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Dr. Deanna McClendon, director of the Shelby County Schools’ Early Childhood Program, believes the future of our city depends on reaching today’s children at an early age. “Great cities are known by the investment they put in their young people,” she says. “So making sure children start the race at the same level speaks volumes about how we care about the people in our community.”
The Shelby County Schools Head Start program’s purpose is to prepare children aged 4 for success in kindergarten and beyond by providing free Pre-K classes and services to low-income or at-risk children and their families. Some risk factors that qualify children for the program include having incarcerated or deployed parents, families with economic challenges, and developmental disabilities and delays.
The program provides comprehensive services for children and their families that include education, nutrition, health and safety, social and emotional health, family goal-setting, social services, transition services, services for children with disabilities, and screenings and follow-ups for health, behavior, and development.
“The average age of parents of children in the Head Start program is 24,” says McClendon. “When you’re 24, you need lots of support and guidance to navigate things. And that’s a good thing about our program; we are able to help them.”
Some of the services provided to parents include parent training and workshops, assistance with career and educational advancement, and connecting parents with valuable resources needed to help their children in and out of the classroom.
Head Start works with parents and schools to increase students’ school readiness in the following five areas: language and literacy, cognition and general knowledge, approaches to learning, physical development and health, and social and emotional development.
Each classroom is equipped with labeled interest areas to promote independence, foster decision-making, and encourage interaction with peers and adults in the classroom. Activities include teacher-directed and child-initiated activities, active and quiet times, large-group and small-group activities, independent activities, and indoor and outdoor play times.
Children in the Head Start program have seen a significant increase in academic ability in kindergarten and beyond.
“Currently, we have some key performance indicators for the district that demonstrate that children who have attended one of our [Pre-K] programming options outscore their peers [who have not attended preschool] by anywhere between 5 and 8 percent,” McClendon says. “If you break it down into different subject areas, for reading, they outscore their peers by about 8 percent, and in math, about 5 to 6 percent.”
Today, the Shelby County Schools system holds around 276 Head Start classrooms with close to 5,000 students. Additionally, Shelby County Schools teamed up with Porter-Leath in 2015 to provide the same services to 3- to 4-year-olds at eight different standalone Head Start locations throughout the city.
To apply for Head Start, children must take a 20-minute screening test that covers basics, like colors and counting, at any one of the screening locations listed at scsk12.com. Children who are considered least prepared for kindergarten are given priority. Parents must also undergo an interview during the process.
Families must bring two proofs of residence; proof of child’s physical, immunizations, and dental exam; child’s birth certificate or social security card; and proof of income.
Students must turn 4 by August 15 to be eligible. Screenings are held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays until June 14th. No appointment is necessary.