Parent Educator - Part Time - PACE

Position Compensation: $ 17.50- $25.00 per hour

GENERAL INFORMATION:

PACE Education provides high quality early childhood education with case management support services from birth to five years of age for economically disadvantaged families. In addition to early childhood education, the program also provides case management support to assist with health, nutrition, mental health, disabilities, and parent empowerment and involvement services. This program is funded and operated under Head Start, Early Head Start, State Preschool guidelines and regulations. PACE Education includes Head Start & Early Head Start Center-Based Program that operates 16 school sites enrolling children ages 18 months through age 5 at local preschool sites, including a Home-Based program serving enrolled children, ages 0-3 years and pregnant women. These services are provided in the metro Los Angeles area through Santa Monica and South Bay communities (Gardena, Torrance, Hawthorne, and Lawndale).

BASIC FUNCTION:

The EHS Parent Educator provides case management support services and appropriate child development activities to infants, toddlers, pregnant mothers, and their families. The role of the EHS Parent Educator is to form a partnership with parents to develop and implement positive early childhood experiences for their children.

CHARACTERISTIC DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage a full caseload, up to 6 families, conducting weekly, 1.5-hour Home Visits with parents and children. Appointments must be scheduled Monday through Friday:
  • Work with parents to strengthen the family’s knowledge of child development, including helping parents understand how children grow and learn.
  • Work with pregnant mothers and other expectant family members to help support a healthy pregnancy through the birth of their newborn.
  • Plan and conduct educational activities with parents to meet the child’s intellectual, physical, emotional, and social needs.
  • Works with parents to motivate and support to complete weekly home visits, up to 85% attendance, and; participates in recruitment of children as indicated in the ERSEA plan to maintain a full caseload.
  • Provides respectful customer service and collaboration with parents, children, community representatives /members, and all PACE staff on a daily basis.

• Manage educational services:
  • Develop and effectively implement an individualized weekly home-based educational plan using a research-based curriculum that will support and strengthen a positive relationship between parent and child, promoting the parent as the child’s first teacher. Help parents set up an environment that is safe, developmentally appropriate, and conducive for learning.
  • Conduct learning and developmental and screenings for infants and toddlers(including DRDP-2015 IT, ASQ-3, ASQ:SE-2, etc.), and; support, and follow through with the developmental screening of infants’ and toddlers’ motor, language, social, cognitive, perceptual, and emotional skills.
  • Documents child observations weekly during home visits and socializations to manage developmental strengths and needs over a period of time across different settings.
  • Help parents understand early child development and milestones, and; include parents in managing and reporting their child’s developmental progress.
  • Maintain an open, friendly, and cooperative relationship with each child’s family; encourage parental involvement in the program; promote parent-child bonding and nurturing parent-child relationships.
  • Promote School Readiness Skills based on the agency’s current School Readiness Plan.
  • Promote feelings of security and trust in infants and toddlers by conveying warmth, supportiveness, and comfort; establish strong and caring relationships with children.
  • Support children with specialized needs by helping promote and implement the child’s Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP). Coordinate services between families and other community agencies.
  • Develop an individual transition plan with families starting at 30 months (about 2 and a half years) of age and two weeks prior to the child’s third birthday to ensure child access ongoing educational and community services by age three.
  • Promote attendance for Group Connections (2-hour socialization group) at a designated location to support home based curriculum in a social setting with same aged peers.
  • Download and review ChildPlus reports monthly to ensure all data is accurate and educational deadlines are met in a timely manner; submit monthly follow-up reports to EHS Supervisor.

• Manage health and nutrition information and provide parents with information and resources about health and nutrition.
  • Complete age-based health history and nutrition screening for pregnant mothers and for children ages birth through age 3 to complete enrollment process.
  • Complete ongoing health follow-up throughout the program year – health history reviews, nutrition screenings, vision and hearing screenings.

• Review, guide and support parents to access community health services; obtain medical records to ensure children are receiving healthy age-based visits using the Bright Futures Guidelines and periodicity for physical and dental exams, immunizations, including lead and hemoglobin screenings.
• Work with parents to eliminate gaps in health services and access physical and dental care, including immunizations, lead and hemoglobin screenings based on age requirements using the Bright Future Guidelines.
• Connect the relationship of health and well-being of pregnant women to early child development.
• Connect the relationship of health and well-being of the child to school readiness.
• Collaborate with Service Area Managers and EHS Nurse to provide referrals as needed if there are health and nutrition needs.
  • Download and review ChildPlus reports monthly to ensure all data is accurate and health and nutrition deadlines are met in a timely manner; submit monthly follow-up reports to EHS Supervisor and Service Area Manager.

