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Head Start Works Fact Sheet

Head Start Basics

Head Start Program Basics

For more than 40 years, Head Start has helped low-income children get ready for kindergarten and have access to health and dental services they need. When families participate in Head Start, parents gain the skills they need to help their children succeed and children gain the cognitive and emotional skills they need to start school ready to learn.

Head Start consists of two programs: Head Start is a comprehensive early childhood development program that serves primarily low-income preschool-age children and their families, while Early Head Start, begun in 1994, serves primarily low-income children prenatal to age three, pregnant women, and their families.

Head Start Success

Substantial research shows that Head Start provides positive educational and health benefits for children. Reliable studies show that Head Start children have increased achievement test scores and that they experience favorable long-term effects on the need to repeat grades, special education and graduation rates. In addition, Head Start children are at least eight percentage points more likely to have had their immunizations before they start school than children who did not attend preschool.

Head Start’s success depends on the standards of parental involvement that have been the program’s hallmark since its inception. Parental involvement helps build stronger families and family values and also ensures that parents become their children’s best teachers. Both children and parents reap the benefits: children with involved parents continue their learning at home, while 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 in Cleveland

Across the United States, more than 2,695 agencies, which receive funding directly from the federal government, run 19,806 Head Start and Early Head Start centers with nearly 50,000 classrooms. Here in Greater Cleveland, excellent Head Start programs abound, including at two area agencies with long histories of service to our community’s families and children:

Early Head Start
Center for Families and Children
contact: Sharon Sobol Jordan (216) 432-7200 ext. 225

Head Start
Berea Children's Home and Family Services
contact: Rich Frank (440) 260-8339