Survey of Early Head Start Programs

Early Head Start is a comprehensive two-generation federal initiative aimed at enhancing the development of infants and toddlers while strengthening families. Designed for low-income pregnant women and families who have infants and toddlers 3 years of age or younger, the programs deliver a wide range of services, including child development, child care, parenting education, case management, health care and referral, and family support services. Partnerships with community agencies and providers are often key to offering these multiple services.

To ensure high quality, all programs must comply with a set of rigorous performance standards based on best practices. However, in meeting these standards, programs have the flexibility to apply one or more of four official service-delivery options to address families' needs. These options include (1) a home-based option—weekly home visits and at least two group socializations per month, (2) a center-based option—center-based child care plus other activities, (3) a combination option—both home visits and center experiences, and (4) a locally designed option. Different combinations of these options are allowed on the basis of a program's determination of the best way to serve its families.

The survey of Early Head Start programs grew out of Early Head Start Research and Evaluation findings about the importance of program implementation and service approaches, in combination with program expansion. Since its inception in 1995, Early Head Start has experienced of rapid growth—from 68 programs to nearly 750. The survey was the first step in a planned series of descriptive studies about Early Head Start.

The survey builds on current knowledge and provides information to support program improvement in Early Head Start. Guided by the performance measures framework, the questionaire content focused on management systems, services, and families served. The first and primary data source was the survey, which included comprehensive questions on program management and services. The second data source was a series of site visits to 17 programs, which built on the survey topics. The goals of the study were to (1) describe Early Head Start and those it serves, (2) develop objective indicators of the performance measures, (3) provide a needs assessment and support program planning at the national level, (3) collect information for planning the next steps in a research agenda, (4) provide a benchmark for future descriptive studies that can be used to assess changes in services and outcomes nationally over time, and (5) guide individual programs on the outcomes and measures to select for their own performance measurement.

A comprehensive report using both survey and site visit findings is forthcoming. The survey was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

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