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Head start history4/24/2024 ![]() ![]() “And in some communities, Head Start really is the only thing that folks who are struggling have as a resource.” Program’s Genesis “When a Head Start program is a strong program, it really is an anchor for the community,” said Ann Linehan, the acting director of the Head Start office and a former Head Start director in Waltham, Mass. ![]() Such seismic shifts in Head Start’s operations do not take away from its essential role in the lives of low-income families, say those who have worked or participated in the program. The program also has started a new outreach to day-care providers through funding that will allow Early Head Start grantees to form partnerships with those private businesses, which would then agree to follow the federal program’s quality standards. Department of Health and Human Services says the competition will ensure high-quality providers, but some program leaders say minor problems can result in centers’ unfair labeling as bad places for children.Īt the same time, Head Start providers are forging closer bonds with schools and with state-run preschool programs, which have doubled their enrollment of 4-year-olds over the past decade-taking away some of the children Head Start has traditionally served. Grantees that are deemed low-performing are being forced to compete for continued funding. Its approximately 1,700 grantees, once given continuing grants as long as they didn’t have major financial or safety problems, are shifting to a five-year funding cycle. Children under age 3 and low-income pregnant women were added to the program’s mandate after a 1994 reauthorization. ![]() The program currently is financed at about $8 billion a year, and it serves about a million children up to age 5 and their families. Still, as Head Start nears its 50-year milestone, the program is going through dramatic-and sometimes painful-changes. We’re looking at a snapshot and calling it everything, and I call that a little crazy,” said Vanessa Rich, the deputy commissioner for children and youth services for the city of Chicago and the current chairwoman of the National Head Start Association, an advocacy group for providers, based in Alexandria, Va. Race: 42 percent white, 29 percent black, 13 percent unspecified, 9 percent biracial, 4 percent Alaska Native/American Indian, 2 percent Asian, 6 percent Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 63 percent non-Hispanic, 37 percent Hispanic.Age: 47 percent, 4-year-olds 35 percent, 3-year-olds remainder are children up to age 2 and pregnant women.Alumni: More than 31 million served since the program’s inception.Initial funding amount: $96 million ($726 million in 2014 dollars).The originally budgeted amount was $8 billion. Funding: $7.6 billion, which includes a 5.3 percent reduction due to sequestration.Funded enrollment slots: 903,679 (approximately 1.1 million children and pregnant women served, because of enrollment turnover).Department of Health and Human Services and “promotes school readiness for children in low-income families by offering educational, nutritional, health, social, and other services. Head Start is administered though the U.S. And those studies are sampling only a small part of the life of a child, overlooking the diplomas earned, the criminal records avoided, and the improved life prospects that come from being a Head Start child. Those who work in Head Start argue that problems attributed to Head Start are more properly the responsibility of the schools children attend once they leave the program. Congressionally mandated studies of Head Start children have found that by early elementary school, they are academically indistinguishable from their peers who did not attend the program-a reason to drastically revamp or even discontinue the program, experts say. Head Start and local school districts had an uneasy relationship in those early days, each keeping the other at arm’s length as a result of political conflicts and differing missions.Īnd the biggest challenge of all: answering the ongoing question of whether the program succeeds in giving poor children the boost they need to be successful in school and later in life. The program was ramped up so quickly, though, that there was no mechanism for carefully evaluating the community groups charged with providing the services at the heart of its broad mandate. This package of stories is the second in a series of articles in Education Week over the next 18 months to reflect on the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty and its impact on the lives of children, especially those living in poverty. War on Poverty: Progress & Persistent Inequity ![]()
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