Parents Ready for School

Parents Ready for School (PR4S) is a dynamic, hands-on parent leadership program that increases the skills, knowledge and confidence of parents to successfully navigate the school system on behalf of their children.  First piloted in 2008 with the support of First 5 Alameda County, the six-session program has been offered in multiple languages in partnership with early childhood and adult education programs to more than 350 parents of young children, predominantly low-income and immigrant families in the East Bay.

Parents who complete the PR4S training

  • Gain knowledge of parents’ rights and responsibilities in education
  • Gain new understandings and perspectives about the educational system
  • Increase their ability to find and use information related to their children’s education
  • Increase their commitment to take action to support their children’s education
  • Develop confidence as leaders
  • Build lasting bonds with other parents.

Parents Ready for School Training of Trainers

In order to increase the reach and impact of Parents Ready for School, PLAN now offers a Training of Trainers program to select agencies and schools in Alameda County.

Outcomes for participating organizations:

  • Receive support to deliver PR4S trainings to their parent communities
  • Build organizational capacity to plan and facilitate culturally and linguistically appropriate parent trainings
  • Broaden and enrich parent education and leadership development strategies
  • Increase opportunities for collaboration
  • Build a stronger and more informed base of active and engaged parents.

At the end of training, participants will have:

  • Increased their understanding of best practices in adult learning
  • Gained valuable skills in planning and facilitating parent leadership training
  • Developed the capacity to support parent trainings in their community, school, or organization
  • Support underrepresented parent populations in making their voices
  • Learned to encourage and support parents to make informed decisions that impact their children’s education.

Read the Report

PR4S focus group report 2009
In order to assess the effectiveness of the PR4S training, two focus groups were held in May and
June 2009 to explore how the training had affected parent participants and how they used what they
had learned from the training. Both focus groups were composed of parents who had participated in
the PR4S program during the past year.

For more information on the Parents Ready for School Training of Trainers program, please contact PLAN Training Director Jairo Güiza.

For more information about Parents Ready for School (dates, requirements and how to apply) contact PLAN at 510-444-7526 or info at parentactionnet.org.