DHHS determine whether the program contributed to key outcomes in children’s learning and development. In the 1998 reauthorization of Head Start, Congress mandated that the U.S. This “whole child” approach to school readiness offers multiple services to children and families with the expectation that the accurate targeting of services to needs, and the positive synergy among the services and benefits received, will act together to adequately prepare children for kindergarten. Over the course of its nearly fifty year history, Head Start has evolved into a comprehensive service delivery program designed to serve poor children at risk in the targeted domains of cognitive development, socio-emotional development, health, and family functioning ( Zigler & Styfco, 2010). Head Start also engages parents in their children’s learning and helps parents with their own educational, literacy, and employment goals with the belief that these too are important in promoting children’s pre-paredness for school ( U.S. To encourage this goal, the Head Start program uses a “whole child” model, which aims to promote children’s transition to school by enhancing their development through the provision of educational, health, and nutritional services to children and families. DHHS, Head Start Approach to School Readiness, 2011). Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), school readiness means that “children are ready for school, families are ready to support their children’s learning, and schools are ready for children” ( U.S. Since Head Start’s creation in 1965 as part of the War on Poverty, its mission has been to improve the school readiness of low-income children ( Zigler & Styfco, 2010).
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