U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today announced that nonprofit organizations working with school districts in 19 states will receive a total of $11.7 million to set up local parent information and resource centers in communities across the nation.

"If we are to leave no child behind and offer each child a high-quality education, parents must be actively involved in their child's learning," Paige said. "We know that early childhood learning activities can help to close the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged children and their peers. To help all of our children read and learn well these centers can help share this and other valuable information with parents and teachers."

States and territories that received new grants to establish centers include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Guam, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.

Each center will have a unique focus, but all will share a common objective: to provide and expand opportunities for parents to be involved in their children's learning while reflecting the priorities and conditions of local communities. To that end, the new centers will offer:

• conferences, workshops and mobile training teams that help train parents;

• direct assistance through parent hotlines, lending libraries and parent education programs;

• information-sharing through newsletters, referral networks, web sites, cable television programming and toll-free numbers; and

• assistance to schools to help improve communication with parents and increase parental involvement in their children's education.

The grants will offer an array of services to help parents help their children learn such as: parent-to-parent training activities; hotlines that offer telephone assistance in response to parents' concerns about child development and behavior; and workshops to help parents enhance their parenting skills, foster their child's readiness skills, understand their child's academic development, and use resources to improve their child's learning.

The centers will also provide resources and guidance developed under the Parents As Teachers (PAT) program and the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY); two programs that are considered highly effective in helping parents prepare their children for school success.

With the funding announced today, centers will operate in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Pacific Island outlying areas. Eight states will now have a second center.

The grants are authorized under Title IV of the Goals 2000 Educate America Act.

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Grants for Parent Information Resource Centers, FY 2001

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