Academic progress of children who attended a preschool for abused children: a follow-up of the keepsafe project.
OBJECTIVE
This study was undertaken to assess academic progress of children 1 to 5 years after graduating from the C. Henry Kempe Center's Therapeutic Preschool Day Treatment Program.


METHODS
Information was gathered through chart review; telephone surveys of care providers, relatives, and social service workers; as well questionnaires on all children who attended the therapeutic preschool day treatment program between 1984 and 1989, including the 24 children reported on by Oates, Gray, Schweitzer, Kempe, and Harmon, 1995.


RESULTS
Classroom placement was determined for 27 of the 44 graduates (61.4%), 14 of whom (51.9%) were in a regular classroom, 10 (37.0%) in special education, two (7.4%) in residential treatment, and one (3.7%) was receiving home schooling. Twenty-two of the 27 children (81.5%) improved or remained in the same grade and type of classroom as they had been staffed into at the time of their graduation from the preschool day treatment program. Factors thought to affect stability of classroom placement were studied, of which frequency of family moves was the only significant variable. Its significance was in the direction opposite to that expected. The most effective method of locating families was to contact the Department of Social Services who provided information used to find 60% of them.


CONCLUSIONS
Intervention in a therapeutic preschool day treatment program was found to be beneficial, as it enabled most of the children to progress appropriately in public school.
Gray
J
J
Kempe Therapeutic Preschool, Kempe Children's Center, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, USA.
Nielsen
D R
DR
Wood
L E
LE
Andresen
M
M
Dolce
K
K
D000124:Achievement; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003120:Colorado; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies