Although Head Start classes are just settling into three Bellingham elementary schools, potential 2013 federal budget cuts may put education programs like Head Start at risk.
The Opportunity Council, a non-profit human service organization, provides early childhood development resources and family support services to low-income Whatcom County families through the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) and Head Start programs. Head Start is a federally funded school readiness programs that prepares children from three to five years old for kindergarten by enhancing cognitive, social and emotional development. Early Head Start is a home visit program for children from birth through age three. The ECEAP, a Washington State-funded program, provides similar services and works toward the same goals as Head Start.
According to David Webster, the Opportunity Council director of Early Learning and Family Services (ELAFS), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) provides $2.4 million annually to fund Whatcom County’s 245 Head Start student slots and 36 Early Head Start slots. The State of Washington, through ECEAP, funds 72 slots for Whatcom County children, he said.
Under the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) signed by President Barack Obama January 2, domestic budget cuts – also called sequestration – were delayed until March 1, allowing Congress time to negotiate education funding. The proposed 8.2 percent cut from domestic program funding would reduce the Opportunity Council’s Head Start budget by $200,000 and eliminate as many as 24 Head Start student slots, said Webster.
The program’s debut at Carl Cozier, Alderwood and Roosevelt elementary schools last September was an exciting step, according to Pam Head, an Opportunity Council Head Start supervisor.
“Early childhood education is finally getting the recognition it deserves,” said Head who has been working in the program for 25 years. “We’ve been doing it for a long time and people are beginning to realize how important the early years of learning are.”
Although Head Start is offered at sites across Whatcom County, its presence in elementary schools is with the hope of making the transition between preschool and kindergarten easier for students and parents, said Kat Condran, a Head Start teacher at Carl Cozier Elementary School.
“We’re trying to use more of the school. So, we went on a gingerbread cookie hunt with the kindergartners and we went through all the different classrooms,” said Condran. “They’re more familiar with the setting and when they have to come to the kindergarten classroom, it’s going to be a new classroom but they still know the building, the playground, the parking lot – those physical features – and that will ease the transition.”
Familiarizing preschoolers with their new school boosts their confidence within the elementary community, said Condran.
“It’s really cool to see the third-graders start different play groups and kind of take the preschoolers under their wing,” said Condran of the Head Start and third grade shared recess time.
“We have some kiddos that in the fall might just only go on the swing or only go to one area of the playground. So maybe now they will go up to the tall twisty slide where they used to only go to the small slide. They are seeing the third-graders do it and they’re fine. So, they are taking more positive risks,” said Condran. “It’s a nice model for them.”
According to Megan Scheibe, a Head Start supervisor, the collaboration between Head Start and the Bellingham School District helps teachers understand the needs and capabilities of new kindergarteners.
“We’ve been doing a lot of collaboration with all seven of the school districts in the area for years getting everything aligned and getting the kids ready for kindergarten,” said Scheibe, adding that Nooksack, Sumas and Everson elementary schools already host Head Start. “It’s a much more streamlined, intentional process from both ends.”
Teaching Strategies Gold, an online assessment tool, is one way that Head Start teachers are working with kindergarten teachers to measure and document children’s progress throughout the year.
“Some of our staff are teaching the kindergarten teachers to use the assessment so we can all be on the same page and I think that’s been a really big strength,” said Head. “We start it in the fall, they are doing a checkpoint right now and in the spring we can see how much growth they’ve made.”
Teachers can document observations, samples of students’ work and upload audio recordings of their interactions with other students to compare where children are at with the average abilities of their age groups and evaluate which areas of learning need work, said Condran.
“I think it’s great to have that alignment from preschool to kindergarten,” said Condran. “If we’re all using that same tool then alignment and transition for teachers is a lot easier.”
“We have this little girl who is in love with writing her name,” said Condran, pulling out a binder full of worksheets with chubby letters scrawled across them. “And for the longest time, it just did not look like her name. Now she’s running up to us like, ‘Look, this is my name!’ And it’s not scribbles anymore.”
For Condran, providing children the skills to confidently enter kindergarten is the greatest reward.
“I think that it gives children that opportunity – this is going to sound really corny – to get that head start,” said Condran. “Just to be able to go into a kindergarten classroom and have the confidence to go, ‘I know my ABCs, I know how to count, I know those shapes, I know how to interact with another kiddo.’ Just know how to be a kindergartener. Head Start gives them that chance.”
Carl Cozier Elementary School’s Head Start class gives Linda Lamphier’s great-granddaughter, Joie, a sense of purpose.
“This is her school,” said Lamphier who picks Joie up from school on certain days. “She loves coming here and being with all the kids. She’s learning her letters and what letters are in other peoples’ names.”
But the support Head Start provides to families is just as important.
“I think Head Start helps parents know how to be an advocate for their kids in a positive way and have the confidence to do that - to go into the school and stand up for their children’s rights, know how to volunteer in the classroom, how to approach the teacher,” said Condran.
The Opportunity Council resources range from tools to manage money and buy fruits and vegetable necessary to balance healthy meals and ideas for family bonding, such as hosting a family game night, said Condran.
“We also have a health coordinator. Our kids have to have health exams, immunizations and dental exams,” said Head. “We want to make sure they are healthy so that they can learn.”
“We also help provide [parents] with how to do it, who to contact and where to go,” said Scheibe. “And we have Interfaith Mobile Dental Clinic that actually comes around to our sites to provide dental exams.”
But the program’s greatest challenge is providing for every family in need.
“There are more kids in the community that we could serve and would like to serve but again, due to our budget, we can’t service as many kids and families as we’d like to,” said Head.
“We have a waiting list for all sites,” said Webster. “If the cuts come quickly, we might face the ugly prospect of removing children and families from the program they depend on.”
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