• Manage family services to help families access community resources and provide support for problem solving, including providing support to access Mental Health services and Disability related services.
  • Assess family needs and strengths to help promote a healthy family support network through family, friends and community connections through the Family Partnership Process.
  • Promote and empower family strengths helping them create individual and family goals. Family goals are important and benefits children by allowing them to achieve success by seeing their goal from beginning to end; provides individual focus, direction and purpose; helps them to feel important and listened to.
  • Promote parent involvement through weekly parent volunteer activities with their child and/or in their community through the Non-Federal Match program.
  • Work with mental health and disability related professionals and others to develop strategies to help families coping with a crisis, including referring to mental health services, the regional center and other community resources.
  • Download and review ChildPlus reports monthly to ensure all data is accurate and family service deadlines are met in a timely manner.

• Manage work schedule independently and accountable for Home Visit Attendance and Socialization Attendance
  • Accountable for weekly caseload activities, managing a weekly schedule using PACE’s Outlook Calendar to record home visits, socialization(s) and other work activities completed during the week. The Outlook Calendar must be maintained current, reflecting home visits, cancellations and/or any changes in schedule. Parent Educators will have access to Outlook Calendar using agency assigned cell phone, laptop and desktop.
  • Responsible to complete up to 46 Home Visits through the program year and encourage families to participate and maintain attendance at 85% (no more than 1 family cancellation per month).
    • Must be able to be flexible, reschedule and accommodate up to 6 home visits per week to help families overcome barriers and challenges to help them maintain weekly attendance. If the family cancels the visit does not need to be made up; the reason for cancellation must be reported accurately.
    • If Parent Educator cancels the home visit, the visit must be made up within 30 days.

• Manage multiple deadlines. Demonstrate excellent organizational skills to ensure all assigned work is accurately completed and submitted in a timely manner according to agency policy and procedures. Manage weekly online schedule to ensure all home visits are completed timely. Must be knowledgeable and proficient with computer software to maintain child/family and education data up to date, including the ability to maintain client confidentiality. Other duties as assigned within the scope of the position include but not limited to the following:
  • Ensures all service area reports (Education, Family, Health and Nutrition) are submitted in a timely manner – 30th, 45th, 60th, 90th, 180th calendar day requirements are met through the end of the year.
  • Meet with EHS Supervisor for individual case management support.
  • Accurately completes and submits timely all assigned paperwork and documentation, according to agency policies and procedures.
  • Must maintain ongoing communication with agency staff via email, phone, and/or in person.
  • Must be able to work independently to complete all required home visits and report to the office to submit all required paperwork and participate in individual supervision and required training.
  • Assists in accomplishing the program's non-federal match share through the access of community resources (services, donations, discounts, and/or goods). Provide weekly extended home activities and services parents can complete throughout the week. Submit non-federal match timely for every participant/volunteer in the caseload.
  • Submits attendance timely at the end of every week, and works with families to complete consistent home visits, maintaining an average up to 85% attendance to meet federal requirements.
  • Supports program recruitment requirements to help maintain and fill EHS and HS slots.

• Attend professional development trainings and education coaching to increase expertise within the teaching field and other areas to help build confidence when working with families and other professionals:
  • Parent Educators must complete up to 15 -20 hours of professional development that includes training in all service areas – education, family services, health and nutrition to complete all required duties.
  • Parent Educators are required to participate in educational coaching via a qualified Education Coach to help enrich a parent’s experience as their child’s first teacher. Education Coaching is provided in an individual and/or group setting to:
    • Provide training and support in maintaining best practices to support fidelity to the research-based curriculum.
    • Observe, reflect and apply best practices and increase confidence in their implementation of the home visit curriculum.
    • Promote positive outcomes for both Parent Educators and the children and families served.

