PARENTS AS TEACHERS MUST ENDURE 50 PERCENT STAFF CUT

Parent educators are considering how best to cut 100 to 120 families from the Cape Girardeau Parents as Teachers program for next year.

The state-mandated early education program for children birth to age 3 has taken a 50 percent staff cut for the coming year as part of the Cape Girardeau public school's $1.2 million budget reduction plan.

The cuts to Parents as Teachers are designed to save $31,964.

This year the program has four full-time parent educators, each serving between 80 and 90 families. The program also employs one full-time secretary.

Now, 340 families are served with children from birth to age 3.

Next year the program will have two full-time parent educators and a half-time secretary. Next year a maximum of 180 families can be served.

Susan Bartlett, a parent educator who serves as Parents as Teachers coordinator, said she expects 100 to 120 families now in the program will have to be cut. "And we will not be able to take any new families," she said.

"As far as how we plan to cut particular families, those options have not been formulated," Bartlett said. "I will be talking with administration to determine what process we will be following. There is no right way to do this.

"Natural attrition will take care of part of it," Bartlett said. Children who turn 3 over the summer are discontinued from the program. Some families move out of the district or decide not to continue.

"But we have about a 98 or 99 percent return rate from one year to the next. We don't lose many families."

Bartlett said parents will likely be notified in the fall. "We will know better then how many families will be affected."

Discontinuing families will be difficult, Bartlett said.

"As parent educators, we really get to know families. You just don't separate emotion from work when you are working with families," she said.

Richard Bollwerk, director of elementary education, said: "We haven't had a lot of comments about the program. I have only had about five phone calls.

"We still had some hope up to the last board meeting that some things might be reinstated," Bollwerk said. "But there weren't many spokespeople for the Parents as Teachers."

No one spoke about the program at the April board meeting.

Parents as Teachers is mandated by the state legislature for all public schools. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education funds the program, but the local district must supplement the funding.

Bollwerk said while the program is mandated the state does not set the level at which districts must provide service. "You can have a one-parent educator or a half-time parent educator," he said.

Also, the program is voluntary for parents to participate.

The state sets a reimbursement rate per family served, up to a maximum number called a quota. Last year Cape Girardeau's quota was 270 families and the state paid $180 per family, providing minimum guidelines were followed.

"If we get the maximum state reimbursement, we are looking at about $48,000. The program costs, net, were about $86,000," Bollwerk said.

With the cuts, Bollwerk expects that next year the district will receive about $38,000 in reimbursement, $10,000 less than the district is expecting this year, but costs to the district will be down by about $38,000.

Bollwerk explained that the state cut the Parents as Teachers budget by $2 million, from $13 million to $11 million.

"This is the year we increased our program by one parent educator," Bollwerk said. "We didn't have any reason to believe the state would cut funding. It backfired on us."

Bartlett said: "We knew we were over-staffed this year. I anticipated cutting one staff person." She said she didn't anticipate losing two. Bartlett said all four educators are serving between 80 and 90 families.

Bollwerk said, "We won't be able to serve as many families with two parent educators as we did with four," he said. "We just can't provide the same service.

"In some programs we have looked at the last people to join are the first to leave," he said. "Although in Parents as Teachers we might want to think about it the other way around, and drop those who have been in the program the longest, or we might want to look at numbers of families in each attendance area.

"We really don't know yet what we will do."

Bartlett said it is impossible for a parent educator to serve more than 90 or 100 families.

The state requires parent educators to see families in the program a minimum of five times during the school year. Four of those contacts must be home visits in order to draw state money. Group parent meetings are also held throughout the year.

"Personal contact is much more time consuming, but that is where the real impact of Parents as Teachers takes place," Bartlett said. "That personal contact is so important. We can talk with parents about their child, model behaviors for them and provide them timely information about child development. It is the most important component of the program."

Bartlett said 60 percent of the families enrolled in the program have full-time working moms. "About 50 percent of our personal visits are in the evenings," she said.

"In truth, we run out of evening time. There are only four or five working evenings each week. We already fill every night with home visits."

Parents as Teachers is often pointed to as a model educational program in Missouri. Bartlett said the program has proven results.

Studies of "graduates" of the Parents as Teachers program show that children are better prepared to enter schools and that parents are more involved in schools.

Also, home contacts lead to early detection of developmental problems. When caught early enough, some problems can be corrected before children enter school.

"Cost-wise, while the district may be putting dollars into the program for this age, students are better prepared to enter school," Bartlett said.

Bartlett said about one-third of families enrolled in Cape Girardeau's Parents as Teachers meet at-risk qualifications, such as low-income, being teen moms or single parents, or families with a special-needs child.

"This is an effective program," she said. "But you don't really realize it until years down the road when they enter school. It takes vision to see what this program does."