State Program to Fund Home Visits by Teachers Will Begin in Fall

Teachers throughout California will begin paying visits to their students’ homes next fall through a new program designed to strengthen ties with parents and improve academic achievement.

Four hundred schools will be awarded state grants of up to $40,000 each so their teachers can make the visits during evenings and on weekends. The schools will be selected next month from a pool of more than 2,500 campuses that have applied for the funds.

The home visit program was tested in Sacramento over the last year. Parents and teachers there have reported such phenomenal success--including increased parent participation, better grades and rising test scores--that the Legislature decided to expand the program to other California public schools.

Gov. Gray Davis in October authorized $15 million for the statewide program, which will target students in elementary and middle schools. The money also will pay for high school programs that set up community meetings between parents and teachers.

For the home visit initiative, schools with fewer than 1,000 students can apply for $25,000 grants; larger schools can receive $40,000. In January, the state Department of Education asked schools to send notice if they planned to apply, and 2,500 did.

Among those schools eager to launch home visits are five campuses in Costa Mesa, where parents have had difficulty participating in their children’s school activities, often because of language barriers.

The funds will be used to pay for teacher training and to compensate teachers for the home visits at $30 an hour, the same base rate as summer school classes, said Lisa Dillon, an administrator with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Costa Mesa is part of the district.

“This program does not mean you do home visits with every single child in your class,” Dillon said. “What it’s designed for is that you might target four, five or six students and meet with them and their parents at home a few times a year.”

School district officials are so enthusiastic about the program that they plan to go ahead with some kind of home visit program even if they don’t get a state grant.

“We’re still committed because we know it’s a good concept,” Newport-Mesa Supt. Robert Barbot said. “But we’re anxious to get the grant; we’re crossing our fingers.”

The Newport-Mesa district, which encompasses Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, serves students from vastly different backgrounds. About 57% of the 21,000 students are white and 36% are Latino, but white students predominate at the Newport Beach schools, while many of the Latino students attend Costa Mesa schools.

Interest in the home visit program had percolated on several fronts, Barbot said. Administrators had watched Sacramento’s experiment with keen interest, and community parent groups also kept abreast of the project.

The rave reviews from Sacramento parents convinced many in Newport-Mesa that home visits are just what they need too.

“We have many of the same issues right here,” said Laura Avella, one of the parents asking the district to sign up for the program. “Our children are not succeeding the way they should be. The academic level in the schools is too low, and it absolutely must be raised.”

Many parents in her community do not speak English fluently, she said.

“They fear the language,” she said. “And although this district has really opened its doors to the parents, many really need the school to reach out to them.”

In addition, many parents lack cars or work long hours, making it hard for them to manage a visit to school.

The five campuses seeking the grants were chosen in part because of such barriers.

“We have kids who have to take care of everything at home while both parents are working,” Barbot said. “In many cases the parents are working 12 to 14 hours a day each.”