At the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, the school and district created a new disciplinary program for students with behavioral problems: the Parent Project. It takes place for all the parents of students in the nearby districts. This seeks to remedy some of the issues that parents face in dealing with their teenage children and thus help schools in relation.
Along with the usual changes of a new school year, the Capistrano USD, in partnership with Saddleback Valley USD and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, presents a significant new program to students’ discipline, but this one is an avenue taken through the parents and home life, as opposed to in-school disciplinary action.
This new Parent Project cohort will be held in the city of Lake Forest, a central area around the middle of the zone being serviced. The program will begin meeting in September, and it will be led by Deputy Baughman of the Lake Forest Police Services and Deputy Kyle Harriman of Community Programs.
Furthermore, guest speakers will be present to enrich the learning experience for parents even more. Most importantly, the program will be free of charge for all attendees, as well as open to the public.
Essentially, the program is a 10-week course in which participants meet every Monday from Sept. 11, 2023 to Nov. 13, 2023. The meeting place is the Lake Forest City Hall on those Mondays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Over the course of those 10 weeks, certified instructors working with troubled teens instruct parents on how to deal with kids who get involved with dangerous substances, runaways, criminals and violence. As a behavioral modification program, it will offer parents real solutions to manage the problematic actions.
The intervention techniques presented are research-backed and allow parents to immediately begin making a change to returning peace to their households.
According to the new Parent Project cohort, they advertise that they will teach parents to “learn to never argue with your child again, improve school attendance and performance, prevent or intervene in alcohol and other drug use, and learn communication skills and reconnect with your teen.”
Although the Parent Project is new to the area and just debuted, it is already an established, reputable program as a police program originally developed in L.A. County. The original program’s goal was to reduce overall juvenile crime and calls for service, though each individual program’s goals vary over areas, especially as the program expanded through California.
This program has been serving parents and families for over 30 years at this point, and it is now “the largest court mandated juvenile diversion program in the country,” according to the official Parent Project website.
A parent of Capistrano USD expresses their gratitude at the district for bringing this program to the area, “I am so glad that the school district offers something like this, so hopefully some of the problems with the teenagers here can be stopped before they become too severe. Especially as it is better for parents to try to help their kids before authorities get involved.”
