Parents as Teachers

The activity the child is doing is Chips in a Can an Activity for 14-24 mos.:  Problem Solving and Practicing Eye-Hand Coordination. See below as our little kiddo masters the Chips in a Can.

Our Mission:  Parents as Teachers promotes early development, learning, and health of children by supporting and engaging their parents and caregivers.

Children do not come with directions. Parents as Teachers can help.

During the years between birth and kindergarten, there are important times when specific kinds of learning must take place for your child to develop to the fullest. Parents as Teachers can help you capture those windows of opportunity ​so your child starts school ready to succeed.

All young children and their families deserve the same opportunities to succeed. The mission of Parents as Teachers is to provide the information, support, and encouragement parents need to help their children develop optimally during the crucial early years of life.

Shawnee Mission Parents as Teachers shares that mission by providing established and emerging research-based information to parents to promote knowledge of early childhood development and best parenting practices, while understanding and appreciating the diverse cultures and traditions of families who reside within the Shawnee Mission School District boundaries.

Parents as Teachers is a voluntary program that offers personal home visits, social activities, playgroups, parenting classes, and various health-related and developmental screenings. The early years of life are critical for optimal development and provide the foundation for success, and parents are their children's first and most influential teachers.

Enrollment Guidelines for Parents as Teachers:

Families enrolling in our program are eligible to participate in monthly home visits in addition to all of the resources and events offered through the SM Parents as Teachers program.  If you don't want home visits, families are invited to attend group meetings, participate in the play center, check out resources from our lending library, receive developmental and hearing assessments.

Our offices are located at the Broadmoor Center - Early Childhood Education - 6701 W. 83rd Street (83rd & Metcalf), Overland Park, Kansas 66204.

In October of 2024, the Shawnee Mission Parents as Teachers program earned their 2nd Blue Ribbon Affiliate Award!  This award affirms we are one of the top performing home visiting affiliates in the PAT National Center's international network. 

The Blue Ribbon Award is given to those with dedicated teamwork, strategic planning, and passionate service to families.    As presented to us by Parents as Teachers National Center , we are recognized as a high-quality member of the home visiting field, implementing the evidence-based Parents as Teachers model with fidelity.  

In order to receive this award, we underwent a rigorous self-study and review process from Parents as Teachers National.  This endorsement process acknowledges our accountability and credibility to the community, its funders, elected officials, and the partner organizations with which they work.  

Parent Satisfaction Survey  - 2024-2025
To help make our program the best it can be, we have asked our families to complete a survey about their experience.  See some responses from our families below:

What about this program has been most helpful to you and your family? 

Helping me with new ideas that are helpful in teaching and working with my daughter. Connected me to useful resources and helped us get enrolled into preschool.

As first-time parents, there are many times we seek guidance from trusted people in our village, and we are so grateful to our Parent Educator who is one of those people. She is kind, compassionate and shares her wealth of information in a way that is non-judgmental. We have also enjoyed utilizing the Early Childhood Learning Center and attended a handful of events that have been fun and taught us a lot.

Navigating the tough tantrums associated with the 2–3-year-olds. Understanding development, I never thought it to be important.

This really helped us understand the milestones we should be striving towards. I feel much more confident as a mom with our Parent Educator in my life!

Our educator noted when my daughter started pulling herself to stand more that her left foot sticks out to the side and referred us to Infant Toddler Services. We have our first appointment this Friday and would not have known about this resource otherwise! We also may not have noticed her foot as anything out of the ordinary.

Understanding the developmental stages that my kids are on and learning the things that they can do at every stage.

We love the ideas for play and activities. Our educator assisted us in finding speech screening services through our school district for our oldest daughter which was a huge help!

Knowing the milestones my child should be achieving at each age range. The resources that I would not know about if I was not in this program.

Our Parent Educator has been a huge blessing to our family. There have been so many times where the question I have are the resources she brought for our visit. She has helped me tremendously in how to best care for our son and help him thrive while also giving me so many resources as a parent of a little.

Performance Measures Report for Service Delivery Essential Requirements for Shawnee Mission School District Parents as Teachers/Growing Futures Early Education Center, Inc.

The chart below depicts our affiliate's performance on the service delivery essential requirements, based on our affiliate's APR data. This chart assists us in understanding our affiliate's level of fidelity and in planning related continuous quality improvement efforts. This information also helps us understand how your affiliate's performance compares to the 60% national minimum level.

Initial FCA 97% of newly enrolled families (enrolled > 120 days) who had an initial family-centered assessment completed within 120 days.

Annual FCA 96% of families that had a family-centered assessment completed and documented during the program year.

Goals 90% of families with at least 1 documented goal during the program year.

VisitFreq1 86% of families with 1 or fewer stressors that received at least 75% of the required number of visits per month.

VisitFreq2 70% of families with 2 or more stressors that received at least 75% of the required number of visits per year.

Initial Health 94% of newly enrolled children who received a complete initial health review in the required timeframe.

Annual Health 90% of children that received a completed annual health review during the program year.

Initial Dev Scr 86% of newly enrolled children who received a complete, initial child developmental screening within 90 days of enrollment or birth.

Annual Dev Scr 90% of children who received a complete annual child developmental screening during the program year. 

Resources 95% of families connected to their Parent Educator at least 1 community resource during the program year..

SOCKS & BLOCKS EVENT! 

Learn Exploring Shapes & Colors

• What Children Learn from Blocks
• Stack, build, imagine - one block at a time!
• Why Building Blocks Are Important

Date of event: Saturday, March 7, 2026 from 9 - 11am

Event Address:  6701 W. 83rd Street, Overland Park, KS 66204 - MPR

Play and Learn Building Blocks - Every block teaches a lesson in creativity, logic, and focus. As children build towers, bridges and shapes, they learn balance, patience, and the logic behind how things fit together.

No need to register.