
Head Start students were split into two distinct cohorts – 3-year-olds with two years of Head Start before kindergarten, and 4-year-olds with only one year of Head Start before kindergarten. Head Start targets Indigenous peoples of the Americas Native children and families.Ī 2011 report by the Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start Impact, examined the cognitive development, social-emotional development, and physical health outcomes of Head Start students as compared to a control group that attended private preschool or stayed home with a caregiver.Because of the families' work constraints, service hours are longer and programs extend for fewer months than traditional Head Start. Services target children from six-months to five-years of age. Migrant and Seasonal Head Start provides Head Start services to children of migrant and seasonal farm workers.Family and Community Partnerships Head Start offers parents opportunities and support as they identify and meet their own goals, nurture their children in the context of their family and culture, and advocate for communities that support children and families of all cultures.Offers services that depend on each child and family's culture and experience, to influence all aspects of a child's development and learning. Head Start helps to create healthy development in low-income children ages three to five.

Early Head Start Program promotes healthy prenatal outcomes, healthy families and infant and toddler development beginning as young as newborns.Social services provide family advocates to work with parents and assist them in accessing community resources for low income families. Health services include screenings, health check–ups and dental check–ups. Education includes preschool education to national standards that have become de facto standards for all US preschools. It serves over 1 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. Head Start has provided education, health and social services for nearly 30 million children between the ages of three- and five-years-old since its inception in 1965. Congress enacted the Head Start Act in 1981. In 1968, Head Start began funding a program that would eventually be called Sesame Street, operated by the Carnegie Corporation Preschool Television project. The following year it was authorized by Congress as a year–round program. Together, they created a comprehensive child development program to help communities meet the needs of disadvantaged preschool children. Edward Zigler, a professor of psychology and director of the Child Study Center at Yale University. Robert Cooke, a pediatrician at John Hopkins University, and Dr.


The Office of Economic Opportunity's Community Action Program launched Project Head Start as an eight-week summer program in 1965. Its justification came from the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, whose staff advanced the concept of investment in education during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Head Start began as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society campaign.
