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Nearly 50 Years of Providing Comprehensive Services to Children and Families in Tennessee and America<\/strong><\/p>\n

Head Start: It\u2019s More Than You Thought!<\/span><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/span>By Paul Frank, Tennessee Head Start Association<\/span>

\nAnd Janet Coscarelli, Director, Tennessee Head Start State Collaboration Office<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Head Start, America\u2019s largest federally-funded early childhood program, has been called \u201cone of the most <\/span>significant and successful initiatives launched during President Lyndon Johnson\u2019s \u201cWar on Poverty.\u201d<\/span>1<\/span> Head Start provided <\/span><\/span>the opportunity for a preschool program to be started for all eligible 4-year-old children.<\/span><\/p>\n

The program began in 1965 as a two-month-long summer demonstration program serving more than half a million preschool children. A mandate to serve children with disabilities was initiated in 1972, and in subsequent years the doors have been opened wide to children in foster care as well as children from homeless families. Since it began, the program has served almost 30 million children in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Pacific Insular Areas.<\/span><\/div>\n

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The major criterion for eligibility, however, continues to be family income. That\u2019s because low income is the major factor that puts a family and its children at risk of failure, prenatally up through kindergarten and continuing through life. Head Start programs actively seek out the neediest of the needy to ensure that at least 90% of the enrollees fall at or below the federal poverty level. This year, that\u2019s $23,550 for a family of four. In Tennessee, that means that 27 out of every 100 children \u2014 approximately 136,000 children \u2014 are eligible for Head Start services. <\/span><\/p>\n
However, since Head Start in Tennessee is only funded to serve a little more than 16,000 children, 120,000 children who might otherwise qualify for Head Start services cannot get Head Start. They seek services in other environments, including child care centers or child care home setting, school settings, or preschool programs.<\/span><\/p>\n
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To read the full article, <\/span>click here<\/span><\/u><\/a>.<\/span> <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11886","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucvbheadstart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucvbheadstart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucvbheadstart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucvbheadstart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucvbheadstart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11886"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucvbheadstart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13312,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucvbheadstart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11886\/revisions\/13312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucvbheadstart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}