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ABOUT US

Sunnyside Unified School District Parents as Teachers Program (Sunnyside PAT) has the vision that all children will learn, grow and develop to realize their full potential. Sunnyside PAT has been an affiliate of the PAT National Center since its inception in 1995 and has served over 6,500 families and 7,000 children. Currently, PAT is working with single parents, grandparents, teen and foster parents, family and kin caregivers, who have transitioned to serve as primary caregivers, single fathers and refugee families from Somalia. In the past ten years, Sunnyside PAT has served over 500 teens, including those from the Sunnyside High School and Desert View High School. Sunnyside PAT has provided evening programs for fathers at the neighborhood elementary school, helping them to build their child’s language and literacy skills. As a result of this program, 160 dads have participated in home visits.

 
​PARENTS AS FIRST TEACHERS

A parent is a child's first and most important teacher. This PAT program is designed to provide parents with information and assistance to enhance their children's intellectual, language, social, and physical development from birth to age five.



IMPORTANCE OF  FIRST YEARS

The learning that occurs before a child is five years old set the stage for life. Intelligence develops as much during the first four years as in the next thirteen. Most of the language that one will use as an adult is developed by age three. This language skill, along with the establishment of curiosity and social skills, set the foundation for all future learning.

 

VISION

All children will learn, grow, and develop to realize their full potential.


​MISSION

To provide the information, support and encouragement, parents need to help their children develop optimally during the crucial early years of life.

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MODEL COMPONENTS

  • Personal Visits

  • Developmental Screenings 

  • Resources

  • Group Connections

  • Stay and Plays

  • Evening Programs for Fathers

  • Library/Story Hour

  • Fieldtrips

  • Reading Incentives 


 

PAT IMPACT

PAT ensures that children come to school safe, healthy and ready to learn. In 2019 PAT provided:

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  • 2,500 home visits to 320 families & 400 kids

  • 259 developmental screenings beginning at 4 months of age

  • 27 group meetings for parents and children

  • 316 families connected with community resources

 

These components are the building blocks of the Parents as Teachers Evidence-Based Home Visiting Logic Model that create strong communities, thriving families and healthy, safe children who are ready to learn. 

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The ability to read by third grade is critical to a child's success in school, life-long learning and their ability to contribute to the nation's economy and security. One in four children in Pima County is not reaching this crucial benchmark. By grade three, Parents as Teachers graduates are successfully reading at a third-grade level and beyond.

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94% of PAT students rated by their kindergarten teachers are coming to kindergarten with the skills needed to be successful. 

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Registration
I am interested in enrolling in Sunnyside Parents as Teachers program

SUCCESS STORY

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Parents as Teachers was like a miracle because I was finally able to get my son into a school program after having so many doors closed to us. When we joined the program we had no transportation and had to walk seven miles to get to the closest bus stop. The idea of a teacher coming to our home monthly to help me with my child’s academic and social-emotional development was wonderful.” The PAT home visit program serves many families. There are thousands of Sunnyside families being served today! Jasmine Alcon goes on to say, “Our parent educator achieved for my son in one hour of time per month, what I could never have achieved in the two hours per day I worked with him.

Library Story Hour : Jonathan Rothschild, Mayor of Tucson read to our children in the program, March 30, 2015. 

G​OVERNOR'S

EXCELLENCE

AWARD

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