Childcare Learning Centers Head Start/Early Head Start (HS/EHS) is a child development program serving children residing in the towns of Stamford, Darien and Greenwich. The HS/EHS program provides high quality early childhood comprehensive services to children, ages 0 to 5. The program assists families in setting and attaining goals for themselves and their children. The following reflects the program's funded enrollment, funding sources and activities during the fiscal year 2007-2008.

Funded enrollment:
Head Start 253
Early Head Start 60
Delegate 34

Funding sources:
Federal
Head Start $1,530,366
Early Head Start $848,683
Delegate $216,683

State Department of Education
$193,976 for an Enhancement Grant which provided full-day, school-year services for 35 Head Start children and 34 Delegate children.
$156,481 for an Expansion Grant which provided full-day full-year services for 20 State Head Start children.
$32,500 for a Link Grant to support math and literacy enrichment.
$22,500 for Link Grant for the delegate.
Private $75,000 from Pitney Bowes for extended day services.

The Head Start program received approximately $354,816 in State Department of Education School Readiness funds to extend 10 part-day, part-year classes into full-day, full-year classes.

Financial expenditures: In FY 2007-08 it cost $3,400,570 to operate the Head Start and Early Head Start programs. The single largest expense item was salaries and fringe benefits which accounted for 73% of the program costs. The next largest item was the delegate sub-contract ($216,683) which represented 10.8% of the total expenditures.

CLC prepares an annual budget each spring with input from the Head Start Director and the Board of Directors. Monthly variance reports are reviewed by the Head Start Director. In addition, monthly variance reports and budget projections are presented to the Finance Committee of the Board and Policy Council on a monthly basis. Financial decisions are based on the organization's long-term goals and objectives. This rigorous oversight of the financial records has provided the agency with a strong understanding of its financial position and allowed it to adapt, where necessary, in order to ensure a fiscally sound future.

The program served 285 children in Head Start, 85 children and 4 pregnant women in Early Head Start during the fiscal year of 2007-2008. The average monthly enrollment was 100% for Head Start and 99% for Early Head Start.

One hundred-percent of Head Start and Early Head Start children received medical exams and 94% of Head Start and 90% of Early Head Start children received dental exams.

One hundred and sixty five children entered kindergarten. Child Outcomes results using the Creative Curriculum Continuum assessment showed that in the spring of 2008, sixty seven percent of the children ages 4 and 5 mastered skills in the area of Understanding complex and varied vocabulary, 66% in Language Development, and 56% in Mathematics. The teachers provided enrichment activities targeting children entering kindergarten. The program collaborated with 8 Stamford Public Schools teachers who offered direct services to the Head Start children and shared resources and information with the Head Start teachers. The purpose of this collaboration was to strengthen the social emotional development and cognitive growth of the children entering kindergarten. The program implemented its Transition plan to assist the parents whose children were entering kindergarten.

The program provided many parent involvement activities such as Diversity Week, Fitness, Math and Kindergarten Nights, Parent education programs on child development, child health and nutrition, parent's rights and stress management. The program offered other opportunities such as literacy training and continuing education, opportunities for volunteering and involvement in the decisions-making of the program i.e. policy council.

The HS/EHS program was last reviewed by the Office of Head Start in 2006. The outcome of the review was positive, only 7 areas of noncompliance were noted. Those areas were: incomplete tracking of the children dental exams, program enrollment of children with disabilities was less than 10%, the types of children disabilities were not included in the delegate community assessment, a line item for disabilities supplies was not delineated in the program annual budget, the disabilities service plan did not reflect the process to accommodate access to non-handicap accessible facilities, the interagency agreement with the Local education Agency did not state the program's commitment to provide the number of children receiving services under Individualized Education Programs to the Local Education Agency for the LEA Child Count by December 1 annually, and the program did not supply wipes for the infants and toddlers. All areas of noncompliance were corrected within 90 days and the program was determined by the Office of Head Start in compliance with all Head Start Performance Standards and applicable laws, regulations, and policy requirements.