The Impact of South Carolina’s First Steps to School Readiness Parent Home Visitation Strategies

• In Event: Roundtable Session 110
  In Roundtable Session: Program Implementation and Outcomes

Abstract

This proposal describes a study which examined the impact of home visitation on participants of South Carolina’s First Steps to School Readiness home visitation programs. South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness is a comprehensive education initiative to help at-risk children reach kindergarten and first grade healthy and ready to succeed in school. Because of the strong relationship between families and children’s development and readiness for school, First Steps has focused on improving parenting and family strengthening initiatives. Research questions were: 1) do parent home visitation strategies funded by First Steps increase parental effectiveness related to child nurturance, learning and interaction, language, health and safety? And, 2) do parent home visitation strategies increase the overall quality of parenting skills?

Authors

• Kimberly G. Browning, Self-Employed Evaluation Consultant

• Zongping Xiang, HighScope Educational Research Foundation