What is Head Start?

Head Start is a federally funded comprehensive program that provides early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. Head Start program's services and resources are designed to foster stable family relationships, enhance children's physical and emotional well-being, and establish a learning environment. The Head Start approach to school readiness enhances language and literacy, cognition, perceptual, motor, and physical development, social and emotional development, and approaches to learning to support children's learning. The Head Start approach to school readiness means that children are ready for school, families are ready to support their children's learning and schools are ready for children.