PARENTS AS TEACHERS PROGRAM TAKES CUTS

Cape Girardeau parent educators in the Parents as Teachers program face a tough task at the beginning of this school year. They will notify about half the families in the program last year that they have been discontinued as participants.

The Parents as Teachers staff was cut by 50 percent as part of the district's $1.2 million budget cuts. As a result, the number of families will also be cut by about half.

Last year, four parent educators served 336 families in the school district. This year, two parent educators will serve between 160 and 180 families, said Susan Bartlett, who coordinates the program.

Over the summer, the parent educators had to devise a plan to pare the program's participants by half.

Bartlett said, "The way we have decided to do this is that parents who have been in the program previously with another child and who have had the information once will be discontinued."

Parents should be contacted in the next few weeks about the status of their enrollment in the program.

"It will be Claudia Scheer and myself this year," Bartlett said. "Carla Aufdenberg is going to serve part-time as secretary."

Bartlett said she hopes the solution is a temporary one.

"If I had my way, we would have four parent educators and would serve all the families.

"What we're doing is splitting friends and splitting some of the support that builds between friends in the program," she said. "But we felt this was the fairest way to make the cut."

Bartlett said the change would bring the numbers pretty close to 160 or 180 families.

"It will be a little higher, but usually some families move over the summer. We think we'll be real close."

She said a waiting list will be established and when some children turn three, other families may be added.

"We received lots of names of new families who would like to be in the program over the summer, and we can't serve any of them.

"Usually about the third week of September we begin making home visits," Bartlett said.

The first few weeks of the school year are spent making initial contacts with families and doing record-keeping chores.

Parents as Teachers is an early-education program for families with children ages birth to three years. School districts in Missouri are required by state law to offer the program. The level of service is determined by local districts. Enrollment is open to any family in the school district, but participation in the program is voluntary.