Even Start Requirements
The Even Start statute requires that programs “provide and monitor integrated instructional services to participating parents and children through home-based programs.” The statute also requires that home-based services be provided on a regular basis typically once a month per family.
Advantages of Home-based Instruction
Being in the home lends itself to addressing how parents can support their children’s literacy skills. Home-based instruction allows programs to individualize program services for families and to build on the strengths that educators encounter in the home.
As home-based instructors learn about family routines, customs and values, they become more culturally sensitive to families’ needs and if needed can make referrals to outside agencies that are sensitive to the families’ belief systems.
Home-based instruction plays a vital role in most family literacy programs. It is a means for delivering literacy instruction in a familiar setting and serves to emphasize that parents are the child’s first and most important teacher.