Head Start provides grants to local public and private non-profit and for-profit agencies to provide comprehensive child development services to children and families. Head Start, intended primarily for preschoolers from low-income families, promotes school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services. Head Start programs emphasize cognitive, language and socio-emotional development to enable each child to develop and function at his or her highest potential. Head Start children receive comprehensive health services, including immunizations, physical and dental exams and treatment, and nutritional services. At least ten percent of the enrollment opportunities in each program must be made available to children with disabilities. Head Start engages parents in their children’s learning and helps them in making progress toward their educational, literacy and employment goals. The Head Start program also emphasizes significant involvement of parents in the administration of local Head Start programs. In FY 1995, the Early Head Start program was established to provide services to children from birth to three years of age. Head Start is funded at nearly $7 billion annually.
Many Head Start programs provide part-day, center-based services or home-based services for eight or nine months a year. However, grantees have the option of providing full-day, full-year services and, in recent years, an increased number of grantees have been offering this option, often through collaborations with local child care providers to help meet the child care needs of parents who are either working or in job training.
Local Head Start programs provide transportation services for nearly half of enrolled children to attend the program either directly or through contract with other transportation providers, such as school districts. The Head Start transportation regulation requires that programs make reasonable efforts to coordinate transportation resources with other human service agencies in their communities.
The statutory language pertaining to transportation provisions within this program is found within the following citation(s):
42 U.S.C.A. § 9835
http://intranet.acf.dhhs.gov/offices/acyf/index.htm
http://www.headstartinfo.org/infocenter/tran_tkit.htm
Head Start Fact Sheet
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