Pre-K 4 SA Family Engagement

parents in a Pre-K 4 SA classroom

Pre-K 4 SA believes that supporting a child–along with their entire family–helps children build a successful learning foundation for life. That’s why our Family Engagement Team collaborates closely with teachers, administrators, and staff. The team’s mission is to encourage educational potential in the home, engage families in school leadership, and build on each family’s unique strengths and abilities to cultivate a thriving environment that is sustainable.

We are educating families as a whole through positive parent-child relationships, leadership strategies, and ways to bridge the gap between the living room and the classroom. 

Our programs engage families in two-way communication because families are their children’s first and most important teacher. 

One of our most successful Pre-K 4 SA Family Engagement programs is called Parents as Partners, which gives families a front-row seat to their children’s educational experience. Each center has a Parent Partner Group that works together to build community, engage in the classroom, and provide overall support to teachers and staff. 

There are many programs that families can be involved in at Pre-K for SA. H-E-B Read 3 program selects 25 families from each center and provides one book a month to children to build their reading skills. The Gracias program engages children and their families by partnering local artists with classrooms, and visiting signature sites around San Antonio. Students then create artwork in collaboration with the artist based on their experiences, and the artwork is then exhibited and auctioned for charity. These are just a few ways families can engage in their child’s learning at Pre-K 4 SA.

From planning school events and addressing common concerns, to serving as an advisory committee on curriculum and activities, groups work collaboratively to positively impact each campus. This collaboration includes the formation of parent-led working committees with specific outcomes aligned with curriculum, such as Raising A Reader, Gardening & Outdoor Play, and Parents Helping Parents. 

Pre-K 4 SA’s support of families stretches beyond education. 

Some of our highest utilized resources at Pre-K 4 SA are related to counseling, food assistance, and utility assistance. Our Counseling Support Services connect both adults and children to experts and resources for addressing various family hardships, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, or military leave.

Pre-K 4 SA’s Food Referral Services supports families who are facing food insecurity by connecting them to programs that can help. Examples include the San Antonio Food Bank’s shared produce distribution program and offering application assistance for WIC, SNAP, and PEBT benefits.

Utility Assistance and Housing Referrals help guide families who are dealing with disconnection notices and high bills, and support families who have lost housing assistance or are experiencing homelessness. We also connect families with agencies, emergency shelters, and temporary housing programs in times of need.

Family engagement is an everlasting relationship between Pre-K 4 SA staff and the children and families we serve. We are equipping families with the tools they need to be successful, not just for the years we have them–but for life. If you are a caregiver interested in any of the resources mentioned above or ready to become an ambassador of the program, please contact prek4sa@sanantonio.gov. If you are a community member looking to partner with Pre-K 4 SA’s Family Engagement Team, please contact virginia.sandoval@sanantonio.gov. 

Written by: Virginia Sandoval

Keeping the Pre-K 4 SA Promise – Increasing Access to Early Learning for San Antonio Families

children and adults pose in front of a step and repeat with colorful blow up guitars and props

The Parent Café was already buzzing with new families talking with enrollment team members and registering their 4-year-olds for the 2022-2023 school year. You could hear the excitement in the children’s voices as they spoke to their parents and wandered around, smiling at new faces or sitting down on the couch with a cautious enthusiasm to share a book with another child.

And as of May 9, Pre-K 4 SA has opened enrollment for 3-year-olds too. When the news reached one of the families in the Parent Café, both the mom and little boys smiled and clapped together, knowing they could enroll both children.

Research indicates 90% of brain development occurs before the age of five. This is when the foundations of language, social, and emotional growth, key factors in future academic success, are created and developed.

“We know that one year of high-quality early learning has demonstrated proven long-term success for children,” Pre-K 4 SA CEO Sarah Baray said. “National research indicates that two years of pre-k is exponentially better and has immediate, short term and long-term benefits to children, families, and the community. And we are seeing a need for access for 3-year-olds, especially coming out of the pandemic.”

Pre-K 4 SA also saw a need to help San Antonio’s working, middle-class families who may need financial support but do not already qualify for free, high-quality pre-K through Texas Education Agency (TEA) guidelines. Families can receive additional tuition assistance through its expanded scholarship structure, which now provides free pre-K to those families making up to $75,000. Families can easily determine their personal investment in their child’s learning at Pre-K 4 SA by accessing the scholarship calculator.

Brenda Rosas has three boys who attended Pre-K 4 SA. She feels her children were better prepared for elementary school than their peers.

“Pre-K 4 SA gives them a great head start to their education,” said Rosas. “I have an ongoing joke with the family liaison where I wish my children could have been here another year. The benefits are tremendous – they are prepared for elementary and beyond. And an extra year would have been great to give them the extra one-on-one time with the teacher but also help them thrive.”

Mrs. Rosas has seen the positive impact on high-quality early learning for all three of her boys. She believes her children are not only prepared more academically, but she has also seen social and emotional development of her children, which has helped her oldest son, who is now in middle school.

At Pre-K 4 SA, we understand that family members are a child’s first and most important teachers. Learning is collaborative and extends far beyond the classroom. Now, the same teachers, children, and families will work together for two years allowing for deeper learning and development both in and out of the classroom.

