Parenting classes. They are required in Florida when both married and unmarried couples break up and litigate parenting rights. Such classes have aimed to improve post separation co-parenting for years.

In more recent years, parenting classes in many states have sought to teach incarcerated parents how to parent better. The educational programs impart the message that not being there with your children due to incarceration (or anything else) is neglect.

“Neglect is when a parent fails at one of their five roles: protecting, providing, teaching, guiding and nurturing. Neglect can lead to serious consequences.”

In Florida prisons, the course has been a thirteen week program at federal expense. Now, greater Tampa is rolling out an abbreviated four week adaptation in local jails, at county expense, for parents serving shorter sentences.

County funding is justified by feedback that indicates that the curriculum really works. Parents in confinement grasp that they are failing their children. And just may be finding the will to do better after their release.

Read more in this Orlando Sentinel article: Classes for dads in jail help inmates learn about fatherhood .