Audubon Area Community Services, Inc.

Head Start Performance Standards

Head Start Bureau Releases Revised Quality Performance Standards for the Program

Washington - In response to quality concerns raised during the 1994 Re-Authorization of the federally funded Head Start program, the Head Start Bureau, in the Department of Health and Human Services has released Revised Head Start Performance Standards. The new Performance Standards are implemented as an effort to ensure uniform quality and consistency in the Head Start program nationally. "I am proud of the Revised Performance Standards because they reflect the hard work of the federal staff, Head Start staff and many early childhood experts committed to achieving quality Head Start programs throughout the country," states Helen Taylor, Associate Commissioner of the Head Start Bureau.

The newly Revised Performance Standards are more comprehensive to embrace the growth of the Head Start program, including ages 0-5 and pregnant women for example. Following a year of intensive local training and guidance from Head Start Bureau staff and consultants on the new Performance Standards they will become effective, in practice, by January 1, 1998.

Owensboro, KY - Audubon Area Head Start in Owensboro, Kentucky joins in the national day of celebration of the Revised Performance Standards on January 10, 1997. All local Head Start programs have been asked to mark this day planning activities that reflect on Head Start's rich past, strong commitment to children and families and celebrate the future. In each Head Start/preschool center, community members and parents have been invited to visit the centers to observe, volunteer, talk to the children, and read the new Performance Standards. All parents will receive a bumper sticker that says "My Child AttendsPreschool -- Head Start Where All Children are Special"

"This event has been a wonderful opportunity for staff, parents, and the community to read the new standards, think about our program's past and plan for an extraordinary future," says Aubrey Nehring, Head Start Director.

Project Head Start, the federally funded child development program, serves low-income children, ages 0-5, and their families nationwide. The program is designed to meet the educational, psychological and health needs of America's children. Currently Head Start serves 750,696 million children nationally (less than 21% of the children ages 0-5 in poverty). It is the only comprehensive early childhood program with national standards. Audubon Area Head Start presently serves over 2,200 children in sixteen counties in Western Kentucky including Daviess, Caldwell, Christian, Crittenden, Hancock, Henderson, Hopkins, Livingston, Lyon, McLean, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Todd, Trigg, Webster, and Union Counties.

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