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By VICKI URBANIK It’s no exaggeration to say that the Parents As Teachers program headquartered at Yost Elementary School has been scraping by.
In fact, as things stand now, PAT will be out of money entirely by the end of January. Though the current funding situation may represent the worst crisis so far since the program began in Duneland 15 years ago, its leaders aren’t calling it quits. PAT Director Vickii Brock said even if the program closes after January, she knows in her heart any shutdown will be only temporary. As Brock and PAT Co-Director Barb Crumpacker-Niedner tell it, the need for the program is so great and the benefits are so numerous, that PAT simply cannot come to an end. “This is what you do for excellence in education,” said Crumpacker-Niedner. PAT is an early child education program that focuses on the role of parents and guardians as their pre-school child’s first and most important teacher. Armed with resource materials for parents and creative activities for the kids, PAT educators meet one-on-one monthly with families of pre-schooled aged children from birth to age 5. Sometimes the issues at hand are common ones, such as how to effectively deal with temper tantrums and potty training. Sometimes the issues are complicated, such as behavioral problems, dyslexia, extreme shyness, or inability to talk. And sometimes, Crumpacker-Niedner said, the parents just need some outside support. The goal is to promote and reinforce proper parenting skills, while getting the children on a solid academic footing so that they’ll be ready to enter school as kindergartners and excel once they’re in. “We like to tell parents, there are so many ways to be smart,” Crumpacker-Niedner said, referring to the different ways that children learn and the different tools available to teach them. PAT is a national program and as such, studies have shown that children who go through PAT have better academic success and fewer problems like delinquency. Locally, the people who have been in PAT offer glowing testimonials. One parent wrote that she and her husband are professionals who as kids never had a problem learning. They were dismayed when their otherwise bright 4-year-old daughter couldn’t seem to grasp basic skills like counting. Through the help of PAT, it was determined that the child was a kinesthetic learner, meaning that she learns the best through touch, not vision, which is the norm in most educational settings. PAT introduced teaching methods by using touch -- such as counting while touching toys -- that helped the child blossom. Another parent wrote that even though she frequently read to her children, PAT introduced rhyming books that significantly increased her children’s attention and interest in reading. Another parent, a university professor with a specialization in early childhood education, said nothing about her career prepared her “for the hardest teaching position of my life: Parenthood.” She wrote that because of PAT, she has learned how to stress the positives about her children, how to avoid comparing the siblings, and how to focus on each child’s development.
Wrote another parent: “The early years of development are the most important of a child’s life. We get only one chance to do it right. It is great to know that PAT is there to help.” Despite all that, Crumpacker-Niedner said many people seem to view PAT as superfluous. People tend to support groups that assist in crisis, such as homelessness or child abuse, not proactive programs where success is harder to measure. As Brock put it, people tend to look at the end product: They see no problem with a child who is an excellent reader, but they don’t support the very programs that helped with that child’s early literacy skills. Forty states now fund early childhood educational programs like PAT. Indiana is not one of them. Missouri, for one, has early childhood educators in every school. When PAT first began in Duneland in 1989, it was a small program paid for through the school system’s at-risk funds. But those funds have practically dried up. Since 2000, PAT has been funded through grants received from the Lilly Endowment/The Discovery Alliance totaling $342,000. When PAT won its first Lilly grant, the program had four parent educators and served about 40 families just in Duneland. It has since grown exponentially. Today, PAT has nine parent educators, serving about 180 families countywide, with 50 on a waiting list. Though the parent-educators aren’t considered full-time -- not one gets health insurance benefits, for example -- some serve as many as 25 families and put in full-time hours. PAT has classroom space at Yost, Bailly, Jackson, and Brummitt, in addition to schools in Portage, South Haven, and Valparaiso and at the Duneland and the Portage Township YMCAs. The demand for PAT in Portage and Valparaiso is evidenced by the numbers: Though it’s been in Valparaiso for only three years, one-third of the client base comes from that area. The majority of calls for families wanting to sign up now comes from Portage. Brock strongly praised the Duneland Schools for its continued support of PAT. Though it doesn’t provide direct operating dollars to PAT, Duneland gives in-kind services such as allowing classroom space and use of telephones and copy machines and serving as its fiscal agent -- all of which could otherwise add up to some big expenses. Ideally, Brock and Crumpacker-Niedner agree that the best funding source for PAT would be direct funding from each of the participating school districts. PAT then could supplement those funds by raising $30,000 or so a year itself through fundraisers. They both have ideas for expansion, as well. One is to go beyond PAT’s typical mission by having PAT educators follow the children into the kindergarten level, working with the teachers on areas where they see need for improvement. But the current reality is that, at least for the foreseeable future, PAT has to get along entirely by piecemeal funding where ever it can get it -- a individual contribution here or there, a donation from a civic club, a grant that will cover the monthly expense of around $12,500. PAT recently launched a direct mailing campaign hoping to drum up individual contributions, and its board members have been actively coming up with fundraising ideas. “Only through that can we survive,” Brock said. To Donate or Learn More PAT is a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit organization, so all contributions are tax-deductible. To learn more about PAT or to contribute, visit the program’s website at
or call Yost Elementary School.
Posted 12/1/2004
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