Head Start Basics

What is Head Start?

Head Start is a federally funded comprehensive child development program that has served 20 million of America's poorest and most at-risk children and their families since 1965. Head Start serves children in families living at or below the federal poverty level, which for a family of four is $19,350. Head Start is so successful that it has earned customer satisfaction ratings that are higher than those of some of the world's leading corporations, including Mercedes Benz. The average annual cost of helping a Head Start child is just $7,296.

How many children are helped each year by Head Start?

Nationwide, a total of 2,729 Head Start grantees run 20,049 Head Start and Early Head Start centers and nearly 50,000 classrooms. A total of 1,072,014 children were enrolled in Head Start and Early Start programs in 2003 -- just half of those eligible to receive Head Start services. Of these students, 31 percent were Black or African American; 31 percent Hispanic or Latino; 27 percent White; 11 percent American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, or Other.

How do parents fit into the Head Start picture?

Parental involvement is a cornerstone of the Head Start program, which not only works directly with children to get them ready for achievement in school, but also aids parents in creating a home environment that will promote learning. There are only 216,739 paid Head Start and Early Head Start staff and a much larger group of 1,377,773 volunteers. Of those volunteers, 901,398 are former or current Head Start or Early Head Start parents.

Does Head Start really get children ready to learn in school?

A large and growing body of academic research shows that Head Start works. Recent Head Start Family and Children Experience Survey (FACES) data show that Head Start graduates, by the spring of their kindergarten year, were essentially at national norms in early reading and early writing and were close to meeting national norms in early math and vocabulary knowledge. (This is a phenomenal result in that the disadvantaged children served by Head Start begin so far behind more affluent children.) In a recent study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start children performed better on cognitive, language, and health measures than did children who had no exposure to Head Start. Other studies have found that Head Start children post higher achievement test scores and that they experience a wide range of positive academic benefits, including a boost in high-school graduation rates, a greater likelihood of attending college, reduced grade repetition, and less demand for special education services.

Since Head Start isn't just about learning, are there other benefits from the program?

Head Start provides health care services that America's poorest kids need in order to be able to learn. Studies prove that one way Head Start programs improve the well-being of the children and families they serve is by making available health and dental services to those who might not otherwise have access to them. Parents who participate in Head Start are found to have greater quality of life satisfaction; increased confidence in coping skills; and decreased feelings of anxiety, depression, and sickness. Head Start children are at least 8 percent more likely to have had their immunizations than those children who did not attend preschool.

Does Head Start benefit society at large?

Head Start is a smart investment for America. A study of more than 600 Head Start graduates in San Bernardino County, California, showed that society receives nearly $9 in benefits for every $1 invested in Head Start children. These benefits include increased earnings, employment, and family stability, and decreased welfare dependency, crime costs, grade repetition, and special education. In another study, Head Start was credited with benefiting society by reducing crime and the costs borne by crime victims. A team of researchers found that Head Start children are significantly less likely to have been charged with a crime than their siblings who did not participate in the program.

Are Head Start programs managed properly?

The vast majority of America's 2,700 Head Start grantees run outstanding programs that pass their periodic reviews with flying colors. Federal review data from 2000 shows that 85 percent of Head Start grantees had no "serious" deficiencies or other major problems of any kind. Only 13 percent were found to have meaningful fiscal management issues - and only a small handful of programs had to be terminated as a result of failing to correct the issues. (More recent review data from 2002 shows that only 11 percent of Head Start programs had major problems that needed to be fixed.) On March 24, 2005, the National Head Start Association objected that hundreds of local Head Start grantees are now being tarnished with bogus "parking ticket" non-compliance reviews, that include flashlights with dead batteries, toaster oven crumbs claimed to pose a fire hazard, unraked playground leaves described as a "choking hazard" and even a toddler's lunch money trumped up into a fiscal management complaint.

Why shouldn't Head Start be dismantled?

Head Start works. Why "fix" what isn't broken? Nonetheless, some members of Congress want to end the 40-year success story of Head Start by dismantling the program and sending the funding to all or some states in the form of block grants. However, this process inevitably would result in a lowering of the high educational and comprehensive standards of the Head Start program, directly jeopardizing its proven results. For example, some states already have indicated they would want to strip out the requirements for health services that are essential to a poor child in Head Start actually being able to learn in school. Turning over the responsibility for the Head Start to states - some of which have no quality standards in their early childhood education programs or, in a few instances, even a bad track record - would be a huge setback for the one million at-risk children who now benefit from the program every year.

Other members of Congress support an exhaustive "start from scratch" review process that would force programs to divert huge amounts of internal resources and talent to an endless process of applying and re-applying for their Head Start grant. Experts have suggested that the best course for Congress would be to toughen Head Start accountability so that more truly problem programs end up being terminated (with due process). Programs found to have major problems that do not rise to the level of termination should be the focus of any new "recompetition" requirements - not the vast majority of programs that are getting the job done for America's poorest kids.