About The Program
 

 In 1965, the Office of Economic Opportunity launched Project Head Start, an eight-week summer program.  Head Start was part of the "War on Poverty", which embodied a basic belief in education as the solution to poverty.  Head Start was designed to help break the "cycle of poverty" by providing preschool children of low-income families with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs.  At that time, part of the new government thinking on the nature of poverty and the uses of education, and born of the civil-rights movement, was that the government was obligated to help disadvantaged groups in order to compensate for inequality in social or economic conditions.  The concept of  "maximum feasible participation" represented a new philosophy in federal government that low-income people should help plan and run their own programs.  Education development specialists, community leaders, and parents enthusiastically received Head Start across the nation and recruited children age three to school entry age.

Head Start is a national program that promotes school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families.  Head Start serves many American Indian, migrant farm worker, urban and rural children and families in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Pacific Insular areas.  Head Start has grown from the eight-week demonstration project to include full day/year services and many other program options.