Just like our 4-year-olds, the 3-year-olds will receive the same benefits from Pre-K 4 SA, such as transportation with the 5-point safety harness, nutritious family-style meals and snacks, as well as access to extended-day care for our working families. We offer integrated, full inclusion classrooms with both 3- and 4-year-olds. This will help older children develop better leadership skills while the younger students learn from their interactions.

Opening enrollment to 3- and 4-year-olds and expanding the scholarship structure is part of Pre-K 4 SA’s commitment to providing high-quality, research-based early education that empowers children at a critical age for school and life success. To learn more about enrollment, please call 210-206-PREK or apply online. An enrollment specialist is available to answer any questions and support our families throughout the application and enrollment process.

How Pre-K 4 SA is helping the Child Care Shortage in San Antonio

Teacher and Two Students at Pre-K 4 SA

When Covid-19 shut the world down, millions of families no longer had a Child Care Center open to care for their children. As a result, many families turned to smaller, private family child care providers for assistance. Family child care providers already outnumbered Child Development Centers in the number of children served, and in the shadows of shelter in place, social distancing, and quarantine, they rose to the challenges facing the entire world by keeping their doors open for even more children.

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Gracias San Antonio, Children’s Art Making a Difference within the San Antonio Community

teacher and young students work on an artwork together

For the last eight years, Pre-K 4 SA’s 4-year-olds have inspired local artists to create quality art pieces to benefit nonprofit initiatives.

At Pre-K 4 SA, through an innovative curriculum-driven program called Gracias San Antonio: Children Are Citizens, 4-year-olds are learning how to become civic-minded individuals; and they love every moment of supporting the community, creating art, and learning about local nonprofits. Gracias San Antonio is grounded in the belief that children are not just future citizens, but also are citizens of the city in the here and now, with the right to express their opinions and participate in the civic and cultural life of San Antonio.

“This is my eighth year with Pre-K 4 SA, and I feel Gracias gets better every year! It’s such an awesome event that allows our students to work alongside some of San Antonio’s best artists,” said Stephanie Flores, East Center master teacher.

Since 2013, Gracias San Antonio has raised more than $33,000 for the following nonprofits: Good Samaritan Community Services, San Antonio Humane Society, Any Baby Can of San Antonio, Children’s Shelter, Child Safe, St. Pj’s Children’s Home, and Therapy Animals of San Antonio.

Gracias San Antonio is a six-month project where children have the opportunity to vote for a nonprofit, explore the best of San Antonio’s landmarks, and bring their inspirations to life through art right in their classrooms.

Every year, in November, Pre-K 4 SA children vote in a school-wide election to select a nonprofit organization the children learn about and support throughout the year. On election day—scheduled on the same day as the actual election—Pre-K 4 SA’s Parent Cafés are transformed into mock-up voting polls. American flags and red, white, and blue streamers adorn the voting polls, and children one-by-one cast their vote as they choose their nonprofit of choice. Also, Pre-K 4 SA children, families, and staff participate in volunteer opportunities with the nonprofit.

In December, teachers invite children and their families to engage in City Explorations around San Antonio to help children learn about their city. San Antonio becomes the classroom and the children the explorers as they visit local parks, historic city sites, art exhibits, monuments, and local establishments. These explorations serve for children to gain ideas and inspiration for their art collaborations with their classroom artists.

In January and February, the art creation process begins. Pre-K 4 SA strongly believes that by engaging students in art experiences at a young age, children more deeply develop their thinking and creativity, learning to express themselves. Therefore, local artists join children in the classroom to create authentic art pieces using a variety of artistic mediums to express the children’s perspective of their city and the places they visit and explore. More than 100 art pieces are then displayed in a public gallery exhibit in April and auctioned to raise money for the selected nonprofit organization.

“Their own fearless creativity inspires me to create an art piece. As adults, we get used to being told, ‘this won’t work’ or ‘it has to be done this way’ that we hold our own creativity back. Kids don’t buy into that. Their imagination allows them to think outside of the box,” said Mary Klonek-Reyes, local San Antonio artist and returning Gracias volunteer. “I love how energetic and excited the kids get to learn new techniques and use new tools. Anything you teach a child has the ability to breathe new meaning into their existence, to open their eyes to new possibilities and new ways of thinking and feeling.”

The THRU Project was selected by children and their families as the 2021-2022 school year beneficiary nonprofit. Their mission is to help foster youth overcome the challenges of growing up in a foster care system by providing guidance, support, and advocacy to prepare them for life after foster care.

“The THRU Project team was thrilled to be selected as this year’s Gracias Project beneficiary by the youth and families at Pre-K 4 SA,” said Courtney Laverty, CFRE and CEO of THRU Project. “This partnership will enable us to provide mentors, life skills training and housing for current foster youth and those who have aged out. Thank you for helping to bridge the gap between foster care and adulthood!”

As the world becomes increasingly more globalized and connected, knowledge of ourselves as individual learners and as members of a community becomes more important. Through Gracias San Antonio children have the opportunity to become active contributors within their community in order to make their city a better place to work, play, and live.

Stay connected to Pre-K 4 SA’s social media platforms to find out more about our Gracias San Antonio yearly activities and to be the first one to know when the 2021-2022 Gracias San Antonio Online Art Auction opens.