Background

Background, Vision, and Goals

The reauthorization of the Head Start Act in 1994 made it possible to formally open a new chapter of Federal support for families with infants and toddlers by establishing a special initiative within the context of the Head Start program. Beginning in Fiscal Year 1995, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will award grants to Early Head Start programs which will provide early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive child development and family support services to low-income families with children under age three. This initiative will bring together under one umbrella Head Start's existing programs for families with infants and toddlers, the Comprehensive Child Development Program and the Parent and Child Centers; strengthen the Migrant Head Start Program; and add new resources to model high quality child development and family development services for very young children and their families.

To help with the design of the new initiative, the Secretary formed the Advisory Committee on Services for Families with Infants and Toddlers. The Committee was charged with advising the Secretary and Assistant Secretary for Children and Families on the development of program approaches for the initiative that would address the parenting and child development needs of low- income parents and their infants and toddlers, We were to pay particular attention to the key principles and array of models of effective culturally and developmentally appropriate service delivery. To fulfill this commitment, we met three times during the summer of 1994 to engage in discussions about our vision for a national approach to high quality, responsive services for very young children and their families. We outlined the Federal role for carrying forth this vision, ensuring such programs can flourish.

We are excited about the fruits of these deliberative efforts and confident that the resulting initiative will advance Head Start leadership in realizing a national vision of communities where:

· children from birth, receive support through their family and their community to achieve optimal growth and development and build a foundation of security, self-confidence, and character strength which will in turn enable them to build successful social relationships for learning and continued development through later childhood and adulthood;

· families receive support to meet their personal goals,. and resources and guidance to prepare for their child's birth and provide a warm, caring, responsive environment for their very young child;

· communities embrace and support all families, celebrating the birth of their children and creating an environment where support and resources are. mobilized to ensure a comprehensive, integrated array of services are available and accessible for all very young children and their families; and

· staff receive the professional education and personal support they need to provide high quality environments and experiences and engage in responsive relationships that promote the healthy development of infants, toddlers, and their families.

In keeping with this vision, the goals set forth by the Advisory Committee for Early Head Start will be:

· To provide safe and developmentally enriching caregiving and environments which promote the physical, cognitive, social and emotional growth of infants and toddlers and prepare them for future growth and development;

· To support parents, both mothers and fathers, in their role as primary caregivers and educators of their children, and families in meeting personal goals and achieving self sufficiency across a wide variety of domains;

· To mobilize communities to provide the resources and environment necessary to ensure a comprehensive, integrated array of services and support for families, and to foster the systems change necessary to summon forth the guiding vision of this initiative; and

To ensure the provision of high quality responsive services to families with infants and toddlers through the development of highly-trained, caring and adequately compensated program staff.

The Advisory Committee recognizes that the vision and goals outlined above have also been shaped by the lessons learned from the Comprehensive Child Development Program, Parent and Child Centers, Migrant Head Start Programs, locally designed Head Start programs, and other early child development and family support efforts serving families with very young children. As part of the overall consultation for the development of this initiative, Federal staff conducted over 30 focus groups with parents, practitioners, researchers, advocates, and representatives of professional organizations. Focus groups were designed to address topical areas such as child care, family services, health care, support and services for children with disabilities and their families, community mobilization, parent involvement and parent advocacy. In addition, Federal staff met with or received materials and recommendations from a number of other experts and practitioners in the field. The suggestions, guidance, and information received through this process have been invaluable to both the Advisory Committee and the Administration on Children, Youth and Families.