Parent Involvement

Parent Involvement 

NCO HSCDP focuses on family engagement and school readiness in an effort to produce positive child outcomes. NCO HSCDP acknowledges that parents are their child’s first teacher and we support those efforts with weekly educational home activities for children. NCO HSCDP provides a welcoming and comfortable environment for families with various opportunities for involvement including: Health Services Advisory Committee, parent committees, Program Policy Council, parent meetings, in person gatherings to share and learn about child development (Early Head Start) and volunteering in classrooms and gardens.

Program staff build partnerships with parents and encourage the development of family goals with added requests that parents attend parent/program events. From its beginning, NCO HSCDP has used a dual-generation approach to involve the parents of enrolled children. Parent involvement is a part of a larger construct of a family engagement framework, developed from research-based strategies resulting in seven Parent and Family Engagement Outcomes: Family Well Being, Positive Parent-Child Relationships, Families as Lifelong Educators, Families as Learners, Family Engagement in Transitions, Family Connections to Peers and Community, and Families as Advocates and Leaders.

School Readiness, for the children enrolled in the program, is a goal that is achieved through goaldirected relationships between staff and families that are mutual, culturally responsive, and that support what is best for children and families, both individually and collectively. Staff and families share responsibility for the children’s learning and development, the progress toward outcomes for children and families, and for parent involvement in the program.