Knox County Head Start (KCHS), founded in 1965 as Kokosing Day Care Centers, is a non-profit agency providing comprehensive education, health, nutrition, social service and parent involvement services to over 500 children and their families in Knox County. KCHS offers a full range of high quality early childhood services throughout Knox County, and in 2012-2013 provided Head Start preschool servic
es to 265 children and their families at seven centers; Early Head Start services to 116 pregnant mothers, infants and toddlers, and their families; and comprehensive full day, full year early care and education services to 100 children from birth through school age in educational child care programs at three full day, full year centers: the Fredericktown Head Start and Child Care Center, the Gambier Child Care Center and the New Hope Early Education Center. KCHS is a leader in Knox County in providing high quality early care and education with opportunities for children to receive the head start they need for success in school and in life. KCHS is recognized as a national leader in Head Start, with the award of the National Head Start Center of Excellence designation in September 2010, in recognition of KCHS’ innovative use of Conscious Discipline® in support of healthy social-emotional development and well-being for children, parents, and employees in partnership with the Knox County community. KCHS services are mission driven and focused on two essential criteria – a drive for providing the highest quality comprehensive Head Start and early education services, and a dedicated respect for parents and recognition of parents as the first and most important teachers of their children. KCHS’ Mission Statement is as follows: Committed to the future of Knox County and its changing and diverse needs, Knox County Head Start works in partnership with the community to provide quality preschool, child care, and family services. Our purpose is to engage children, families, and staff in reaching their full potential. KCHS guiding values include a commitment to quality, continuous improvement and the building of healthy community partnerships, along with providing services founded on trusting relationships, open communication and honesty. Head Start regulations serve as the model for quality early care and education throughout the United States, and KCHS has expanded in the last 16 years to provide early care and education services to more families, through diversification into Early Head Start serving pregnant mothers, infants and toddlers; and full day, full year educational child care services for infants through school age children. Head Start and Early Head Start services are provided to families with incomes at or below 100% of the Federal Poverty guidelines ($23,350 for a family of four in 2013, although the average income for a family of four is currently $12,959). Ninety percent of families must be income qualifying, and 10% of children enrolled must have identified disabilities and be receiving services under either an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP, for infants and toddlers) or an Individualized Education Plan (IEP, for preschool-aged children with identified disabilities). In 2012-2013, 52 (15.9%) of KCHS enrolled children had identified disabilities and received disability services. KCHS enrolls children of families eligible for child care subsidy supports between 0% and 125% of the federal poverty guidelines within full-day, full-year programs, and provides child care to private pay families. KCHS designs high quality, comprehensive services that create safety, structure, routine and developmentally appropriate learning opportunities to support all children, and in particular at-risk children, and to provide children and parents with opportunities for healthy development and learning. KCHS’ approaches to curriculum and learning are research based, and parents and teachers regularly review child outcomes to ensure children are making progress, and to set and review educational goals to improve progress. KCHS observes and assesses teacher performance annually, in part by utilizing the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), a research-based tool, to assess teacher effectiveness and as a guide for professional development activities. CLASS research shows that higher scores in the quality of teacher interactions boost children's learning outcomes. The CLASS is now used to monitor classroom quality in Federal Head Start triennial reviews, and the Head Start Act of 2007 identifies minimum program scores in order to maintain Head Start funding, of 4.0 in the domain of emotional support; 3.0 in the domain of Classroom Organization; and 2.0 in the domain of Instructional Support. KCHS' scores from the December 2012 Federal Review are 6.1442 for Emotional Support; 5.5128 for Classroom Organization; and 3.4615 for Instructional Support. CLASS scores range from 1 to 7, and scores above 6.0 are identified as excellent. KCHS exceeded national averages in Emotional Support, and scored in the top 10% of programs nationally in the Instructional Format domain. KCHS’ commitment to high quality programming is recognized by participation in the State of Ohio Step Up To Quality (SUTQ) rating system, which acknowledges child care centers that exceed licensing standards in teacher qualifications and professional development, provide employee pay and benefits that promote staff retention, and support children’s learning with a developmentally appropriate curriculum and age appropriate screenings to identify developmental concerns. All KCHS centers hold star ratings (the rating system expanded in October, 2013 to Five Stars from the original Three Stars); all centers will apply for five star ratings in the next six months:
• Four-Star Ratings: Centerburg Head Start Center, Danville Head Start Center, Fredericktown Head Start and Child Care Center, Northgate Head Start Center, New Hope Early Education Center
• Three-Star Rating : Gambier Child Care Center
