ED National Parents Information Network Budget Code:  
National Parent Information Network (NPIN)

The ERIC Clearinghouse of Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE) at the University of Urbana-Champaign has created a World Wide Web (WWW) server on the Internet specifically devoted to child development, care and education, and the parenting of children from birth through early adolescence. "Parents have fewer family members close by these days to ask for advice on find a preschool, working with their child's teachers, or helping their shy child make friends," says Professor Lilian Katz, director of ERIC/EECE and a long-time contributor to Parents magazine. "They need high-quality information from reliable sources, and sometimes they need subject experts to talk to. Many parents would like to use the 'information superhighway' to find such information, and NPIN will help them do that."

NPIN will also add a significant piece to the information infrastructure for those who work with parents and families in schools and libraries, parent centers, after-school programs, social service agencies, health clinics, parenting programs, and professional groups.
Budget ($ M)
FY 95 Act  
FY 96 Pres  
FY 96 Est 0.20
FY 97 Rqst 0.23
Program Component Areas
  FY 96 FY 97
HECC    
LSN    
HCS    
HuCS    
ETHR 0.20 0.23
Agency Ties
DARPA  
NSF  
DOE  
NASA  
NIH  
NSA  
NIST  
NOAA  
EPA  
ED  
AHCPR  
VA  
Milestone Changes  
FY 1995 Actual Milestones FY 1996 Estimated Milestones FY 1997 Agency Requested Milestones
    NPIN resources include:
  • Short articles from groups such as the National Urban League, the National PTA, and the center for Early Adolescence
  • Discussion groups and forums on early childhood topics
  • Parents AskERIC, a question-answering service that taps the resources of the federally funded ERIC system to respond to parents' questions. This national resource for parents and those who support them may be reached at the following addresses:
    gopher://ericps.ed.uiuc.edu
    http://ericps.e.d.uiuc.edu/