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Head Start California Updates
COVID-19 Resources for Head StartThe health and safety of our members, their staff and their families are our primary concern. We encourage you and your staff to comply with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention CDC recommendations and take all precautionary measures, here. Below are some additional resources which will be updated as they become available.
Office of Head Start Resources:- Coronavirus Prevention and Response
- Wage & benefit flexibility: In response to COVID-19,
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Head Start California Updates
Messaging Matters: Get Your Head Start Parents Involved in Census OutreachThe Census is fast approaching! Your engagement is critical. Our partnership with the First 5 Association of California and the California WIC Association is focused on counting every child aged 0-5 because:
More than a million children were not counted in 2010.
The 2020 census will impact funding and representation for the next decade.
We’ve developed a simple one-hour training for parents and are already scheduled across the state to inform, inspire, and activate as many parents as we can to help spread the word: Completing the Census is safe, -
Head Start California Updates
Head Start at the Table
We are expanding our presence “at the table,” ensuring that Head Start is engaged in conversations that shape policy, legislation and regulation impacting Head Start programs.
Table 1: Early Childhood Policy Council. Members of this council will work to elevate the needs of young children and their families as well as advise lawmakers on education, care and development of young children. Head Start is well-represented by several leaders actively working in the Head Start community:
Stephanie Myers, -
Head Start California Updates
No Child Left UncountedLet’s start the new year with a counting party! Census 2020 is coming fast and our Head Start community has a critical role to play. It is estimated that over one million children under age 5 were not counted in the last census. An undercount in 2020 could cost California more than $3 billion in federally funded programs, including those affecting young children. Our goal for 2020: no child left uncounted!
Partnering with the California WIC and First 5 associations to reach out to all families with young children may be the most important action we take for the next decade, -
Head Start California Updates
Census 2020: Make Sure Every Child is CountedCensus 2020: Make Sure Every Child is Counted
Census Day is April 1, 2020, just four months away. We are ramping up our efforts to make sure that children under age 5 won’t face the same rate of undercount they did in the last census. The 2010 Census missed close to 1 million young children — costing over a billion dollars each year in federal funding for these and other vital social programs — including Head Start. -
Head Start California Updates
Head Start California Joins Partnership for Census 2020 OutreachWe are pleased to announce Head Start California’s partnership with the First 5 Association and California WIC Association to engage in statewide outreach and education efforts for the upcoming 2020 Census. Together, our efforts will focus on California’s “hard-to-count” (HTC) populations, focusing on children ages 0-5.
This project, funded by the California Complete Count Census 2020, will ensure that the highest risk, most isolated, and HTC 0-5 families participate in the 2020 Census. -
Head Start California Updates
It’s National Head Start Awareness Month! How are you celebrating?In preparation for Head Start Awareness Month in October, we’ve been collecting stories so that we can share them across the state and across the country. What can you do locally to celebrate Head Start awareness month?
Here are a few ideas:-
- Invite a member of Congress to your program. Congress is on break and our California delegation is home. If you have not done so already,
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Head Start California Updates
Will You Vote? Update your roster and assign your voting member nowAs an association, staying connected is critical. We need to hear from our members so that we can truly act as one voice. One of the primary ways we stay connected is by ensuring that our database has the most current information regarding member agencies. That is especially true when we need for the membership to act in an official capacity.
Later this fall, the membership of the association will be asked to vote on some important changes to the organization. -
Head Start California Updates
Why Head Start Stories WorkWe have 100,000 stories to share. The stories are compelling because they have three elements with universal appeal. First, they are about children. Children have a natural, wide-eyed wonder and curiosity about the world that is infectious. They remind us that what may have become common to us over the years is no less extraordinary. Rainbows, magnets — how is that not magic? — waterfalls, and birds in flight, and a thousand other natural phenomena delight them.
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Head Start California Updates
We all count.For most of us, beyond voting, we don’t get many opportunities to participate in matters of constitutional significance at the federal level. 2020 will be different. Next April, each of us has the opportunity to participate in something that has taken place in the United States every 10 years since 1790: the decennial census. Required by the constitution (Article I, Section 2) the U.S. Census serves two very important functions:
- Representation: The census count is used to determine how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives.
