Our Story – In the 1980’s Plano, TX schools had an alarming number of suicides and drug overdoses that the superintendent of the schools and a group of businessmen/women got together to prevent this new problem plaguing their community. They sought out experts to develop a parenting curriculum that could be utilized by the schools.
Three years were spent researching other parenting programs and looking at ways programs were or were not successful. Drawing from a family system’s approach and the studies of healthy family functioning by Lewis, Beavers, Gossett, and Phillips and the studies of family atmospheres by Baumrind, a curriculum was developed. By 1985, a core curriculum was written and adopted and in 1986 district staff members began offering the community parent education courses. It was a great success for that community and is still being used there presently. In 2008 it was decided to sell Practical Parent Education to a small group of business partners, with the intent and benefit that this curricula could now benefit other communities throughout the U.S.