Evaluation of Head Start Family Child Care Demonstration, Final Report

Publication Date: February 15, 2000
Current as of:

Introduction

In the fall of 1992 the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF) funded 18 Head Start family child care demonstration projects for a 3-year period. The primary purposes of this evaluation were to determine whether services provided in the family child care homes met Head Start Program Performance Standards and to compare the outcomes for children and families participating in family child care homes with outcomes for those participating in center classroom-based programs. Each local site served two groups of 40 children who were randomly assigned to either family child care homes or center-based settings. After an initial planning and start-up year, staff at each project agreed to serve two cohorts of 40 four-year-olds in Head Start family child care. Eligibility was limited to parents who were either working, attending school, or in a job training program. This report focuses on the findings from the second cohort of children because the evaluation instruments were not approved in time for use at the beginning of the first cohort, considered a pilot.