The Danville Independent School District’s Cradle School program has seen growth this school year, with the addition of two staff members, a new permanent location at Jennie Rogers Community Center, and grant opportunities. 

Cradle School is a free program for children and their families in which families are supported by Parents As Teachers (PAT) certified staff. The mission of the Cradle School program is to provide support and encouragement to parents during the crucial, early years of their children’s lives, from prenatal to preschool age. More information about Cradle School is available on danvilleschools.net under Families>Family Resource and Youth Services Centers (FRYSC). 

Cradle School’s two new staff members are Missy Carter and Susan Lykins, both of whom have a background in special education. 

“We’re hoping, with the addition of them, we’ll be able to take on more families and expand it quite a bit,” said Jennifer Price, Mary G. Hogsett Primary School’s Family Resource Center (FRC) director. 

Cradle School was able to expand its staff through a Hudson-Ellis grant, as well as a grant through United Way.

Both Price and Edna L. Toliver Intermediate School’s FRC director, Tesha Bryant, run the Cradle School program. Bryant said the new space for Cradle School at Jennie Rogers has given staff the freedom to make the space look like a classroom, and makes things easier for families because Cradle School’s monthly group connections are at a consistent location.

“With our group connections, we’re really structuring it to get them ready for kindergarten,” Bryant said.

For example, children and their families do “circle time” at the beginning of group connections. Stations are set up, and families and their children rotate between them, working together. 

“So they’re able to work together and learn those skills and gain that confidence of working with their child on a new skill,” Bryant said.

Additionally, Libby McWhorter from Boyle County Public Library does a story time with the children at group connections. 

The space at Jennie Rogers has allowed for a good environment for this kind of learning. 

“This has given us the space to get the manipulatives in there, the tables in there, since we want to make it look much like a classroom, so they’re comfortable there, and when they go to kindergarten, they kind of know what a classroom looks like, so it’s not scary to them,” Bryant said.

Bryant said Cradle School may be eligible for additional grant funding if it expands its services to offer evening courses. Cradle School has this goal, in order to reach caregivers who work during the day and can’t make it to daytime group connections. For example, in addition to its March daytime group connection, there will be an evening group connection as well.

Cradle School staff also conduct home visits with families to do one-on-one activities with children and their caregivers. 

“That’s very tailored to whatever the specific need of the child is,” Bryant said. 

Cradle School conducts a screening with the children at the beginning of the year to determine the unique needs of each child. Then, they use those findings to provide resources and materials during home visits. For example, if a child needs grasping skills to work on handwriting, that’s what Cradle School will work on during a home visit. 

One goal of Cradle School is to be able to track progress of the children once they enroll in kindergarten, so the program plans to limit itself to just children within the Danville Independent School District. 

“We want to be able to, when we run these screenings on the kids and we work with them for so many years, and once they go into — hopefully Hogsett — we would be able to see that growth,” Bryant said. 

The program does community outreach as well. Recently representatives attended BCPL’s resource fair, and they regularly attend other community events. They will also be visiting different housing areas to inform families about the program. Awareness of the program is important, Bryant said, because many children in the county aren’t ready for kindergarten. 

“So it’s really important for parents to start, the sooner you start working with your child to get them ready for kindergarten, you can get those services quicker — speech quicker, occupational therapy quicker,” Bryant said. “Those screenings help us recognize some of those developmental needs.”

Another benefit of the Cradle School program is that if families wait to send their child to kindergarten until they’re 6 years old and the child isn’t enrolled in preschool before that, Cradle School is an option until they enroll in school.

“I think that’s one of the best things about the program, because legally you don’t have to send a kid to kindergarten until they’re 6 years old,” Price said. “We’ve seen that a couple times at Hogsett, where kids have had autism or some other special need, and they haven’t been sent to school until 6 years old. So programs like this help get those kids identified by the educational system and get the resources they need earlier than they would have.”
And there are a variety of resources available, with the help of community partners. Bryant said Cradle School has partnerships with Nurture Nest, Kids Can Do, the HANDS program and more.

Want to stay up-to-date about Cradle School? Follow them on Facebook at Danville Cradle School. If interested in joining Cradle School, please contact Jennifer Price at 859-936-8565 or Tesha Bryant at 859-936-8537 any time Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.-3 p.m.