Quality and Performance Standards
Head Start programs provide a constellation of comprehensive and interactive services for low-income families and their children ages birth to five. During the 1970’s federally legislated Program Performance Standards firmly established the basic elements of the Head Start model. These Standards have provided universal definitions in terms of conditions constituting quality services for the over 2,000 community-based Head Start organizations nationwide. In 1993 standards for children with disabilities were established to consolidate, clarify and update policies that had existed for the programs.
As part of a focus on Head Start quality, Program Performance Standard revisions were enacted on January 1, 1998. This revision integrated standards for services to pregnant women and children birth to three. The revised Performance Standards cover the following three major areas in which Head Start programs must provide services:
- Early Childhood Development and Health Services;
- Family and Community Partnerships and
- Program Design and Management
The Performance Standards serve a variety of purposes: a) provision of standardized definitions regarding quality Head Start services; b) act as training guides for staff and parents on major quality elements, and c) provide a regulating structure for monitoring and assurance of quality Head Start services.
