Leading the Way: Characteristics and Early Experience of Selected Early Head Start Programs. Volume I: Cross-Site Perspectives

Publication Date: December 15, 1999
Current as of:

Introduction

Early Head Start has blossomed from a fledgling program with 68 grantees in 1995 into today’s national initiative, with more than 500 grantees around the country, an increasing proportion of the Head Start budget (from 3 percent in 1995 to 10 percent in 2002), strong bipartisan support, and support from the administration.1 Seventeen of these programs are participating in national and local research and evaluation studies that are documenting the implementation process and assessing program impacts and outcomes. The Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) envisions these research programs as leading the way by providing information that will promote improvements and inform further expansion of Early Head Start nationally. As part of the first group of Early Head Start programs funded, the 17 research sites are in the forefront in designing and implementing programs that meet the revised Head Start Program Performance Standards (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1996). As participants in the Early Head Start National Research and Evaluation Project, they are demonstrating what Early Head Start programs can accomplish. They are also sharing the lessons they have learned in creating Early Head Start programs and in developing high-quality services for infants and toddlers and their families.