Editing Head Start (program) (section)

==History==
[[File:Lady Bird Johnson Visiting a Classroom for Project Head Start 1966.gif|thumbnail|First Lady [[Lady Bird Johnson]] visits a Head Start class in 1966]]

Head Start began as part of President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s [[Great Society]] campaign. Its justification came from the staff of the President's [[Council of Economic Advisers]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Vinovskis |first=Maris A. |year=2005 |title=The Birth of Head Start |url=https://archive.org/details/birthheadstartpr00vino |url-access=limited |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/birthheadstartpr00vino/page/n48 36]–37 |isbn=978-0226856728}}</ref> [[Stan Salett]], civil rights organizer, national education policy adviser, and creator of the [[Upward Bound]] Program, is also credited with initiating the Head Start program.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

Johnson started the [[War on Poverty]] shortly after President Kennedy's assassination. The murder shook the nation, and Johnson attempted to gain public trust by passing legacy legislation during the subsequent months. Johnson received an initial briefing from [[Walter Heller]], who informed Johnson of Kennedy's poverty program. By March 1964, the legislation, now known as the [[Economic Opportunity Act of 1964]], had been prepared for Congress. The legislation included training, educational, and service programs for communities, including the [[Job Corps]].<ref>{{citation| url = http://presidentialrecordings.rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/essays?series=WarOnPoverty| title = Lyndon B. Johnson and the War on Poverty| access-date = April 30, 2013| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150516224047/http://presidentialrecordings.rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/essays?series=WarOnPoverty| archive-date = May 16, 2015| url-status = dead}}</ref>

The [[Office of Economic Opportunity]]'s [[Community Action Program]] launched Project Head Start as an eight-week summer program in 1965. The program was led by Dr. Robert Cooke, a pediatrician at [[Johns Hopkins University]], and [[Edward Zigler|Dr. Edward Zigler]], a professor of psychology and director of the [[Yale Child Study Center]]. They designed a comprehensive child development program intended to help communities meet the needs of disadvantaged preschool children. Rather than proceeding with a smaller pilot program, the decision was made to roll it out on a large scale with the enrollment of 500,000 children in 2,500 communities.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jule Sugarman, Head Start Founder, Dies at 83|url=https://nonprofitquarterly.org/jule-sugarman-head-start-founder-dies-at-83/}}</ref> The following year it was authorized by Congress as a year–round program. In 1968, Head Start began funding a television series that would eventually be called ''[[Sesame Street]]'', operated by the [[Carnegie Corporation]] [[Children's Television Workshop]] (CTW).{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In 1969, Head Start was transferred to the Office of [[Child Development]] in the [[Department of Health, Education, and Welfare]] (later the [[United States Department of Health and Human Services|Department of Health and Human Services]] (DHHS)) by the [[Richard Nixon|Nixon Administration]]. Today the program is in the [[Administration for Children and Families]] (ACF) division of DHHS.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In 1994, the Early Head Start program was established to serve children from birth to age three, in an effort to capitalize on research evidence that showed that the first three years are critical to children's long-term development.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In the early years, some 700,000 children enrolled at a per-capita cost of $2,000 to $3,000 (2011 dollars). Under the full-time program, enrollment dropped to under 400,000 by the early 1970s. Enrollment reached close to 1 million children by 2011. The program has experienced underfunding and under-enrollment in recent years.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-15 |title=Biden-Harris Administration Proposes New Rule to Strengthen the Head Start Workforce, Increase Wages & Support Quality Programming |url=https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/11/15/biden-harris-admin-proposes-new-rule-to-strengthen-the-head-start-workforce-increase-wages-support-quality-programming.html |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=www.hhs.gov}}</ref> In 2023, there were about 820,000 children enrolled in the program.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hollingsworth |first=Heather |date=2023-09-29 |title=Looming shutdown rattles families who rely on Head Start program for disadvantaged children |url=https://apnews.com/article/head-start-preschool-shutdown-budget-congress-199fcb7da90479e3f4dc3b17f6b07c43 |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=AP News}}</ref>