QUALIFICATIONS (KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE):

• Education and Work Experience
  • Must be at least 18 years old.
  • Three years’ experience in a home visiting programs, understanding adult learning principles and/or family dynamics, including working with children and families in promoting and educating on child development, early childhood education, health, safety, nutrition, and community resources.
  • Associate degree in early childhood education, social work, psychology, human services, nursing or related field or related field, including 12 units of early childhood education/child development core courses outlined in the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) Child Development Permit Matrix; OR
  • Must have a home visitor credential or a Family Development Credential with 12 units of early childhood education/child development core courses in lieu of an associate degree.
  • Must obtain six (6) semester units with a focus on infant and toddler development at hire or within the first year of employment.
  • Must be familiar with and support parent to complete the ASQ SE-2 and ASQ 3.
  • Must be able to complete comprehensive child observations using the DRDP (2015) Infant/Toddler. Must demonstrate completion of DRDP (2015).
  • Willingness to comply with established agency standards which include an emphasis on professionalism, productivity, personal responsibility, outstanding customer service orientation, and embracing a team-player attitude.

• Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
  • Bilingual (Spanish) preferred.
  • Knowledge of computer software such as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.). Previous experience utilizing the ChildPlus database is preferred.
  • Must be able to organize and independently manage a weekly schedule to ensure all timelines and work product is current. Must communicate routinely and follow-up timely with emails and phone contacts.
  • Must possess excellent organizational skills; be detail-oriented and submit all work accurately and timely.
  • Must be able to maintain client confidentiality.
  • Ability to build respectful, culturally responsive, and trusting relationships with families.
  • Strong communication skills and knowledge of child health, safety, and nutrition; adult learning principles; family dynamics; and community resources to plan and implement home-based learning experiences.
    • Help parents understand early childhood development and milestones with respect to children from birth to age three.
    • Implement methods to help parents promote emergent literacy in their children from birth to age three, including use of research-based strategies to support the development of literacy and language skills for children with limited English proficiency.
    • Effectively implement a strength-based parent education modality, including methods to encourage parents as their child’s first teachers. Ability to support parents’ understanding to help promote their child’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development.
    • Ascertain what health and development services the child and/or family receive and work with parents and providers to help eliminate gaps in health services to access services that include physical, dental, developmental services, including vision/hearing screening for children birth to age three.
  • Must be able to effectively plan, advocate, organize, collaborate and implement educational and other family activities across other service areas and agencies. Must possess the ability to work effectively with staff and families in a professional, respectful manner and be culturally sensitive to the needs of every family.
  • Creativity, vision, charisma, strong presence, responsiveness, honesty, drive and initiative are all traits that are highly valued.
  • Must be coachable and open to constructive feedback to help increase knowledge, skills and abilities in all work and service areas (education, family, mental health, disabilities), including individual and group educational coaching.

SPECIAL CONDITIONS:

• Current Adult & Pediatric CPR/1^St Aid Certificate to be renewed prior to expiration
• Valid California Driver’s License and auto insurance coverage. This job requires the applicant to be able to travel independently to center based sites, homes of participating families and other locations as required.
• Must pass the following background checks prior to start of employment:
  • • Sex Offender Registry
    • Child Abuse and Neglect State Registry
    • State or Tribal Criminal History Check, including fingerprints
    • FBI Criminal History Check, including fingerprints
• Must have verification of T.B. clearance at time of employment, to be renewed every two years (every 4 years for chest x-rays).
• Must complete a physical examination at time of employment, to be renewed every two years.
• Provide proof of the following immunizations as required: Measles, Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Influenza, and COVID-19
• Must complete 15 clock hours of professional development annually that builds the knowledge, experience, skills, and abilities of staff to improve child, family, and staff outcomes. Of this, a minimum of 50% of the 15 hours (or 7.5 hours) must be focused on the specific content area or job assignment.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

• The working conditions and physical demands of this position will be those that must be met to successfully perform the essential duties of the position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties. The physical environment the incumbent will work in is typically an office environment with moderate noise levels that would be expected in that type of work environment.
• T.B. Test within the past six months prior to employment, and every two (2) years thereafter (every 4 years for a chest X-ray).
• Must pass a physical examination at the time of hire, and every 2 years thereafter
• Provide proof of the following immunizations as required: Measles, Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Influenza, and COVID-19.

Representative physical demands of the job include normal vision and hearing, standing for extended periods, sitting for extended periods, kneeling and stooping, manipulating objects with hands, reaching overhead, and occasionally lifting and carrying objects weighing up to 25 pounds.