The Family School's mission is to provide quality preschool and kindergarten education to a diverse population of children and families. We attend to a variety of children's needs to prevent school and family problems, including intense early intervention and follow-up programming for alumni.

The Family School is a unique, nonprofit early childhood center. We are committed to providing inclusive programming for young children with a wide range of abilities and needs and ongoing support to families. We feature excellent toddler, preschool and kindergarten programs, follow up into the next setting, and morning and afternoon day-care for working families. The Family School opens its doors from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays and on weekends for special activities.

Intertwined throughout The Family School's services are programs that focus on prevention, intervention and support for families and children.

The programs address:
• Family strengthening
• Transition and follow up to assure elementary school success
• Individual developmental ly appropriate programming
• Promotion of resiliency in at-risk children
• Value and respect for diversity
• Community building

The Family School serves children from 18 months to 7 years of age on site through a variety of educational, mental health, early intervention, parent education and family support activities.

The school operates in a three-building campus of historic homes located in Central Phoenix near the Encanto Park area. Its location allows the school to attract students from an economically and ethnically diverse neighborhood population. We are located in Phoenix Elementary School District One. Children in this area are designated "at risk" for school failure due to poverty and population congestion. Children whose families fall below the poverty line fill 50 percent of the school's service slots.

The Family School is a nonprofit Section 501(c)(3) organization. All charitable donations to The Family School are tax deductible.

• The Pulliam Foundation
• Phoenix Newspapers, Inc., Season of Sharing
• Wallace Foundation
• Creative Women of Pinacle Peak
• Arizona's Family Charities
• The Dial Corporation
• Arizona Community Foundation
• O'Neil Printing

• 1999 Laurel Award from St. Lukes
• Charitable Health Trust

• Coming Soon!

Diversity is a priority. We serve all students, including those who have a history that designates them at risk for future school and mental health problems. We are able to accommodate some children who are not able to function in other daycare centers that have more students per teacher or less qualified staffs.
Due to the expertise, commitment and reputation of our staff, we draw children from beyond our neighborhood through referrals from The Children's Advocacy Center (serving abused children), the YWCA's Haven House (serving homeless mothers), The Department of Economic Security (serving children in poverty), and various psychiatrists. Children also are referred because of special developmental needs, such as speech and language delays.

A high adult-to-child ratio and an established skilled staff are key ingredients of The Family School's success. Full-time staff members have Masters level degrees in counseling, early childhood education and special education. The staff's high level of expertise enables The Family School to offer a highly flexible program that integrates mental health and special education interventions into the daily activities.

The participation of parents and other volunteers allows for a great deal of attention to each child. Integrating parents into the program accomplishes additional goals, such as providing spontaneous opportunities for parents to observe and learn better ways to interact with young children.

Community volunteers also provide help at nap time and through a variety of activities such as the center's Habitat Garden Project and a mentoring program for Family School alumni ages 7 through 10.

The Family School's Board of Directors is composed of volunteers who lend their expertise to the school.

The Family School recognizes that by focusing on children and families early, the impact on a child's future, and thus on the community at large, is greater.

Community concerns such as violence and crime, social isolation and school dropout rates are addressed through the School's goals: we value inclusiveness, respect diversity, provide individual programming for success and promote optimal mental health for young children and their families.

We provide affordable, quality care in a "well family" setting by wrapping services around families and children in varying degrees according to their needs. The Family School provides a space, both physical and emotional, for adults to interact with their children and each other under the direction of mental health and early childhood professionals.

The Family School requires an adult from each family to spend one morning a month in the classroom with their child and to attend a family event once a month at the school. We have been very successful in positively influencing parents' early parenting practices and children's early attitudes about school and their behaviors there.

Included in The Family School's population are some young children who have already "failed" in other group settings. Without intervention in the crucial preschool years, these children are at greater risk of juvenile delinquency and a variety of other social ills resulting from unaddressed problems with impulse control or aggressiveness.Many children have un diagnosed learning disabilities or unresolved emotional wounds from witnessing or experiencing domestic violence.

The Family School addresses these issues directly by working with the children and their parents, giving them daily opportunities to interact with peers possessing more typical behaviors and experiences, and providing play therapy, behavior plans and psycho-educational testing by a psychologist.

There are centers in the greater Phoenix area that provide quality programming for young children. However, if they take children with special needs or challenging behaviors, they do not provide the high adult-to-child ratio or level of expertise that we do in attending to their needs. They do not involve families in an on-site counseling process or follow the children into elementary school to support their success.

There are schools that deal specifically, and only, with children who have behavior or learning problems, but they do not mainstream the children or use the program and social skills techniques we use to build friendships between children. We individualize our program, and our staff is encouraged to weave emotional and educational interventions into the children's days.

There's growing interest from local care providers in touring our school and learning how they can incorporate aspects of our classroom model into their programs.