Program Principles
In recognition that each child is an individual who is supported by a family and that families are supported by neighborhoods and communities, the Advisory Committee recommends that programs funded under the new initiative be encouraged to develop a range of strategies for supporting the growth of the very young child within the family and the growth of the family within the community. Thus, each Early Head Start program should be family centered and community based. We recommend that the following principles serve as the conceptual foundation for Early Head Start:· High Quality: Commitment to excellence will enable the new programs to be models for services to families with infants and toddlers from all socioeconomic strata of society. High quality will be assured in the direct services provided, and in the services provided through referral. To this end, each program will acknowledge and utilize the bodies of knowledge, skills and professional ethics surrounding the fields of child development,' family development and community building. In particular, programs will recognize that the conception-to-three age period is unique in both the rate of development and in the way young children's physical and mental growth reflects and absorbs experiences with caregivers and the surroundings. Thus, high quality care giving practices will spring from the healthy awareness that the unique nature of infant and toddler development not only carries with it major opportunities for intervention, but also leaves children especially vulnerable to negative inputs. The Federal government will share in the commitment to high quality by providing thorough and ongoing monitoring to assure program adherence to performance standards; technical assistance that addresses each program's individual needs and amplifies innovation and development across all programs; evaluation which measures program success against meaningful outcomes for young children and families; and research which contributes to the state of the art on child development, family development and community building.
· Prevention and Promotion: Recognizing that windows of opportunity open and close quickly for families and young children, programs will seek and pursue opportunities to play a positive role in promoting the physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language development of young children and families before conception, prenatally, upon birth, and during the early years. By supporting the promotion of their health and well-being, program staff will be able to prevent and detect problems at their earliest stages, rallying the services needed to help the child and family anticipate and overcome problems before they interfere with healthy development. While early and proactive promotion of healthy development and healthy behaviors will be emphasized, programs will also need to be able to understand and respond to family crises that may occur while the family is enrolled in the program.
· Positive Relationships and Continuity: The success of each program will rest on its ability to support and enhance strong, caring, continuous relationships which nurture the child, parents, family, and care giving staff. Programs will support the mother-child, father-child bond by recognizing each parent as his or her child's first and primary source of love, nurturance and guidance. - Care giving will be provided to families who need it in ways that support infant and toddler attachment to a limited number of skilled and caring individuals, thus maintaining relationships with caregivers over time and avoiding the trauma of loss experienced with frequent turnover of key people in the child's life. These relationships will aim to respectfully enhance child interest, curiosity, play and imagination, which, in turn, will develop a shared sense of trust, confidence and esteem for both caregiver and child. In addition, programs will model strong, mutually respectful relationships between staff and families, among staff, and with other community organizations and service providers. To do so, programs will be receptive to individual strengths, perspectives and contributions; affirm the value of the child and family's home culture; and support an environment where very young children, parents and staff can teach and learn from each other.
· Parent Involvement: As in all Head Start efforts, a hallmark of the new initiative will be the creation and sustenance of an environment that supports the highest--level of partners-hip with parents, both mothers-and fathers. As such, programs will support parents as primary nurturers, educators, and advocates for their children; assure that each parent has an opportunity for an experience that supports his or her own growth and goals, including that of parenting; and provide a policy- and decision-making role for parents. Furthermore, opportunities for parent involvement will encourage independence and self-sufficiency for parents. Special efforts will be made to welcome and support fathers as parenting partners.
· Inclusion: Programs will seek to build communities that respect each child and adult as an individual while at the same time reinforcing a sense of belonging to the group. Programs will support participation in community life by young children with disabilities and their families; families of very young children with significant disabilities will be fully included in all program services.
· Culture: Children and their families will come to the new programs rooted in a culture which gives them meaning and direction.- Programs will demonstrate an understanding of, respect for, and responsiveness to the home culture and home language of every child, thus affirming the values of each family's culture and providing the context for healthy identity development in the early years of life. Program staff will become aware of their own core beliefs and values and be attuned to the role culture and language play in child development, family development and the surrounding community values and attitudes. Programs will pursue opportunities to support home culture and - language, while also recognizing the significance of a common culture shared by all. In building a more harmonious and peaceful community for children to grow in and for families to share, programs will encourage and provide opportunities for families and community members to engage in dialogue about culture, language cultural diversity and multiculturalism.
· Comprehensiveness, Flexibility, Responsiveness, and Intensity: Programs will honor and build upon the unique strengths and - abilities of the children, families and communities they serve and continually adapt to meet emerging needs. Developmental opportunities provided to each infant and toddler will address the whole child and be continually adapted to keep pace with his or her developmental growth. And just as programs need to- be responsive and attentive to the special needs of very young children with disabilities, they also need to be responsive to parents -with disabilities. Family development planning and service provision will be grounded in the belief that families, including those whose problems seem overwhelming, can identify their own goals, strengths and needs, and are capable of growth and change. Once these are identified, program resources of varied intensity will be marshaled to support the whole family in an individualized and responsive manner. Barriers which prevent families from accessing needed supports will be overcome through the location, coordination, and assurance by program staff that services are provided and received. Attention will also be given to ensure programs meet the needs and schedules of working parents. Ultimately, each parent's sense of empowerment and ability to identify and address his or her family's needs will be fostered by responsive and caring relationships with program staff.
· Transition: Programs will be responsible for ensuring the smooth transition of children and their families into Head Start or other preschool programs which are of high quality and provide consistent and responsive caregiving. The Federal government must support both Early Head Start and Head Start programs in carrying out this responsibility. Transition is important for ensuring continued accessibility to enriching early child development experiences and for providing ongoing family support services that promote healthy family development. To facilitate this transition, parents and caregivers should jointly develop a family and child transition plan, identifying services which will continue and new services and programs which will be accessed. Caregivers from both Early Head Start and the new service programs will share responsibility for coordinating and implementing the plan. · Collaboration: Recognizing that no one program will be able to meet all of a child's and family's needs, programs will initiate or become embedded in an integrated community system of service providers and strength building organizations such as churches and other religious institutions, schools and civic groups. These efforts will foster a caring, comprehensive and integrated community-wide response to families with young children, thus maximizing scarce financial resources and avoiding duplication of agency effort. Likewise, the Federal government will promote systems change and the efficient use of resources through the active pursuit of local, State and Federal partnerships which enhance the capacity of local programs to collaborate and combine financial resources.