A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Achieving the Goals: Goal 1--All Children in America Will Start School Ready to Learn

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF) conducts national programs for children and youth, works with states and local communities to develop services which support and strengthen family life, and provides information to individuals and to the public and private agencies that serve at-risk children and families. The ACYF supports the achievement of Goal 1 mainly through its Head Start Bureau. The Head Start program supports "the readiness goal" through its community-based programs serving disadvantaged children and families across the country.

One of the basic purposes of the Head Start program is to promote the social competence of children which means their everyday competence in dealing with both the present environment and later responsibilities in school and life. Therefore, the entire Head Start program and the 740,500 children and their families who are served by the program each year contribute toward the accomplishment of Goal One.

Head Start

All disadvantaged and disabled children will have access to high quality and developmentally appropriate preschool programs that prepare children for school. (Objective 1)

Through over 1,400 community-based programs across the country, Head Start serves some of the most disadvantaged children of each local community in quality developmental programs, with 10% of the enrollment reserved for children with disabilities. Of the 740,500 low income children who were served last year by Head Start, more than 96,000 were disabled children. Nearly 70% of the families served in Head Start have incomes of less than $9,000 per year and over 80% have yearly incomes of less than $12,000.

The Head Start Program Performance Standards require developmentally and culturally appropriate curricula and daily experiences for children, including a print rich environment, daily exposure to books and stories; support for emergent literacy; and promotion of the use of language. Since Head Start experiences include attention to the whole child, across domains of child health and development, as well as family support, this allows the impact of Head Start to cross many "readiness" indicators: physical development, curiosity about learning, health and wellness, cognition, language, and social and emotional development.

Every parent in America will be a child's first teacher and devote time each day helping his or her preschool child learn; parents will have access to the training and support they need.

Head Start parents are treated as, and offered educational experiences which support their roles as the child's first and primary educator. In addition to experiences requested by or designed by parents, they may participate in training activities with staff on topics which support these key roles for parents. Head Start staff help parents learn a variety of ways to support children's learning in the home using household materials and in the outdoors. Suggestions may be shared during home visits, parent meetings, through newsletters, lending libraries, videotapes, and trainers and consultants, and through participation in parent- child programs at public libraries and community-based museums.

Head Start sponsors, arranges, or offers many opportunities for parents to enhance their own skills in reading, writing, and speaking so that they may more fully support their children's development. All Head Start programs have literacy programs which include emergent literacy for the children, adult literacy to help parents achieve their personal goals and family literacy in order to promote parent-child interaction around books and reading.

Children will receive the nutrition and health care needed to arrive at school with healthy minds and bodies, and the number of low birth weight babies will be significantly reduced through enhanced prenatal health systems.

Head Start through a variety of programs and demonstrations, is already providing comprehensive services to expectant women and families with children under the age of three. In addition to the types of activities already described, these programs are designed to have an earlier impact on prevention, and to connect families to community providers as quickly as needs surface. In addition to the 21,000 already being served, a new program called "Early Head Start" is being launched which will take Head Start services into the formative years.

At least one-third of a child's nutritional needs (USDA) are met through meals provided in the Head Start setting. Nutrition information and meal planning guidance and activities are also planned and provided in conjunction with parent education. Also, through the enrollment process or at entry into Head Start, a child's immunization record is reviewed and if necessary, the family is assisted in getting the required immunizations up to date. Each child receives medical, dental, vision, hearing, and developmental screening, follow up, and treatment when necessary.

Dollie Wolverton
Chief, Education Services Branch
Head Start Bureau, ACYF
P.O. Box 1182
Washington, DC 20013
(202) 205-8572

Child Development, Inc., -- Russellville, Arkansas

The largest Head Start agency in Arkansas, Child Development, Inc. (CDI) serves 2,000 children in 11 rural counties through a combination of centers, family day care homes, and home-based staff. CDI has expanded rapidly by obtaining funding from a variety of public and private sources. CDI offers a wide range of services to meet the needs of children and families, using a combination of separate programs and funding sources.

