Preschoolers to get reading help

Children in four rural communities will get extra reading help before they even start school as a result of a new partnership between South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness and the national nonprofit Save the Children.

The Early Steps for School Success program will provide education and literacy services to families with children under the age of 5, including regular home visits by literacy specialists. Those visits will help parents prepare their children so they will become strong readers. The program also will provide training to community educators and support to parents.

"One of the most important things we do as parents is help our children learn to read," Susan DeVenny, director of South Carolina First Steps, said in a statement. "This partnership between First Steps and Save the Children will give hundreds of families in our rural communities the extra support they may need to build reading skills critical to our children's future success in school and life."

The program will be based in Macedonia Elementary in Barnwell 19 school district, Andrews Elementary in Georgetown, West Lee Elementary in Lee and Monarch Elementary in Union school district.

"Not only will this program help very young children in these rural communities, but additional programming will be offered in schools that will seek to bring closer together our school-based literacy programs with our early childhood development programs," said Mark Shriver, vice president and managing director of Save the Children's U.S. Programs. "We anticipate even better results by getting these two programs to work together."