Early childhood education outcomes are based on the quality of services provided to children and families.

A Program Plan guides organizations through program planning to build a strong foundation for a high quality program. Designed as a logic model, it links inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes for families. It also helps determine appropriate staffing and budget. Keeping the end in mind as a new program is developed leads to strong programs and maximizes positive outcomes for families. The Quality Assurance Guidelines provide detailed guidance to support the completion of the program plan.

This checklist highlights the minimum requirements for initiating a new Parents as Teachers Born to Learn program, effective January 2010.

Our standards and quality indicators establish a blueprint for quality implementation of our model. We expect anyone implementing our model to use these standards to guide practice.

See all eight areas of the standards and all 190 quality indicators.

Similarities in Quality

More than half of all programs delivering Parents as Teachers services are blended with other programs.

Our standards fully complement those of Head Start, Even Start and Healthy Families of America. See how they crosswalk.

• Head Start/Early Head Start 
• Healthy Families America Credentialing Standards
• Even Start Quality Consideration  

Program quality visits and commendation

During this visit, expert consultants with extensive experience in early childhood home visiting validate a program’s self-study. This can result in the program receiving Parents as Teachers commendation which can be used to demonstrate excellence and leverage support from funders, policy makers, the community and families. The consultants also provide guidance so program staff can develop goals and strategies to further strengthen its implementations of the Parents as Teachers Born to Learn® model.

FAQs about Commendation Visits