Tulare County Office of Education - Child Care Educational Program

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Head Start

Head Start was born, and has survived, with the kind of spirit and determination that strives for a better life for low-income children and their families. It is a national program which provides comprehensive developmental services for America's low-income children ages 3-5 and social services for their families. The more recent Early Head Start provides services for children ages 0-3.

The goal of Head Start is provide the opportunity for low-income children to experience social life skills, language development and self-esteem so they will be ready to enter kindergarten.

Child Care

Head Start emerged as a result of a convergence of two major trends - the War on Poverty and research on the effectiveness of early intervention with low-income children. The War on Poverty during Lyndon Johnson's presidency in the mid 1960s was marked by innovative, national efforts to improve the lives of low-income people. The Economic Opportunity Act was passed in 1964, and Head Start began in the summer of 1965, an eight-week effort serving over 500,000 children.

The program soon expanded to a school-year program and is now administered by the Administration for Children and Families.

Head Start has continued to grow over the years and is reauthorized by Congress every three years. In 1974, legislation created Performance Standards to ensure that all programs were acting in accordance with Head Start principles.

These standards were revised in 1998, structured around three program areas:

Tulare County Office of Education
Child Care Educational Program
7000 Doe Avenue, Suite C
Visalia, CA 93291

Ray Chavez, Administrator
(559) 651-3022
fax: (559) 651-3802

Please direct web site problems or comments to tcoeweb@tcoe.org.