Overview


 All children from birth to age three need early child development experiences that honor their unique characteristics and provide love, warmth, and positive learning experiences; and all families need encouragement and support from their community so they can achieve their own goals and provide a safe and nurturing environment for their very young children. This recognition is guiding the design of the new Early Head Start program.

Early Head Start marks a turning point in America's commitment to our youngest children and their families. By focusing on child development, family development, community building, and staff development, a new era of support to very young children and their families is born, building on the experiences and lessons learned from existing Head Start programs.

Early Head Start puts resources into a constellation of high quality supports and services that will promote healthy child and family development, and backs them with a Federal commitment to training, standards and monitoring for high quality, research and evaluation, and services coordination at the national level. It enables families and communities to design flexible and responsive programs but requires that, at a minimum, programs provide child development, family support, health services for young children and pregnant women, and home visits to families with newborns. This would include child care services that respond to the needs of families. When services are provided through referral, it requires that the Early Head Start program assures the services to which families are referred are of highest quality, available and accessible, and that needed follow-up occurs. And although service delivery mechanisms may vary, a common characteristic will be that each Early Head Start program will establish a place which is recognized as a source of support for very young children, families, and care giving staff. Programs will be encouraged to give this Early Head Start place visibility and identity.

With this design, the Early Head Start program will be suited to last well into the next century, always reshaping itself to provide high quality, responsive, and respectful services to America's youngest children and their families.