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The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education presented the Ferguson-Florissant School District with the Parents as Teachers Leaders and Legends Award on March 13.

This award commemorates the district’s role as one of four pilot projects leading to the implementation of the Parents as Teachers program in Missouri. In 1981 the Ferguson-Florissant School District and three other districts developed and field-tested New Parents as Teachers with 380 families having their first baby. At the end of three years the pilot project children were tested by an independent evaluator and were found to be ahead of their peers in language, development, problem solving, and social development.

The home visiting component had its roots in Saturday School home visits offered in Ferguson-Florissant. The success of the four pilot projects led to implementation of the Parents as Teachers program in all 546 school districts in Missouri, offered to all parents of young children, not just new parents having their first baby.

Today, Parents as Teachers is a free parent education and support program for families prenatally to kindergarten entry. Certified parent educators provide personalized visits with age appropriate child development information and activities, annual developmental screenings, parent-child activity groups and community resource assistance.

This year Parents as Teachers is celebrating it’s 25 years of statewide implementation in Missouri. Parents as Teachers is now in all 50 states and several countries totaling 3000 programs worldwide.

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