9/23/2016
Head Start: Shaping the Future of Infants, Children, Families, and Communities in Tennessee
Building Blocks for Infant Mental Health Conference September 23, 2016 BELVA WEATHERSBY, MSW DIRECTOR HEAD START STATE COLLABORATION OFFICE
Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way
Video: “50 Years of Opportunity: Head Start’s History” https://youtu.be/StKPrSrWroA . Head Start was initiated in 1964 as an eight-week demonstration project to help break the cycle of poverty. It was affirmed in 1965 as the first and only comprehensive early childhood development program for children ages 3-5. • Head Start is administered by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the Department of Health and Human Services. Head Start serves over a million children and their families each year in urban and rural areas in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories, including American Indian, Alaskan Native and Migrant/Seasonal communities. • In September of 1995, services expanded to younger children (6 weeks to 2 years) and the first Early Head Start programs were funded. . In October of 1998, Head Start was reauthorized to expand to full-day and full-year services. . Head Start has served over 32 million children since 1965, to include full day/year services and many program options. . It has been a catalyst for providing preschool children of low-income families with a comprehensive program to address their developmental, emotional/mental health, physical and oral health, nutritional, psychological, and social service needs. . Head Start was most recently reauthorized again in 2007 with bipartisan support. . The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 has several provisions to strengthen Head Start quality. . These include alignment of Head Start school readiness goals with state early learning standards, higher qualifications for the Head Start teaching workforce, State Advisory Councils on Early Care and Education in every state, and increased program monitoring,
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Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way
Head Start programs support children’s growth and development in a positive learning environment through core components which include………….
•Early Learning: Children’s readiness for school and beyond is fostered through individualized learning experiences. Through relationships with adults, play, and planned and spontaneous instruction, children grow in many aspects of development. Children progress in social skills and emotional well-being, along with language and literacy learning, and concept development. •Health: Each child’s perceptual, motor, and physical development is supported to permit them to fully explore and function in their environment. All children receive health and developmental screenings, nutritious meals, oral health care, and mental health services and supports. Programs connect families with medical, dental, and mental health services to ensure that children are healthy and ready to learn. •Family Engagement : Parents and families are supported in developing and achieving their own personal and professional goals, such as housing stability, continued education, and financial security. Programs support and strengthen parent-child relationships and engage families around children’s learning and development. .
Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way
How is Head Start shaping and leading the way?……… • Head Start programming is responsive to the ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage of each child and family. • Head Start has a mandated focus on improving child and family outcomes and programmatic and fiscal accountability. • Head Start has a redesigned training and technical assistance system in place to support quality improvement through …… • six national centers • state-based TTA infrastructure to ensure support for success • Head Start also included a provision that require programs to move from an indefinite project period to a five-year grant cycle for heightened accountability. • Head Start programs are required to meet higher quality benchmarks or be subject to a competitive grant application process. This is referred to as the Designation Renewal System.
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Head Start: Shaping and Leading the Way State of Head Start in Tennessee in 2015 TN Provider Network: HS = 23 EHS=15 Children in Poverty and Access to Head Start Funded Enrollment= 17, 676 ◦ (16,151= Head Start; 1,525 Early Head Start) ◦ There were 2,299 with a disability ◦ There were 470 in homeless status ◦ There were 12.20% dual language learners
Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way State and National Trends…………. ◦ 34% of 3 and 4 year olds had access to Head Start and 2% of children under age 3 years had access to EHS Services thus promoting emerging expansion of EHS and Child Care Partnerships o98.50% had access to a stable medical home o94.00% received continuous access to dental care o89.70% were up-to-date on all immunizations
o467 children in Tennessee received Mental Health Consultation referrals and intervention o42% received 3 or more consultations during one program year o68% of those required referrals to MH services outside of the Head Start program
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Head Start: Shaping and Leading the Way
• New Head Start Program Performance Standards JUST RELEASED!
• The HS program performance standards, were first drafted in 1975, with periodic policy clarifications and information memorandums issued over more than 40 years.
• The foundations of comprehensive services, inclusion, individualization, parent engagement, and cultural and linguistic responsiveness continue to undergird the performance standards.
