Related Research

Julie Piazza-King, Director, Family Life Child Care Program, on Parents as Partners in Early Education

Parent involvement is an important component of all quality early childhood programs. In the past, research on parent involvement has generally been focused on the elementary school years. However, a new body of research is emerging that suggests a variety of positive outcomes result from parent involvement in early childhood education programs as well.

These studies have concluded that parents who are involved in their child's education and care before starting school are more likely to read to their children daily, to visit their child's classroom after they transition to kindergarten and to network with other school parents.

The article, "Parents as Partners in Early Education", provides more information on the importance of parent involvement, and concludes that "children benefit the most when early childhood education programs have strong partnerships with parents.”

Family Life Child Care strives to form partnerships with parents and engage them in their child's education through such things as parent/teacher conferences, participating in special events, volunteering in the classroom or on field trips, as well as many other opportunities that come up throughout the year.