100
Manuscripts
Released in 1979 through 2018
5
Manuscripts
Impact studies rated high or moderate quality
Skip to: Effectiveness Implementation
The goal of the Parents as Teachers (PAT) model is to provide parents with child development knowledge and parenting support. The PAT model includes home visiting, professional development, and advocacy.
Related Models:
Where to find out more
Parents as Teachers National Center
6 City Place, Suite 100, St. Louis, MO 63141
This model meets criteria established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for an evidence-based home visiting model.
Does not meet criteria for an evidence-based home visiting model for Indigenous peoples and communities.
For more information about manuscripts, search the research database.
For more information on the criteria used to rate research, please see details of HomVEEʼs methods and standards.
100
Manuscripts
Released in 1979 through 2018
30
Manuscripts
Eligible for review
5
Manuscripts
Impact studies rated high or moderate quality
To see details on each manuscript HomVEE reviewed in well-designed research, click on the manuscript counts in the table.
Favorable:
A finding showing a statistically significant impact on an outcome measure in a direction that is beneficial for children and parents.
No effect:
Findings are not statistically significant.
Unfavorable:
A finding showing a statistically significant impact on an outcome measure in a direction that may indicate potential harm to children and/or parents.
| Outcomes | Manuscripts | Favorable Findings | No Effects Findings | Unfavorable Findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child development and school readiness | View 5 Manuscripts | 7 | 59 | 1 |
| Child health | View 3 Manuscripts | 0 | 13 | 0 |
| Family economic self-sufficiency | View 4 Manuscripts | 1 | 26 | 1 |
| Linkages and referrals | Not measured | - | - | - |
| Maternal health | View 1 Manuscript | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Positive parenting practices | View 3 Manuscripts | 3 | 85 | 4 |
| Reductions in child maltreatment | View 1 Manuscript | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Reductions in juvenile delinquency, family violence, and crime | Not measured | - | - | - |
Well-designed impact studies about this model included participants with the following characteristics:
Race/Ethnicity
Maternal Education
Well-designed impact studies about this model were conducted in the following locations:
In this section:
Support Availability
Service Delivery
Model services, adaptions and enhancements, model intensity and length.
The theory of change for the Parents as Teachers model is that affecting parenting knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and family well-being impacts the child’s developmental trajectory.
The overall Parents as Teachers model is grounded in Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Human Ecology Theory and Family Systems Theory. The home visits focus on three areas of emphasis—parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting, and family well-being. Parents as Teachers is informed by additional theories including developmental parenting, attribution theory, and self-efficacy theory.
The Parents as Teachers model serves families with high-needs characteristics. Parents as Teachers affiliates select the specific characteristics and eligibility criteria of the population they plan to serve. Such eligibility criteria might include children with special needs, families at risk for child abuse, low-income families, teen parents, first-time parents, immigrant families, low-literate families, parents with mental health or substance use issues, or families experiencing homelessness or unstable housing.
The Parents as Teachers model is designed to serve families throughout pregnancy through kindergarten entry. Families can enroll at any point along this continuum. Curriculum materials provide resources to continue services through the kindergarten year if an affiliate chooses to do so.
Highlights
The Parents as Teachers National Center provides guidance, training, technical assistance, professional development opportunities, and a quality endorsement process for Parents as Teachers affiliates. The Parents as Teachers National Center also advocates at the state and national levels.
Parents as Teachers state and country offices offer affiliates guidance, technical assistance, and implementation support. In addition, these offices provide oversight of the Parents as Teachers affiliates in their state or country.
Technical assistance and implementation support are available to Parents as Teachers affiliates through the Parents as Teachers National Center’s Expansion and Model Implementation department, which includes Parents as Teachers state offices and approved regional technical assistance specialists.
Highlights
The Parents as Teachers model has four components that all affiliates are required to provide.
(1) One-on-one home (or personal) visits, during which the home visitor (referred to as a parent educator) visits the family in its home or a mutually agreeable alternative location. The parent educator delivers the majority of visits in the home. The Parents as Teachers model refers to some visits as “personal” visits because they can take place in environments other than the home when it is unsafe or impossible to have visits in the home. For example, some families may be homeless or have unstable housing, may be experiencing intimate partner violence, or may have infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. To be receptive to these families’ needs, home visits can occur in transitional housing shelters, hospitals, or in a safe location outside of the home.
(2) Group connections, which are planned events, such as family activities, ongoing parenting groups, or presentations, facilitated by a parent educator to share information about parenting and child development. Group connections are also designed to encourage families to share common experiences and to foster peer learning.
(3) Health, hearing, vision, and developmental screenings for children.
(4) Linkages and connections for families to needed resources.
The Parents as Teachers Foundational Curricula are designed to provide a framework for Parents as Teachers services.
The curricula include:
These web-based materials help parent educators individualize services for each family and maintain consistency across families. The curricula also include Parents as Teachers Toolkit Cards to help parent educators organize discussions with families, implement strategies to strengthen the parent educator–family relationship, and facilitate the Parents as Teachers approach to working with families.
The Parents as Teachers model requires that affiliates offer a minimum of 12 home visits annually to families with one or no high-needs characteristics. Affiliates must offer a minimum of 24 home visits annually to families with two or more high-needs characteristics. Home visits last a minimum of 60 minutes.