As an agency founded by the guiding principles of the Head Start program, KCHS provides comprehensive services beyond traditional classroom learning. We know that a child who is hungry cannot learn; and a child who is in pain due to unaddressed medical or dental ailments cannot focus in school. We know that an assessment of children’s health must consider environmental risk factors such as lead and second-hand smoke exposure. We recognize that timely screening and assessment of children enables early intervention in identifying and providing treatment or therapy for developmental delays or disabilities, and the earlier the intervention, the more likely we are to provide each child with opportunities for school and life-long success. Finally, we recognize and respect parents as the first and most important teachers of their children and engage with each parent and family to support children’s learning and development, and to develop strategies toward self-sufficiency. KCHS currently employs 84 benefitted employees and 14 part-time or substitute employees. In 2013-2014, 26% of Head Start employees are current or former Head Start parents. The Agency collaborates with Kenyon College in service learning programming, the Mount Vernon Nazarene University as a placement site for Social Work degree candidates, and serves as an early education placement location for Central Ohio Technical College, the Knox County Career Center, and North Central State. KCHS collaborates with area schools, colleges, and churches to access volunteers in support of classroom, playground maintenance, and parent activities. Utilizing the Center of Excellence grant, KCHS partners with the Mount Vernon City Schools by providing Head Start teachers to serve as assistants to kindergarten teachers during summer “Kindergarten Camps”. During the 2012-2013 program year, 314 volunteers provided over 1,946 in-kind service hours within KCHS classrooms and in support of KCHS events and activities (in-kind service hours are those that can be counted as federal match, but does not include volunteer services supported by federal dollars). While federal sequestration cuts of 5.27% will be restored in August 2014 current law will reinstate sequestration cuts in FY'2016. Years of stagnant funding and state reductions continue to present budgetary challenges, along with the loss of federal one-time funding opportunities, which historically funded building renovations and repairs, transportation costs for new buses, technology and teacher quality funds for continuing education and salary increases associated with degree and certification completion. Further, the agency has come to rely on the Center of Excellence five year grant, which ends on September 29, 2015. This grant provides over $112,000 in salary support to existing positions and there is no opportunity for renewal. Program challenges include increasingly serious social emotional concerns and mental health disorders in young children, causing disruption in classrooms and compromising classroom well-being. We hypothesize that the increasing concerns are due to children whose lives have been disrupted due to trauma and chaos, particularly for those children who were born in the year of and following the economic collapse. Increasing concerns around substance use and abuse, and related problems such as incarceration of parents and increases in domestic violence and child abuse and neglect, further compromise children's health and development. KCHS is working to identify enhanced supports for children, parents and teachers to address these concerns, and is closely monitoring child outcomes on a quarterly basis in order to assess the impact of classroom behavioral concerns. Within each challenge is an opportunity. As an agency focused on continuous improvement and opportunity, KCHS accessed funding from the UCLA Health Care Institute in 2013 to bring a health and safety training, What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick, to over 112 families in the Fall of 2013. Programs participating in the UCLA Health Care Institute have continued access to the curriculum and discounted training guides, and are provided with additional curricular opportunities, including a new program this Spring, "Neutrogena's Sun Safety" which will provide a one-hour sun safety training to 50 families. KCHS intends to expand health and safety opportunities in the coming year by providing information and events promoting the 5-2-1-0 program, partnering with families to encourage healthy habits including eating five fruits and vegetables each day; limiting recreational screen time to two hours; getting one hour of vigorous physical activity; and zero sugary drinks. KCHS sees an increasing understanding of the impact of adverse childhood experiences to provide a strong argument for increases to early care and education services, improved parenting trainings and supports, and an improved focus on child and family health and mental health services. KCHS sees the need to maintain connections with the highest risk families beyond the Head Start years, in order to mitigate the "fade-out" effect (under which research effects show the improved outcomes of Head Start children fading by grades one to three), and will seek out those opportunities in the coming years. KCHS is exploring opportunities to provide training and consulting services after the Center of Excellence grant in order to produce revenue to offset the loss of grant funding. Additionally, KCHS stands ready to apply for new funding opportunities that arise, including possible expansion of Early Head Start / Child Care partnerships and state-funded preschool. KCHS has been recognized as a leader in Head Start and early care and education in numerous ways. KCHS' participation in the Ohio Step Up to Quality program is renewed annually at each center and informs the community and parents of the commitment to high quality services. In December 2012, KCHS was intensely monitored by a team of six federal reviewers in the triennial Head Start review. KCHS was found to be in compliance with all applicable Head Start standards, and the review report cited multiple areas of strengths exceeding the Head Start standards, including management systems, community partnerships, family services, literacy development through Imagination Library participation, mental health services, and Conscious Parenting. A fully compliant federal review maintains KCHS' designation as a Head Start Center of Excellence, first awarded in 2009. KCHS was recognized by the Knox County Chamber of Commerce in January 2013 with the 2013 Quality of Life Award. In February, 2013, the Agency, with the support of the United Way Health Services Specialist position, was accepted as one of 50 Head Start agencies nationwide to participate in the UCLA Health Care Institute. Acceptance and participation in this training cohort has already opened the door to a "sun safety" curriculum that will be provided this spring. KCHS further continues to provide training regionally and nationally for Head Start programs. In November, 2013, KCHS was selected to provide five training sessions at Head Start Region V Leadership Conference in Chicago. The sessions trained the Head Start community on implementing Conscious Discipline® in preschool and infant/toddler classrooms, in the home based program, and at the organizational leadership level. The Child Mental Health Coordinator was selected to train on “Conscious Discipline® - Making a Difference for Children, Families and Head Start Programs” for the second year in a row at the National Head Start Association Conference in Long Beach, CA in April, 2014. During 2015, KCHS will celebrate 50 years of service in Knox County. Over the next 12 months we will reflect on our history, and develop a new strategic plan to move the program into the next 50 years and look forward to continued opportunities to partner with the United Way and the larger Knox County community.
