WENATCHEE — In most ways, Readiness to Learn is the perfect program for helping troubled children improve their chances of succeeding in school. So thinks Doug Head, Wenatchee Children’s Home Society administrator.

“It’s darn near perfect, except it’s not enough,” said Head. This is the 19th year the Children’s Home Society has worked with local schools to help kids stay in school and be more prepared to learn. The program helps kids who are struggling in school — often due to problems at home — before they develop more serious problems that require more extensive and expensive services.

The Children’s Home Society is one of four local nonprofit agencies that will equally share donations to this year’s Neighbors Care Fund. The agency will use the money to expand its Readiness to Learn program. It will be money well spent, he said, because of the program’s efficiency, flexibility and postive results. It’s staffed by two full-time employees and three AmeriCorps volunteers.

“We get a lot out of every dollar. The AmeriCorps volunteers have been a great gift for us,” he said. Volunteers are paid a modest government stipend for their work plus awards to help pay off school loans or continue their education.

The program helps more than 200 local students each year, more than 100 at any one time, kindergarten through high school. The agency currently works with Wenatchee, Eastmont, Cashmere, Entiat and Orondo school districts. Statewide, the program helps more than 5,000 students annually in about 100 school districts. Many more receive referrals or resource support without being enrolled in the program.

“The beauty of the program is that it’s different every time,” said Kris Collier, program director. Each case is tailored to the specific needs of the child, she said. There are no restrictions on income, race, language or other criteria. “The only qualification is risk of academic failure.” About 95 percent of those helped, however, do turn out to be from lower income families.

Academic failure, she said, is often caused by non-academic situations such as homelessness, poverty, divorce, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, bullying, incarceration of a parent and mental problems.

Here’s how the program works. School counselers call the agency when they identify a student having a problem with attendance or serious problems at school. Children’s Home Society sets up a meeting with the student and the family on their time schedule to find out what can be done. When the school has a problem with a student, it’s often caused by the student having problems at home, Collier said.

“We meet with the family and determine why that’s happening and develop a plan to take care of the student’s needs,” she said. Sometimes that includes a referral to other agencies. Sometimes it’s as simple as letting the family know there’s a problem and connecting a parent with a teacher.

“We become a bridge between the parent and the school. Once that’s built, often they don’t need us anymore,” said Collier. Help can continue for as little as a few weeks to as long as the full school year.

The program is funded by an $81,000 grant from the state Office of Public Instruction and supplemented by United Way funds and agency fundraising projects. With cutbacks in the state budget, funds have dwindled. It’s never enough to reach out to all the children who need help, Collier said.

“Readiness to Learn has always been a program that has only been limited by the number of people we can put on the ground,” she said.

Rick Steigmeyer: 664-7151

steigmeyer@wenatcheeworld.com