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In a blog titled “What School Systems Can Learn from Head Start about Family Engagement,” Director of the Office Head Start, Dr. Deborah Bergeron, says that Head Start takes the traditional public school model “school serves child” and flips it to ”families collaborate with schools.” It’s this model of collaboration, she argues, that builds strong,…

Although many of us will luckily never experience the symptoms of the COVID-19 virus, many more of us will bear the burden of its ancillary effects. Because of staff and student cut-backs, schools closing completely, lack of access to materials for remote learning, and the flaws in remote learning, children and teenagers of all ages…

We’ve been doing these Year in Review posts for eight years now. We’ve seen some tough times, like in 2013 when the federal government was forced to cut back across the board through sequestration. But we’ve also seen some great times, like the nationwide celebration of 50 years of Head Start just two years later.…

To understand the effects of the pandemic on medical care, researchers with the COVID-19 Outbreak Public Evaluation Initiative (COPE Initiative) developed a web-based survey that asked respondents if they had delayed or avoided medical care due to concerns related to COVID-19. The COPE Initiative is a public-private partnership between the Centers for Disease Control, universities,…

My hope is if there’s one silver lining from this pandemic, it’s that parents of young children will never take the work of early childhood education teachers and caregivers for granted ever again. This past Spring, as public school systems, private daycares, and Head Start programs began to shutter their doors to protect the health…

When reopening your building after a prolonged shutdown, whether it was due to a natural disaster or a reduction in operations because of the pandemic, you’ll want to consider a few things to ensure the health and safety of staff and students. In September, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released recommendations for businesses and…

Starting October 27, 2020, a new rule governing the Head Start Designation Renewal System (DRS) will go into effect. The Office of Head Start (OHS) states that the new rule will reduce the burden on high-performing grantees and focus on better identifying the lowest-performing grantees. The Designation Renewal System was first launched in late 2011,…

For women having their first pregnancy, their daily lives are full of questions and new experiences. How can I protect my health and the health of my baby? How can I make sure my pregnancy is progressing as it should? What should I eat? What medications are and aren’t ok to take? And that’s during…

While the nation is continuing to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, let’s not forget about another crisis that our communities continue to fight every day: Opioids. Head Start Agencies across the country have been able to provide another branch of support for families affected by the opioid crisis, and continue to provide resources despite the intense…

At the end of last spring’s program year the country shut down based on expert advice on public health and safety. Programs moved to a virtual format and classrooms cleared out, but this did not mean that Head Start programs closed. Despite the dramatic change in procedures that the emergency inflicted, staff adapted and continued…