• The first comprehensive revision was released this month on September 7, 2016 and provides for greater flexibility within programs with a shift from compliance to responsiveness, innovation, and results!
• The new standards promote transparency with simplified and streamlined regulations (number of standards were reduced by 30%)
• This is a shift from a more prescriptive early care and education and family engagement structure to one that promotes a framework for ensuring more local autonomy in programming for school readiness, family empowerment, and program sustainability with a focus on HIGH QUALITY, OUTCOMES, and IMPACT!
FACTS and IMPACTS Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way School Readiness and Academic Success . Head Start children have a higher likelihood of graduating high school, attending college, and receiving a post-secondary degree, license, or certification (Bauer et al. 2016).
. Head Start children have higher math test scores in 8th grade, are less likely to be chronically absent, and less likely to be held back a year by 8th grade (Phillips et al. 2016).
. Children in Head Start make progress toward norms in language, literacy, and math during the program year and score at the norm on letter- word knowledge at program exit (Aikens et al., 2013).
. Children in Early Head Start show significantly better social-emotional, language, and cognitive development than control group children, and are more likely to be immunized and have services for children with disabilities (Love et al., 2002).
. The nationally-representative Head Start Impact Study found Head Start children scored better than a control group of children in all measured domains of cognitive and social-emotional development at the end of their Head Start experience (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).
. Head Start children in foster care or other non-parental are more ready for school than peers who did not participate in Head Start (Lipscomb et al., 2013).
. Compared with matched children who were in parental care before kindergarten, Head Start children performed considerably better on cognitive measures (Zhai et al., 2011).
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FACTS and IMPACTS Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way
Social-Emotional Development . While there is variation across different Head Start centers, Head Start reduces disparities in the cognitive skills of low-income children, especially dual language learners and Spanish speakers. (Bloom, Howard S. and Weiland, Christina, Quantifying Variation in Head Start Effects on Young Children's Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Skills Using Data from the National Head Start Impact Study) . Head Start children increase their social skills, impulse control, and approaches to learning and decrease their problem behaviors including aggression and hyperactivity over the course of a year (Aikens et al., 2013). . Children show additional gains in social-emotional development as a result of participating in Head Start at both 3 and 4 years old (Aikens et al., 2013). . Early Head Start children show impacts on social-emotional functioning that last through fifth grade (Vogel et al., 2010). . Compared with matched children who were in parental care or prekindergarten programs before kindergarten, Head Start children performed better on social-emotional measures (Zhai et al., 2011). . Compared with matched children who were in center-based programs, Head Start children performed better on social measures and had fewer attention problems and negative behaviors (Zhai et al., 2011). . Head Start children in foster care or other non-parental have stronger relationships with teachers than peers who did not participate in Head Start (Lipscomb et al., 2013).
FACTS and IMPACTS Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way Health and Wellness . Mortality rates for 5 to 9 year old children who had attended Head Start are 33 to 50 % lower than the rates for comparable children who were not enrolled in Head Start. . Head Start children are more likely to receive dental checkups and have healthy eating patterns than non- participants. . Head Start children have lower Body Mass Index (BMI) and are less likely to be overweight compared to children in non-parental care.
. Children who attended Early Head Start have significantly fewer child welfare encounters during their elementary years. (Green, et al., 2014)
. Head Start improves adult health status for graduates. They are 7% less likely to be in poor health ass adults than their siblings who did not attend. (Johnson, 2010, Deming, 2009) . As adults, Head Start graduates are less likely to smoke than their siblings who did not attend leading to a reduction in health costs at 36%.
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FACTS and IMPACTS Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way
Family Engagement and Self-Sufficiency
. Early Head Start parents offer more stimulating home environments, read more with children, use less physical punishment, and have higher levels of self-sufficiency (Love et al., 2002). . Head Start parents are more likely to increase their educational levels during their children's early years than other at-risk parents (Sabol & Chase-Lansdale, 2014). . Head Start parents invest more time in learning activities with their children, and non- resident fathers spend more days per month with their children (Gelber & Isen, 2011). . Children's academic growth in Head Start varies by the level of family engagement and the content area, with clear benefits from higher family engagement in learning (Miller et al., 2014).
