The work of the Connecticut Parent Information and Resource Center (CT PIRC) is guided by the overarching principle that all families have strengths and all families play a critical role in their children’s educational success. The project works through faith-based and community organizations. It is school-based and school-linked. It makes explicit connections between statewide dissemination and outreach activities, professional development events, and direct work with selected high priority schools.

The CT PIRC is coordinated by the Connecticut State Education Resource Center (SERC), a nonprofit agency, in part through a discretionary federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and resources through the CT State Department of Education. Due to its statewide scope, we anticipate that up to 500,000 parents/families will be served by the project.

Together with its primary partners, the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) and Connecticut Parents as Teachers (ConnPAT), CT PIRC builds on a history of well-documented success, evidenced by national recognition from the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) as a Partnership State Award winner in 2000 and 2005, and on the statewide leadership and infrastructure in school-family-community partnerships developed under the two previous PIRC grants and SERC/CSDE collaborative programs.

The goal is to improve parents’ access to information and resources regarding their children’s education. A statewide system will be established for the implementation of successful and effective parental involvement policies, programs, and activities. This system will lead to improvements in student academic achievement through increased dissemination of statewide and targeted information about school and district No Child Left Behind Reports, parent choice and supplemental educational service options, and strengthened partnerships among parents, teachers, principals, administrators, and other school personnel in meeting the educational needs of children. The end outcome will be the creation of a comprehensive approach to involving parents to support student learning, through the coordination and integration of federal, state, and local programs.