HEAD START QUALITY STANDARDS ARE IN JEOPARDY — AND WE NEED TO SPEAK UP!
Quality matters in Early Childhood, and teacher-child interaction is at the very heart of quality!
Appropriate child-staff ratios are critical. Smaller ratios allow teachers to provide the individual attention, nurturing relationships, supervision, and meaningful interactions young children need to learn and thrive.
We do NOT need to go backwards in Early Childhood.
Head Start has long been the gold standard for comprehensive, high-quality early childhood services. BRAD Head Start/Early Head Start’s federally mandated and supported standards for quality are in jeopardy.
And let’s be very clear:
BRAD Head Start/Early Head Start is ALREADY locally designed!
Our program is developed based on a comprehensive Community Assessment that identifies the needs, strengths, and resources of the communities we serve.
Parents already have a powerful voice in Head Start. Our Policy Council is made up of parents of currently enrolled children, along with community representatives. Parents help make important decisions about the program serving their children and their community.
Head Start was intentionally designed to combine strong federal quality standards with LOCAL decision-making and PARENT leadership.
We do not have to choose between local control and quality.
OUR CHILDREN DESERVE BOTH!
ARKANSAS — PLEASE MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
If you live in Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District, please contact Congressman Rick Crawford AND our two U.S. Senators and tell them you support maintaining strong Head Start/Early Head Start quality standards.
Congressman Rick Crawford — Arkansas District 1
Washington: (202) 225-4076
Jonesboro: (870) 203-0540
Email/Contact Form: https://crawford.house.gov/contact
Senator John Boozman
Washington: (202) 224-4843
Jonesboro: (870) 268-6925
Little Rock: (501) 372-7153
Email/Contact Form: https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
Senator Tom Cotton
Washington: (202) 224-2353
Jonesboro: (870) 933-6223
Little Rock: (501) 223-9081
Email/Contact Form: https://www.cotton.senate.gov/contact/contact-tom
Tell them:
Protect Head Start and Early Head Start.
Protect strong teacher-child interactions.
Protect appropriate child-staff ratios.
Protect parent involvement and local decision-making.
Do NOT weaken the federal quality standards our children deserve.
Head Start works because it combines strong federal standards for quality with local communities and parents making decisions about what their children need.
We should be STRENGTHENING Head Start — not weakening the standards that have helped make it the gold standard in Early Childhood for generations.
CALL. EMAIL. SPEAK UP. SHARE THIS POST.
Our youngest children cannot advocate for themselves. We have to do it for them.
Brad Child Development Programs