Management/Staff

Earlier this past summer, the National Head Start Association (NHSA) announced a new initiative for supporting the mental health of the staff within its member programs. In a press release at the time, NHSA explained that the initiative is meant to address the “unique set of difficult and challenging stressors” that Head Start staff face.…

It’s no secret, there is a shortage of workers in the early childhood education (ECE) sector. Private daycares, public preschools, and Head Starts are all competing for a rapidly dwindling labor pool. And unfortunately, the problem is self-perpetuating. Women, who make up the majority of the early childhood education workforce, need childcare to attend work.…

We’ll be honest. If you had asked us during our last Year in Review blog if we’d still be talking about COVID-19 affecting our day to day lives, we’d have said, “I sure hope not!” In December 2020 when we were writing it, the vaccines had just become available for those at highest risk and…

Early childhood education programs across the country face unprecedented shortages in staff, a problem that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The child care industry employment rate is down more than 10 percent from pre-pandemic levels and child care staff hiring has become more challenging than ever, as the Office of Head Start (OHS)…

This past June, we wrote a blog outlining Head Start’s expectations for programs in the 2021-2022 school year. In it, we explained how the Office of Head Start (OHS) is expecting all programs to work towards full in-person enrollment for this program year. We explained that while OHS had originally supported virtual and remote services…

This is the fourth and final blog in our series on the OHS publication Supporting School Readiness and Success of Young African American Boys Project. In our first three blogs, we talked about the origins of the project, defined the culturally responsive lens, and talked about why it focuses on African American boys in the…

This is the second blog in our four-part series on the training document, Supporting School Readiness and Success in African American Boys Project. In our first blog of the series, “An Introduction to the “Supporting the School Readiness and Success of African American Boys Project,” we mentioned the Culturally Responsive Strength-Based (CRSB) Framework. It’s this…

Way back in 2013, we wrote a blog called “How to Hire a Head Start Consultant.” In it, we outlined some of the major reasons your program might consider hiring an outside consultant, including filling gaps in expertise amongst your staff, as well as the benefit of an outsider without preconceived notions that can help…

As of the writing of this blog, approximately 44% of Americans 18 and over have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with one of the three approved vaccines, with an additional 20% say they plan on getting it soon. So what about the other 30-40%? For the past few weeks, vaccine rates have been slowing down.…

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…