Building an Evidence-Based Parent Education and Awareness Program in New York Courts: a Research-Practice Partnership

Parent education is widespread and institutionalized in family courts across the USA, reflecting decades of research showing that children are at heightened risk for mental health and related problems following parental separation and divorce. Given their reach and scale, these programs represent one of the largest yet underutilized opportunities for prevention in the country. To bridge the gap between prevention science and court practice, we formed a research-practice partnership between the New York State Parent Education and Awareness Program (PEAP) and university prevention scientists to co-develop and implement a statewide randomized controlled trial testing two online parent education programs (eNew Beginnings Program and PEACE). Launched in May 2025 across 16 courts, the trial embeds a randomized comparison of two programs within existing judicial referral procedures using centralized enrollment, voluntary participation with a business-as-usual alternative, and a jurisdiction-specific base module that was designed to ensure compliance with statewide parent education. Early implementation data (reach, enrollment, and reasons for nonparticipation) provide preliminary evidence of feasibility of embedding prevention research within a statewide judicial system. This partnership will produce both rigorous evaluation data and implementation insights to inform the ongoing development, equitable implementation, and scale-up of evidence-based parent education.