Head Start and Early Head Start are comprehensive child development programs that serve children from birth to age 5, pregnant women, and their families. They are child-directed programs whose overall goal is to increase school readiness of young children in low-income families. This aim encompasses five developmental domains key to school readiness: physical well-being and motor development; social and emotional development; approaches to learning; language development and emerging literacy; and cognition and general knowledge. It takes into account the interrelatedness of cognitive, emotional, and social development; physical and mental health; and nutritional needs. The basic philosophy that undergirds the Head Start program is that children benefit from quality early childhood experiences and that effective intervention can best be accomplished through high-quality comprehensive services to children, along with family and community involvement that addresses the unique needs of children and their families.

All Head Start programs, either directly or through referral, provide comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and social services to enrolled children and their families. In addition, all programs actively engage parents in the governance and management of the Head Start program and build relationships with community partners. All are provided training and technical assistance to continually enhance their effectiveness. The opportunity to vary practices and approaches is simply an attempt to ensure that the program meets the needs of the children and families in the particular community.

The goal of Early Head Start (EHS) is to promote healthy prenatal outcomes for pregnant women, enhance the development of very young children, and promote healthy family functioning. The goal of Head Start is to increase school readiness of young children in low-income families.

Studies have demonstrated positive effects of the program for both 3- and 4-year-old children on pre-reading, pre-writing, vocabulary, and parent reports of children’s literacy skills. For 3-year-olds, a greater number of parents reported improved access to health care and better health status.

The key findings of several evaluation studies are summarized below.

-There are small to moderate statistically significant positive effects for both 3- and 4-year-old children on several measures across four of the six cognitive constructs, including pre-reading, pre-writing, vocabulary, and parent reports of children’s literacy skills.
-For children who entered the study as 3-year-olds, there are small statistically significant effects in one of the three social-emotional constructs—problem behaviors.
-For 3-year-olds, there are small to moderate statistically significant effects in both health constructs—higher parent reports of children’s access to health care and better reported health status for children enrolled in Head Start.
-For children who entered the program as 4-year-olds, there are moderate statistically significant effects on access to health care but no significant results for health status. For children who entered the program as 3-year-olds, there are small statistically significant results in two of the three parenting constructs, including a higher use of educational activities and a lower use of physical discipline, by parents of Head Start children. There were no significant effects for safety practices.
-For children who entered the program as 4-year-olds, there are small statistically significant effects on parents’ use of educational activities. No significant results were found for discipline or safety practices.