Head Start...home visits? UPDATE in OP

[luvsviola]

DS's traditional preschool just comes out to meet mom and kids, so they get a better picture of kiddo. It is not any kind of check. They ask about favorite toys, meet the siblings, and get to know the family.

[mommy2colin]

I worked at head start as a family service worker for 6 years and the home visit is a chance for you and the teacher to get together and set goals for your child for the school year. Your fsw should meet with you also to see if you need any assistance with anything (food, utilities, info on going to school) and work on these goals with you. It's not to check out your house like cps would, but to be honest we did look at how the conditions were. I walked into some houses that were just disgusting and couldn't believe people lived there, but that wasn't the norm. The main goal is for you and the teacher to communicate about your child and if the fsw is there for him/her to check in with you also and make sure you are getting the services you need. Like a PP said you can also have them at the site usually so if that would work for you then you can ask the teacher about that. At my site we had a whole week just for home visits (we had over 300 kids at our site) but at a smaller site they may not have as many days to complete it. Hope this helps!

[mumtothem]

Originally Posted by a_marines_wife03 My eldest went to head start last year. we had home visits all they did was come in and talk to you about what your child knows what they dont know that they need to know and set some goals for them for the next 6 months. for us it was not any big deal they did not look through our house or anything once she sat at the kitchen table because thats where the kids were playing. Once I met her in the drive way on our way out and she never even came in the house.

This.My oldest started headstart last month.First home visit was to meet the teachers, fill out paper work and one did a quick game of match colors and such to see how much he knew.I was very hesitant and put off by the home visit idea but afterwards I thought it was very nice.I got to talk to them one on one with no distractions to ask questions.
The next visit, think they do 3 all year, is to let us know how hes doing, if theres problems and stuff like that.
Its not bad and we love the teachers and everyone involved so its nice to be able to talk with them not in a school setting with 17 noisy kids.

[mibarra]

Originally Posted by ohgirlohboyohno We just started head start last week and I see a note in the folder that we need to schedule a home visit. What are these home visits about? Is it like a CPS visit? Do I need to make sure we have all kinds of food around, all kinds of safety stuff, Clean rooms? etc?? Thanks

I don't believe so. I think it's standard procedure, and really more to see how things are at home, to get to know you better, to learn your style and your needs so they can help support you.

[TwinKristi]

My twins were in HS and they did a home visit once. It wasn't weird or anything, I totally get why. It may not apply to you, but some children don't live in the best environment and HS can help with some of the referrals to help families. They did a Christmas thing where they got gifts and some families qualified for free computers if they didn't have one, utility assistance, etc that people are often too ashamed to ask for.

[Brooke789]

Yep, here it is just a 'meet and greet'. In my state they do it for Kindergarten and 6th grade.

[Icryinbaseball]

We had to do it also when DD2 was in Head Start it has always been manditory for the Head Start program in AR. They just came in and made sure we actually had a house, utilities all turned on, and just the over all home life.

[HillbillyMama]

When I was a Family Partner at Head Start, we did 2 home visits a year..And it was only to see what issues (if any) the parents were noticing with their LO in the program, what the children had been learning, results of dental clinic visits, etc....It's more in the vein of PTO-ish kinda of stuff, and the reasons for doing it during school time were 1) Children not there during the visit so the parents felt free enough to discuss the children, and the workers also werent able to schedule many visits in the evenings due to overtime

[ohgirlohboyohno]

update in OP

[mibarra]

Originally Posted by ohgirlohboyohno We just started head start last week and I see a note in the folder that we need to schedule a home visit. What are these home visits about? Is it like a CPS visit? Do I need to make sure we have all kinds of food around, all kinds of safety stuff, Clean rooms? etc?? Thanks UPDATE>>>>> SO, I scheduled our appointment for 9 am (so I could get home after taking the kids to school at 8)...I thought it was kind of weird that all the teachers were still there...but didn't really put 2 and 2 together...so at 9:20 the teacher calls me..."MsS. are you coming to our home visit today?"....I said yeah, I am here at home waiting"....she says "Oh we do them here at the school".....I said oh the note said "home visit".....she didn't understand how I could have messed that up .....so we did it over the phone.

HA!! That's hilarious!! Seriously??