The Parents as Teachers model requires that affiliates offer families at least 12 group connections (or meetings) annually.
Additionally, the affiliates are required to screen children for developmental, health, hearing, and vision problems each year.
Parents as Teachers affiliates must plan to offer services to enrolled families for at least two years. Affiliates may choose to focus services primarily on pregnant women and families with children from birth through age 3; others may offer services from pregnancy through kindergarten.
In some cases, visit frequency may be gradually decreased as the family transitions out of the Parents as Teachers program because of changing needs. For families transitioning out of Parents as Teachers, parent educators develop a transition plan to discuss the resources, supports, and services that are available to the family.
Parents as Teachers permits affiliates to offer additional strategies (beyond the four core model components) or to make model adaptations that may be needed to best address families’ needs at the local level. For example, implementation may be modified to be culturally responsive, directed to special populations, or offered in conjunction with other early childhood programs as determined by community need.
Adaptations of the Parents as Teachers model are available for highly rural and/or indigenous populations such as aboriginal populations in Australia and Canada, and numerous American Indian tribes.
Examples of adaptations include:
Examples of model elements that can be adapted include:
In New Zealand, the Ministry of Social Development’s Family and Community Services adapted Parents as Teachers into a program known in New Zealand as Parents as First Teachers (PAFT)*. The ministry contracted with community organizations to implement PAFT and managed, coordinated, and monitored the program. When developing the model, PAFT (New Zealand) negotiated with the Parents as Teachers National Center in the United States to adapt the Parents as Teachers model to meet the needs of New Zealand families, including Māori and Pasifika families, indigenous populations of New Zealand and the Pacific Island nations. Families with children from birth to age 3 who were at risk of poor educational outcomes were served by PAFT (New Zealand) through home visits, developmental screenings, linkages to other community services, and group meetings. PAFT (New Zealand) used two curricula: the Parents as Teachers’ Born to Learn curriculum and the Āhuru Mōwai curriculum. The latter was developed for PAFT (New Zealand) and was based on Māori traditional beliefs and child-rearing practices. PAFT (New Zealand) materials were available in English, Māori, and seven Pasifika languages.
Another adaptation of Parents as Teachers, called Baby Family and Child Education (Baby FACE), integrates Native language and culture into Parents as Teachers services for high-needs American Indian families from pregnancy through kindergarten. Baby FACE is the home visiting component of FACE, which is an early childhood family literacy model designed for American Indian families. In addition to home visits every one to two weeks, Baby FACE services include routine health and developmental screenings, monthly parent group meetings, and referrals to needed services. Baby FACE has been implemented in several reservations throughout the continental United States. Parent educators, typically members of the tribal community, must have a high school diploma or general equivalency degree (GED), and be actively working toward obtaining an associate’s degree in child development. Baby FACE uses the Parents as Teachers curriculum, adapted to each community’s culture.
*As of 2016, implementation support is no longer available for PAFT (New Zealand).
Related Models:
Highlights
Parents as Teachers model affiliates have two primary staff positions: (1) certified parent educators who provide home visiting services and (2) their affiliate supervisors.
Parents as Teachers prefers parent educators to have a four-year degree in early childhood education or a related field, or at least either a two-year degree or 60 college hours in early childhood education or a related field. At a minimum, parent educators must have a high school diploma or GED and at least two years of previous supervised work experience with young children, parents, or both. Supervisors are required to have at least a bachelor's degree in early childhood education, social work, health, psychology or a related field (or equivalent degree); at least five years of experience working with families and young children; strong interpersonal skills; and a commitment to reflective supervision, data collection, and continuous quality improvement.
The Parents as Teachers model requires that, each month, full-time parent educators participate in a minimum of two hours of individual reflective supervision and a minimum of two hours of staff meetings. Parent educators working half time or less are required to participate in a minimum of one hour of reflective supervision and two hours of staff meetings.
The model requires parent educators and supervisors to participate in pre-service training. The Parents as Teachers National Center requires all parent educators and supervisors implementing the Parents as Teachers model to attend and successfully complete a three-day foundational training (Foundational I) and a two-day model implementation training. Affiliates that offer services to families with children age 3 years through kindergarten entry must attend a second (Foundational II) training. Please contact the model developer for additional information about the pre-service training requirement
The Parents as Teachers National Center offers professional development opportunities for professionals who work with special populations. The trainings are one- or two-day sessions taught by instructors experienced with working with the special populations. Please contact the model developer for additional information about the ongoing professional development requirement.
Parents as Teachers affiliates frequently are embedded within an existing organization or program, such as Title I school districts, county health departments, Family Resource Centers, and other state and nonprofit agencies.
The model requires affiliates to meet a set of ongoing fidelity guidelines. Please contact the model developer for additional information about these guidelines.
Highlights
HomVEE requests input and feedback from the model developers on their profiles. The information in this implementation profile reflects feedback, if provided, from this model’s developer as of the above date. HomVEE reserves the right to edit the profile for clarity and consistency. The description of the implementation of the model(s) here may differ from how the model(s) was implemented in the manuscripts reviewed to determine this model’s evidence of effectiveness. Model developers are encouraged to notify HomVEE of any changes to their contact information on this page.