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If you’re not currently reading the Fatherhood Connection e-newsletter and webinar series from ECLKC, we highly recommend that you make a commitment to read it and share it with other staff. The Office of Head Start has made it clear over and over that engaging families in the education of children – whether mothers, fathers,…

October 2014 seems like just yesterday, when programs across the country were engaging with their local media to celebrate 50 years of Head Start. While this October might not have the same big 50 year milestone, it’s still worth noting that, as one of the longest-running anti-poverty programs in US history, the history and purpose…

According to Sec 642(c) of the Head Start Act, all Head Start designees are required to have a formal structure for program governance, including the formation of a governing body and policy council. The section goes into detail about the responsibilities of the board and policy council, including the composition of each group and who…

Employees are one of the most important resources we have in Head Start. Last week, we announced a new training, Onboarding your Head Start Staff. While we have always included elements of employee onboarding in our trainings, as part of our comprehensive Knowledge Management system, we have separated onboarding into its own stand-alone training. With…

Are you having difficulty engaging families? Are you spinning your wheels trying to get parents engaged? Need some strategies to help improve your engagement with families? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we encourage you to watch this video from The Gravely Group CEO, Mel Gravely, as he explains four ways to…

In June, OHS released a program instruction to remind designees about the requirement to maintain full enrollment for the upcoming school year. “This Program Instruction (PI) reiterates the importance of full enrollment. It also outlines the authority of OHS to designate an agency as Chronically Underenrolled and recapture, withhold, or reduce the base grant for…

Head Start wants to ensure that the staff and teachers who are serving local families have the appropriate education to do so. The Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) hosts a series of briefs that outlines all the educational requirements for the majority of Head Start staff positions, everything from Executive Directors to Home…

Every time we host a webinar on record keeping or on the three entities of Head Start/Early Head Start, we get the same question: “What is the minimum amount of members that must be present at a Board or Policy Council meeting to achieve a quorum? “ The answer to this question is actually pretty…

As we know, parent/family engagement is one of the most important and longest-lasting benefits of Head Start. To do it right, it requires an all-hands-on-deck mentality. Every interaction with a parent or caregiver, no matter how small or fleeting it may seem, should be considered when putting together the best plan for family engagement. After…

Head Start at the national level does not have any explicit rules regarding the vaccination status of children who attend local programs (a bill proposed in 2015 would’ve required all Head Start children to be vaccinated, but never made it to a vote). As it stands now, it is only mentioned once in the Head…