed community resources. Parent Educators also provide health and developmental screenings to indicate if a child needs early intervention for health issues or potential developmental delays. Group connections provide a place where families can connect and build community with other families during fun, family centered events. One primary goal of the Parents as Teachers program is to promote the importance of reading with your child. Our Parent Educators provide families in the program with books during home visits to help families build a small home library. Research shows from the moment a baby is born, they start developing literacy skills through the relationship with their parents. By reading with an infant or toddler, parents provide a foundation needed to develop language and reading skills.

Cost Info

Student and Volunteer Success Stories

One of our Parents as Teacher's success stories is about a mom facing domestic violence in her home. This mom was in the Parents as Teachers program and it was the highlight of her week when her Parent Educator Tammie came for her visit. Her husband would not allow her to leave their home very often and to have a caring Parent Educator to come and discuss things she was concerned about with her child was an encouragement to this mom. One of the concerns this mom had were some developmental issues she was seeing in her child. During home visitation Parent Educators provide screening to detect potential developmental delays or health issues. During the screening for her child this mom's intuition was proven correct and some potential delays were detected. The Parent Educator connected this Mom with the Special Education Department in her local school system, where Early Intervention took place to help this child be on track to succeed in school. This Mom eventually got the courage to get away from the domestic violence and credits her Parents as Teacher's Parent Educator, Tammie for guiding her to find early intervention for her daughter and for being a light in a very dark place in her life.