Parent Educator - EHS

Job Description: EHS Parent Educator

Position Compensation: $26.76 plus excellent benefits.

Pace Offers: A Total Rewards Package to its employees, including:

• 401k
• Vacation
• Sick pay
• 14 Paid Holidays
• Pet Insurance
• FSA - Flexible Spending Accounts and Dependent Care
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Affordable Medical, Dental, and Vision packages extended to your family as well.
• Supplemental Insurance Plans
• Opportunity to promote within, just to name a few.

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.
• 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 primary role of the EHS Parent Educator is to establish 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 12 families, conducting weekly, 1.5-hour Home Visits with parents and their enrolled child(ren).
• Work with parents to strengthen the familys 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 childs intellectual, physical, emotional, and social needs.
• Work with parents to motivate and support to complete weekly home visits, up to 85% attendance, and participate 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 childs first teacher.
• Help parents set up an environment that is safe, developmentally appropriate, and conducive for learning.
• Provide learning and developmental and screenings for infants and toddlers (including DRDP-2015 IT, ASQ-3, ASQ:SE-2, etc.) for parents to complete, and support, and follow through with the developmental screening of infants and toddlers motor, language, social, cognitive, perceptual, and emotional skills.
• Document 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 childs developmental progress.
• Maintain an open, friendly, and cooperative relationship with each childs family; encourage parental involvement in the program; promote parent-child bonding and nurturing parent-child relationships.
• Promote School Readiness Skills based on the agencys 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 childs 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 childs third birthday to ensure child access ongoing educational and community services by age three.
• Conduct Bi-Weekly 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 three (3) to complete enrollment process.
• Complete ongoing and timely health follow-ups throughout the program year - health history reviews, nutrition screenings, vision screenings, hearing screenings, and growth assessments (height, weight, and head circumference).
• 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 PACEs Outlook Calendar to record home visits, socializations, 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 their agency-assigned cell phone, laptop, and desktop.
• Responsible to complete up to 46 Home Visits and 22 Socialization 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 12 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 their 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.
• Attend and participate in staff meetings and trainings; attend workshops, conferences, and classes to increase professional knowledge and development; serve on committees as assigned.
• Meet routinely 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 up to 2 days per week (or more as required) to submit all required paperwork and participate in individual supervision and required meetings and training.
• Assists in accomplishing the programs 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.
• Submit 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 full caseload and