BEXAR COUNTY — Class completions in the Positive Parenting Program in Bexar County rose from 646 in the 2023-24 period to 994 in 2024-25, according to Metro Health. The program, also known as Triple P, began operating in the county in 2019 and has expanded from one instructor to three.

Triple P classes are available at no cost to anyone in Bexar County and provide parenting resources intended to prevent child welfare issues. The program pairs families with organizations such as food banks, diaper banks, and mental health services.

Classes are labeled levels 2 through 5. "The ones with the lower numbers are more preventive introductory. The ones with higher numbers are for people who are involved in some way in child abuse and they're more restorative," Metro Health Public Health Administrator Erica Haller-Stevenson said.

Some families enroll to receive additional help with coping skills, while other parents enrolled in the classes are involved in serious child abuse cases pending in court and participate to receive help in changing their behavior. "They also have some kind of mini counseling sessions with the parents and ask about what their needs are. We are able to offer some really small monetary incentives for people to complete the classes," Haller-Stevenson said.

Course content covers communication and emotional regulation between parents and children at different developmental stages. "Trying to figure out how to communicate with your kid in different stages of life, how to offer them choices that are acceptable, how to teach them to express their emotions, and work together," she said. "Everybody gets stressed parenting and some people have a harder experience with that than others. All these things provide a lot of stress and can change the way you react when you're parenting."

"The way you raise a child not only impacts them in the moment, but it impacts their future. And we know that people who experience violence in childhood are more likely to be victimized in the future or become perpetrators," Haller-Stevenson said. "You can raise a good human with really positive methods, and then that breaks the generational cycle of violence."