Duppong Hurly and Epstein generate $3.2 million IES grant

29 May 2013    

Kristin Duppong Hurley and Michael Epstein, professors in the College of Education and Human Science’s Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, have been awarded a $3.2 million research grant from the Institute of Educational Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. They will study Parent Connectors, an innovative parent-to-parent intervention program developed to support the families of middle school youth with emotional disturbance (ED).

The objective of this research project is to conduct a longitudinal, randomized control trial with three cohorts of families of middle school students with ED, randomly assigned to Parent Connectors or services as usual. Parent Connectors is designed to provide individualized support to help parents navigate and participate in the school and community-based mental health services for their child. Parent Connectors utilizes peers—other parents that have successfully navigated the transitional middle school years with an ED child—to provide support via weekly phone calls during the school year.

Parent Connectors pilot studies have indicated that Parent Connectors services were able to increase parental engagement in education and mental health services for their child, increase child attendance rates in school, increase mental health services provided to the child, and increase academic performance. This research project will be the first large-scale efficacy study of Parent Connectors and will be conducted in middle schools throughout Eastern Nebraska.