Denver Public Schools (DPS) has been practicing Parent Teacher Home Visits (PTHV) since the 2010-2011 school year when PTHV became an official program in DPS. On average, we have about 80 schools participating and conduct more than 6,500 visits each school year. In peak years, we have had more than 130 of our schools participate and complete more than 11,000 home visits.

“Home visits are a great way to connect with the family and get to know them on a deeper level.” – Denver Public Schools parent

One strategy that helped to increase awareness, school participation, and the number of home visits each year was hosting a local PTHV Week in both fall and spring. During PTHV Week, the DPS Family and Community Engagement (FACE) team encourages our PTHV champions across the district to visit some of their families to celebrate the relationships they’ve developed and highlight the impact of home visits. Our PTHV Week celebrations have become a time-honored tradition, and DPS’s home visit practice has become the second-largest in the nation.

“This is the most valuable tool that I have right now as an educator to bring more families inside our community.” – DPS Teacher

Special thanks to PTHV National for supporting DPS’s PTHV Week. We’re proud to have inspired the launch of the first national PTHV Week this year. September 19th-24th marked the first National PTHV Week, and we here at DPS were excited to be a part of it! This national elevation gives school districts across the country time, space, and resources to celebrate home visits. The observance offers a special way to kick off the school year, by fostering connections between families and schools.

“I don’t know if this is the best kept secret, but I’d have to say that home visits is one of them.”  – Denver Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero

To help make the first National PTHV Week more impactful, PTHV National provided a mini-grant opportunity, and DPS was lucky enough to receive this support. Due to this extra funding, we were able to provide our top three National PTHV Week schools (Swansea Elementary, Valverde Elementary, and Samuels Elementary) with a celebration, complete with certificates, swag, cake, and burritos. Additionally, this mini-grant has enabled us to expand our communications about Spring PTHV Week through a Hootsuite professional account that will allow us to manage various social media interactions and engagement from one convenient space.

“You’re establishing lifelong relationships on home visits.” – DPS Parent

For our first National PTHV Week, our schools conducted 500 visits across 47 of our schools, which brought us to approximately 2,000 visits in the first couple of months of school! To learn more about Denver’s PTHV practice, visit this dedicated page.