Early Childhood Services

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Head Start is a comprehensive early childhood education program for pre-school age children whose families meet current Department of Health and Human Services income eligibility guidelines.

The program offers a broad range of individualized services in the areas of education and child development, special education, health services, nutrition, parent/family development.

In addition, the range of Head Start services is responsive and appropriate to each family's ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage.

Serving western Arizona for over three decades, WACOG Head Start has a long tradition of delivering high quality services designed to enhance the healthy development of children. The primary focus of WACOG Head Start is children and their families. It is the program's mission to provide the foundation for the development of self-sufficient, healthy, caring and productive children and families. It is Head Start's role to ensure the provision of opportunities of parents to become active participants in their children's growth and development. Children's 'social competence' is an overall goal of the program and is defined as a child's everyday effectiveness in dealing with the responsibilities that attend both school life and home life. Social competence also takes into account a child's social, emotional, cognitive and physical development, and how these aspects are interrelated.

Since 1990, WACOG Head Start has more than quintupled its enrollment in its tri-county service area. The program is funded to serve 1,060 children and their families representing a diverse population in terms of culture, ethnicity, and language. The program has 20 centers with 53 classrooms and is staffed by over 130 full and part-time teaching staff.