On its website, the Parents as Teachers National Center provides a budget toolkit for programs to estimate basic implementation costs, from which a per-family cost can be estimated.
Factors that contribute to fluctuations in costs per family include:
- Education level and qualifications of the parent educator, which can affect salaries.
- Needs of the population served; the program requires more frequent services for families with higher needs.
- The type of agency operating the program, existing infrastructure, and overhead expenses included in the Parents as Teachers budget.
- Whether services need to be provided in multiple languages, which often requires a translator.
- Whether there are additional requirements, such as staff and caseloads, associated with a particular funding source.
- The ratio of parent educators to supervisors; the Parents as Teachers National Center requires a minimum percent FTE per parent educator, but programs can opt to provide a higher ratio.
- Parent educators’ caseloads; the Parents as Teachers National Center provides guidance, but programs can opt to have lower caseloads.
- Whether the implementing agency is new to Parents as Teachers and therefore will incur start-up costs and may not be serving as many families per year.
- The level of parent educator turnover, which increases costs and also often results in family turnover; fewer families served can increase the cost per family.
- Travel needed to reach families; more travel will reduce the overall caseload a parent educator can carry and still provide the desired frequency of visits.
Estimates of cost per family for twice monthly home visits (the level of intensity required for families with two or more high-need characteristics) are between $4,000 and $6,500 per year [2019 dollars].