Multi-site evaluation of school-sponsored home visiting program for low-income families and infants

This is a five-site randomized evaluation of the outcomes for low-income infants, toddlers, and parents participating in the nation's largest home-visiting program sponsored and financed by local school districts. Known as Parents as Teachers (PAT), the program has been replicated statewide in Missouri where it was founded in 1981--and has also spread to 45 other states. With more than 1,920 sites now in operation across the nation, PAT is attracting the attention of policy makers at all levels--state, local, and national--as a potential model for helping distressed families achieve greater success in nurturing their children. Despite its visibility and the importance of its goals, PAT has never undergone a definitive evaluation. Hence its impacts either on parents or on children have not been conclusively established. This means that, despite its growing popularity, PAT cannot yet be defined with confidence as an intervention that works for shaping child and family policy. For this reason, the national technical assistance center for the PAT concept (Parents as Teachers National Center) is proposing a three-part longitudinal evaluation. The study will be conducted over eight years, as follows: a one-year design phase (part one); a four-year implementation phase (part two); and a three-year, follow-up phase (part three). With support from the Carnegie Corporation and the Kauffman Foundation, the part one design phase is nearing completion. A consortium of these and other foundations and federal funding sources are contributing to the part-two implementation phase. This grant will provide partial support for this study.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $449,001.00

Awarded on: 1/28/1997

Time frame: 2/1/1997 - 7/31/2001

Grant Number: 28329