Kansas Parents as Teacher (PAT) affiliates served 8,323 children and 6,178 families from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, statistics from affiliates’ annual reports show.

PAT is an evidenced-based parent education and family engagement model serving families throughout pregnancy until their child enters kindergarten.

Families enrolled in PAT receive personal visits with a certified parent educator; group meetings; health and developmental screenings; and linkages with community resources.

PAT has the following goals and outputs to support children and families on their journey into the educational setting:

• Increase parent knowledge of early childhood development and improve parenting practices.
• Provide early detection of developmental delays and connection to services.
• Improve parent, child and family health and well-being.
• Prevent child abuse and neglect.
• Increase children’s readiness and success.
• Improve family economic well-being.
• Strengthen community capacity and connectiveness.

“Families are children’s first and most important teachers, and Kansas Parents as Teachers programs help families build their skills so that children can get the best possible start in life,” said Amanda Petersen, director of the Kansas State Department of Education’s Early Childhood team. “As Kansas works to lead the world in the success of each student, these evidence-based home visiting programs deliver exceptional services to prepare young Kansans for success in kindergarten and beyond.”

Fifty-five out of the 65 Kansas PAT affiliates are either Model or Blue Ribbon affiliates, meaning they meet “The 21 Essential Requirements and deliver the PAT model with fidelity, said Lisa Williams, PAT consultant for KSDE’s Early Childhood team.

Model fidelity means that programs and staff are implementing all four model components (personal visits, screenings, resource network and group connections) in a manner consistent with the PAT evidence and research, maximizing the likelihood of achieving the intended results and impacts for participating Kansas families, Williams said.

“This is remarkable and requires professional knowledge, diligence and lots of difficult and rewarding work by all PAT program coordinators and parent educators,” she said.

Other highlights from the affiliate performance report include:

• 56,506 personal visits took place during the reporting period.
• Ninety-three percent of families that participated in the PAT program this year had family goals document and addressed through personal visits.
• Ninety-three percent of children participating in Parents as Teachers had an initial or annual developmental screening (areas screened include developmental, social-emotional/mental health, hearing, vision, physical health). The screening allowed parents and parent educators to identify 2,355 potential developmental delays in children served, which were addressed through referral to the appropriate services.
• Kansas added one new affiliate in October 2022.
• Eight affiliates that had been in provisional status in FY22 made intentional program improvements and moved into model status (meaning they are now meeting “The 21 Essential Requirements” and delivering the PAT model with fidelity to the evidence).
• Moving into fiscal year 2024, Kansas has 65 PAT affiliates throughout the state.