13 Jose Fernandez St. San Juan, PR 00928 Web site: http://www.apnipr.org Hours: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm, Monday - Friday

Director: Mrs. Wanda R. Santos García Phone: 787-763-4665 Fax: 787-765-0345 Evaluator: Aida Cardona

State PIRC Board:

Mari Maldonado - Parent
Lucy Vélez - Parent
Obed Rivera - Parent
Awilda Rodríguez - Parent
Elvira González - Parent
Cristina Febres - Parent
Iván R. Rolón - Parent
Nitza Maldonado – Social Worker
Migdalia Fuentes – Ocupational Therapist
Luz M. Ibarra – Elemenatry School Teacher
Irlanda Ruíz- Parent & Lawyer

Special Advisory Committees:

Gabriel Ramos, University of PR
Licely Falcón, Department of Education
Yolanda Vilches, Department of Education
Carmen Avilés, Central University of Bayamón

This Puerto Rico PIRC’s mission is to provide information, education, training, technical assistance and school-based resource services to families and school personnel in public and private schools.

Educational workshops on various topics of interest that will include:

• Making the Pieces Fit: Understanding No Child Left Behind
• Healthy Lifestyles: Diet, Exercise and Obesity
• Raising Healthy Children: Preventing Substance Abuse
• How Are We Doing? Understanding Annual Assessments & Report Cards
• School Choice: What This Means for Parents & Educators
• Safe at School: Violence Prevention & AwarenessInstruction Manual for Raising Healthy
• Happy Children, Building Strong Children: Preventing Child Abuse & Building Self-esteem
• Keeping Kids in School- Drop-out Prevention
• Terrible Teens – How Parents Can Take Back Control
• Highly Qualified Teachers, Parents & Principals- Working Together
• Schools in Need of Improvement: Rebuilding Our Schools
• Getting Ready for Life: Helping Students Plan Their Futures
• Parents and Schools in Partnership for Success
• School Accountability for Parents and Educators
  

The primary objective of these workshops is to increase parents’ awareness in the importance of their involvement in their children’s education.

Parental Engagement Model

• Foster the relationship between parents and schools
• Develop practices that are fully inclusive for parents
• Establish a coordinating office in San Juan and school - based Parent Resource Centers that will be located in two schools in each of the seven educational regions.
  
Each center will:

• Serve through one-to-one contact
• Provide educational workshops and print information
• Bring opportunities for parent meetings and support groups
• Work closely with the schools to change the way they communicate and deal with parents, by helping parents to be partners with the teachers through meaningful involvement in planning and implementing school activities.

Early Childhood Model

• Provide education and support to help parents of young children to increase their child’s growth and development, so that they are better prepared upon entering kindergarten.
• Work with the Early Childhood programs and other communities’ organizations to publicize our program and recruit parents who could benefit from our services.
• Work with 40 parents to help them to maximize their child’s learning experiences.
• We will have the collaboration of Early Childhood Education students of the University of Puerto Rico to support and assist our families by providing instruction, demonstration and modeling of effective parenting strategies.

• Learning at distance for families will be tape in 30 minute segments on topics ranging from parenting issues to understanding the components of NCLB and some segments including our workshops curriculum these will provided by local and cable channels. In this way, we will be able to reach thousands of families and educators across the island.
• We will offer a week long summer camp for 100 parents and their children, where they will acquire new skills and make learning fun. The summer camp will offer one week learning and playing together in a relaxed environment under the direction of educational personnel.
• Publicize an Electronic Newsletter twice a year
• An annual conference will be conducted which will bring together parents and school personnel to get information about best practices and model programs.