Head Start

HeadStart

Head Start is a full-day, 3- and 4-year old Early Childhood program. It is a federally funded two-year preschool program that prepares students for Kindergarten. Gainesville Head Start serves 70 qualifying students every year.

Head Start Model

The Whole Child ~ Children enter Head Start with serious socioeconomic disadvantages that can hold them back for life. Head Start takes a comprehensive approach to meeting the needs of young children.

The Whole Family ~ Head Start supports families facing difficult circumstances and seeks to mitigate obstacles to learning in the early years.

What makes the whole child and whole family model so powerful? Head Start plays a transformative role across two generations by helping families who are struggling with poverty and other socioeconomic challenges achieve their goals for education, employment, and housing.

There are four major components to Head Start:

Education: We provide a variety of learning experiences to help children grow intellectually, socially, and emotionally.

Head Start uses Frog Street curriculum, which includes Conscious Discipline, a social/emotional curriculum to promote self-regulation. Head start student instruction includes: • small groups in Literacy & Math • phonological awareness/book & print knowledge • rapid letter naming & rapid vocabulary • math/science/social studies

Health: We ensure each student receives health services such as immunizations, dental, medical, and mental health, and nutritional services, as well as early identification of health problems.

Parent Involvement: Parents are involved in the planning and implementation of activities. Parents serve on our policy council which make administrative decisions, participate in monthly parent education classes (Conscious Discipline Parent Curriculum) on child development, and volunteer in our classrooms.

Parents set goals for their family during our two home visits and we share assessment data and set academic goals during our two parent teacher conferences. In addition, we have monthly family projects which are academically tied to our curriculum.

Social Services: We are a liaison between our families and our community partners. As we determine the needs of our families, we connect them with the appropriate community resources.

April Waggoner, Principal and Family Service Worker

“Our Head Start program allows us to begin a child’s love for school at age 3,” said April Waggoner, Principal and Family Service Worker. “It takes a village to raise a child, and Head Start allows us to grow an relationships with each family. I am so blessed to be a part of our amazing Head Start family.”

April Waggoner

Principal