The Home Visit Partnership was recently featured in two articles from Education Lab, a project of the Seattle Times that spotlights promising approaches to persistent challenges in public education. 

Stacey Vanhoy, Dallas Director of Stand for Children, talked about how the Home Visit Partnership came to be four years ago and what it entails for educators.

A later article quoted two HVP participants from Dallas ISD about their experiences with home visits:

“I was quite nervous before my first home visit, as I had never been to a student’s home before. Even though everything was scheduled in advance, I felt like I was intruding and that I would not be really welcomed. I thought the family had agreed to the home visit just to please their kid’s teacher, but that they wouldn’t really care about it. Once we knocked on the door, they greeted us with smiles and welcomed us inside. I could see that the family was even more nervous than I was.” – Noemi Arnal Villalba, a fifth-grade bilingual math teacher at the César Chávez Learning Center in Dallas

“They are a time investment with many returns — better attendance, better teacher-student relations, improved behavior, increased parental involvement and higher student achievement. As far as safety, the training is very clear: Safety should always come first. Teachers are never encouraged to put themselves in an unsafe situation. Having said that, I have participated in over 150 home visits and have never felt in personal danger. It has been quite the opposite. I have felt very welcomed.” – Bob Adams, a fifth-grade bilingual language arts teacher at César Chávez

Read the full articles: 
Could a regional approach to teacher home visits work in King County? It has in Dallas and Fort Worth. (April 29, 2019)
Teachers share their experiences with home visits: ‘Now I care for my students on a deeper level’ (May 3, 2019)