Funding

CDI manages a complex set of funding sources, including eighteen different federal and state programs such as Head Start, parent fees for child care, child care vouchers, and Even Start. Agency leaders work to assure compliance with each set of program mandates, while pursuing a goal of a coherent continuum of services, rather than a series of separate, categorical programs.

Services for Children

CDI's diverse forms of funding support services to children from birth through school age in part-day and full-day/full year classrooms. Offering child care services to working parents on a sliding fee scale meets a key community need and assures more diversity in participating families and children. Children are grouped by age and not by the type of funding that supports their participation. Staff participate in ongoing professional development activities, including the Child Development Associate credential program.

Head Start Collaboration Projects

In 1990, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded demonstration grants entitled Head Start-State Collaboration Projects. The projects aim to "create significant state-wide partnerships between Head Start and the states in order to meet the increasingly complex, intertwined, and difficult challenges of improving services for low-income children and their families." A second group of states was funded in 1992.

In 1993, the Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion proposed expanding these collaboration grants as one method to better link Head Start with state level policies and policy makers: "it is critical that Head Start fit into the constellation of other services in states and communities." The committee recommended that any new projects be developed in coordination with representatives from the local Head Start community.

The collaboration grants have four goals: To facilitate the involvement of Head Start in the development of State-level policies, priorities and resource allocations which affect the Head Start population and other low-income families; to create significant, cross-cutting initiatives on behalf of children and families throughout the state; to help build more integrated and comprehensive service delivery systems to improve families' access to services and promote a high level of program quality; and to encourage widespread local collaboration between Head Start and other programs.

For more information about Head Start Collaboration Projects, contact:

Thomas Schultz
Federal Project Manager
(202) 205-8323

Karen Mitchell
Federal Project Officer
(202) 205-8551

Room 2040, Switzer Building
330 C Street, SW
Washington, DC 20201

Child Care and Development Block Grant

The "Child Care and Development Block Grant" is designed to increase the availability, affordability, and quality of child care. Federal funds are available through this program to States, Indian Tribes and Territories to provide grants, contracts, and certificates for child care services for low-income families with a parent who is working or attending a training or educational program. Funding is also provided to improve the availability and quality of child care and for early childhood development and before- and after-school services.

The Department of Health and Human Services has set four goals for its child care programs. They are: Goal 1 - Improved Operations. In order to improve services to families, child care operations will be modernized, more efficient and coordinated across child care funding streams. Goal 2 - Quality comprehensive services. Child care services to low-income families will be more comprehensive and of better quality. Goal 3 - Expansion. Where needed, an increasing percentage of low-income families will receive child care assistance and support. Goal 4 - Public Awareness. The public will be made more aware of HHS programs and the importance of child care assistance to low-income families.

Joan Lombardi
Associate Commissioner
Child Care Bureau
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW, Room 320F
Washington, DC 20201

(202) 690-6782

Family Preservation and Family Support Services

A new program was added to the Social Security Act of 1993. Entitled the "Family Preservation and Family Support Services," the new program provides capped entitlement funding to state child welfare agencies "for the purpose of encouraging and enabling each state to develop and establish, or expand, and to operated a program of family preservation services and community-based family support services."

"Family preservation services" typically are activities to assist families in crisis, often families where a child is at imminent risk of being placed in out-of-home care because of abuse and/or neglect. (If the child is determined to be in danger or the family does not have adequate strengths on which to build, family preservation services are not appropriate.)

"Family support services" are primarily preventative activities with the aim of increasing the ability of families to successfully nurture their children, most often provided at the local level by community-based organizations. Some activities such as parenting information classes, respite care, and assistance in obtaining benefits, may be considered both a family preservation service and a family support service.

Don Lewis
Children's Bureau
Administration on Children Youth and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Room 2070
330 C Street, SW
Washington, DC 20201

(202) 205-8618
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[U.S. Department of Education]

[U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development]