Home visits by teachers and principals are popular across the country. There is a national organization that will train teachers and principals on how to conduct visits, extensive research from universities indicating positive results from the visits, and thousands of schools putting the model to use.
That’s why Detroit district leaders this year announced a major expansion of school home visits, taking something that schools such as Coleman A. Young had been doing occasionally and on their own, and formalizing the process with help from a $3 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Educators now get a $30 stipend per child for each home they visit. And parents are paid the same stipend. School staff members are also collecting data on the benefits of the program as they look to expand in the future.
Scott said going to homes is a necessity to build relationships with parents at her school, and that the community has unique needs she wouldn’t know about otherwise. Sometimes, families don’t have hot water or children share a couch to sleep. She said she needs to know the issues in order to offer solutions and resources.
“I had students — kids who don’t have behavior issues — who would stand next to their desks, and I would have to ask them to sit down,” Wallace said. “I didn’t understand why it was happening, but then I went on home visits and realized it was because they don’t have furniture, so they’re not used to sitting.”
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