Schools And Families Educating Children (SAFEChildren) is a family-focused preventive intervention designed to increase academic achievement and decrease risk for later drug abuse and associated problems such as aggression, school failure, and low social competence. SAFEChildren targets 1st-grade children and their families living in inner-city neighborhoods. The intervention has two components. The first component is a multiple-family group approach that focuses on parenting skills, family relationships, understanding and managing developmental and situational challenges, increasing parental support, skills and issues in engaging as a parent with the school, and managing issues such as neighborhood problems (e.g., violence). Families participate in 20 weekly sessions (2 to 2.5 hours each) led by a trained, professional family group leader. Each session includes a review of the previous week’s homework, discussion about a focused topic, and in-session role-plays and activities. The second component is a reading tutoring program for the child. Tutoring is provided twice weekly (one 30-minute and one 20-minute session) over 20 weeks, using a modified version of the Wallach program. Each tutoring session involves segments on phonics, sound and word activities, and reading books.