Parents as Teachers gets $14.2 million from stimulus
BY NANCY CAMBRIA • Nancy.Cambria@post-dispatch.com September 22, 2010 12:00 am
Still smarting from $21 million in state budget cuts to its Missouri programs, the national Parents as Teachers organization is getting a major financial boost in its efforts to promote early childhood education outside the state.
The St. Louis-based organization announced Tuesday that it will receive $14.2 million in federal stimulus money through the U.S. Department of Education.
The money, along with $2.8 million in private matching funds, will be used to deliver Parents as Teachers programs to American Indian families via 24 Bureau of Indian Education schools in six states.
The BabyFACE program will build on an existing Parents as Teachers Program for American Indians and includes home visits, health and developmental screenings for kids, from birth to age 5, as well as activities that focus on tribal cultures and languages.
Parents as Teachers, which has early childhood learning programs throughout the United States and abroad, secured the grant this month after raising the required 20 percent in matching funds through private agencies. Those included the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Enterprise Holdings Foundation.
Officials with Parents as Teachers said they believe the organization is the largest private recipient of a federal stimulus grant in the region.
The grant is part of $10 billion in U.S. Department of Education i3 stimulus funds.
It is designed to promote school reform and innovative programs nationwide to help close the achievement gap for high-needs children.
Founded in the St. Louis region 26 years ago, Parents as Teachers sends educators into homes to conduct early developmental screenings and coach parents in ways to promote early childhood learning and school readiness. The new federal funding comes on the heels of a 60 percent cut to its Missouri Parents as Teachers programs in the past two years because of state revenue shortfalls.
Since the spring, Missouri school districts that deliver the program have been forced to cut back services to thousands of families and lay off Parents as Teachers educators.
Sue Stepleton, CEO, said Parents as Teachers strives to continue to provide support to the neediest families in Missouri and around the country.
"To have national recognition and funding for this work is so valuable," she said.