Teachers (PAT) program and continues to support that program in its new grant awarded in September 2006. The PAT component of NDPASS serves as the PAT State Office and liaison with the PAT National Center.
Recent Changes
The new NDPASS grant includes major changes to the PAT component. The focus has changed from providing direct services to families to a broader mission of promoting early childhood parent education statewide, emphasizing collaboration with statewide agencies and organizations to promote advances in early care and education. The PAT demonstration site located at NDSU in Fargo that has helped hundreds of families over the years has been closed. While this was a difficult decision to make, guidance from the federal level indicated that statewide impact was the direction they wanted states to pursue. The target population of PAT will remain on families with children (prenatal to kindergarten entry), but its activities will be oriented toward training, education and promoting parent education and early care and education in the state (see objectives below).
NDPASS Parents as Teachers Objectives
Develop, support and sustain high quality PAT programs throughout the state of North Dakota.
Increase the awareness and understanding of early childhood parent education programs and Parents as Teachers throughout the state of North Dakota.
Increase the understanding of the importance of the home visiting component in parent education through collaboration with other entities who work with families with young children in North Dakota.
Expand the availability of PAT technical assistance and training opportunities to assist existing PAT integrated sites as well as to increase the number of PAT sites around the state.
Educate PAT programs about, and encourage use of, PAT quality standards and self-assessment process.
An additional feature of NDPASS is the research and evaluation services it provides to: (1) assess the quality and usefulness of program services; (2) monitor the progress made in meeting program objectives; and (3) conduct research activities related to programming (e.g., needs assessments, surveys).