FACTS and IMPACTS Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way Long-Term Impacts and Return on Investment . Exploring the evidence on lasting effects of Head Start for children and society both from and beyond the Head Start Impact Study shows the long-term effects and benefit-cost ratio of Head Start ("Informing Investments in Preschool Quality and Access in Cincinnati Evidence of Impacts and Economic Returns from National, State, and Local Preschool Programs" by Lynn Karoly and Anamarie Auger of RAND)
. Among children who attended Head Start in the 1960s-70s, white children were 28.3% more likely than their siblings to complete high school and 27.6% more likely to attend college (Garces et al., 2002).
. Among children who attended Head Start in the 1960s-70s, African American children who attended Head Start were 12% less likely to be arrested or charged with a crime compared to their siblings (Garces et al., 2002).
. Compared to siblings who did not attend, Head Start graduates demonstrated improved educational attainment, adult health status, and men’s wages and decreased grade repetition and incarceration rates for black males (Johnson, 2011).
. Educational and wage benefits were higher where Head Start and schools were funded at higher rates (Johnson, 2011).
. Head start increases outcomes by .228 standard deviations compared to no preschool, which closes the bottom to median income gap by a third and the racial achievement gap by three quarters. Such outcomes occur in spite of fadeout in academic test scores and are strongest for the most disadvantaged children (Deming, 2009).
. Head Start students are: more likely to graduate high school (particularly for children of mothers with low cognitive scores), more likely to go to at least one year of college, less likely to be “idle” - meaning out of school and unemployed, less likely to be in poor health (Deming, 2009).
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A Sense of Urgency Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way
.Teacher turnover nationally is 33.2% for Head Start and 25.2% for Early Head Start which leads to challenges with continuity of care and services within programs. .Increasingly complex behavioral challenges lead to classroom management and safety concerns. .Suspensions and Expulsions for children under the age of 5 in early learning settings are rising at alarming rates. .Lack of capacity among staff and parents to understand and meet social/emotional needs of our infant/toddler population. This is a serious matter!
A Sense of Urgency Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way through Collaboration
. Create awareness and implement systems for promoting and building capacity in infant/toddler mental health. . Provide training and coaching for staff and caregivers . Create a culture of reflective practice across organization . Utilize consultation with expertise in dealing with social emotional/mental health needs of age group Integrated assessment and planning . Collect, Analyze, and utilize data to inform mental health service provision . Mobilize robust partnerships to strengthen systems and access support and services of children and families!
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A Sense Of Urgency Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way Workforce and Capacity Strengthening Over the last decade, infant /early childhood mental health consultation has emerged in Early Head Start and Head Start as an effective evidence based strategy to promote young children’s positive social emotional development and behavioral health…………… Office of Head Start, through the National Center on Health, has established resources to: ◦ Prevent, identify, and reduce the impact of mental health concerns among young children and their families ◦ Inform hiring, supervising, and evaluating Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants ◦ Guide professional development, training, and coursework, ◦ Enhance quality of IECMH consultants and increase professional credibility, and ◦ Strengthen staff capacity to identify cues and respond appropriately within the program to ensure safety and management of situations encountered. ◦ Head Start and Early Head Start programs relies on collaboration and partnerships with local professionals and other programs to ensure children, families, and staff have access to needed services.
Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way through Collaboration
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Head Start is Shaping and Leading the Way through Collaboration
Collaborative Alliances HS Entities Collaborative Alliances Other Early Learning and Community Entities Tennessee Head Start Association TN. Early Intervention System (TEIS) Region IV Head Start Association TN Voluntary Pre-K Team TN CSEFEL /Pyramid Model Office of Head Start (DHS-ACF) Regional/National Association on Infant Mental Health in TN (AIMHiTN) National Head Start Association (NHSA) TEAYC DOE Office of Early Learning Head Start State Collaboration Director Network 619 Transition (Preschool Special Education Services) TN Young Child Wellness Council TN Department of Human Services (Child Care Licensing) TN Department of Health TN Commission on Children and Youth Child Care Resource and Referral Agency TDH and other Health and Wellness Partners (WIC, etc.) TN Conference on Social Welfare TN Early Learning Training Alliance More ………………………….
Head Start will continue Shaping and Leading the Way through Collaboration TOGETHER!
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