This booklet was developed to assist agencies and groups in developing effective programs for single parents in rural areas. Most of the concepts also apply to urban and suburban settings, but rural parents carry the extra burden of great distances and geographic and social isolation. The handbook is organized in six sections. The first section outlines hallmarks of effective programs for single parents and covers program structure, staffing, recruitment, education and training, and curriculum. The second section provides a checklist for getting started in a single-parent program. A list of program "don'ts" is next, followed by a brief section on teen parents. A model program, the Head Start Family Education Program in Glenwood City, Wisconsin, is described in the fifth section. The final section covers program evaluation and participant objectives. The booklet is illustrated with photographs from Wisconsin single parent programs. (KC)