Find a Head Start Location Near You

To enroll a child, find your desired Head Start location below, and contact them directly.

Give Your Child The Head Start Advantage

Give your child the Head Start advantage by enrolling them in one of Idaho’s FREE Head Start or Early Head Start child development programs. Head Start provides high quality early childhood services that will help you and your children thrive. Your child is taught by professionals and you have time for work, school, self-care or other responsibilities.

Head Start and Early Head Start serve expectant parents and families with children ages birth to five years. You’ll find our welcoming and inclusive programs in 146 Idaho communities, including on reservations of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Nez Perce Tribe, and Shoshone Bannock Tribes. Children of Idaho’s migrant and seasonal workers attend programs designed to meet their families’ schedules.

Your child’s early years are very important, and you want to give them the best. Head Start partners with you to ensure development of your child’s language, literacy, social, emotional, and physical skills. We serve breakfast, lunch, and healthy snacks. Head Start also provides medical, dental, hearing, vision, and behavioral screening so your child is ready to learn.

Children thrive when their parents thrive. Your Head Start Family Advocate will help you get assistance for diapers, food, clothes, and other immediate needs and help you meet your housing, health, education, employment, and parenting goals

Head Start serves families dealing with difficult circumstances.

Expectant parents and children from birth to age five who are from families with incomes below the poverty guidelines are eligible for Head Start and Early Head Start services. In addition, your family is eligible if your child is:

• Eligible for or receiving the following public assistance:

  • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

  • Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

  • Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR)

• Experiencing homelessness (see the definition https://nche.ed.gov/mckinney-vento-definition)

• In foster care

• Disabled or has a serious health/mental health condition

Please contact your local Head Start program to learn more about eligibility.

Get Started

The next step is to get in touch with your local Head Start or Early Head Start program. There are programs throughout Idaho. Enter your zip-code below to find the program nearest you. Fill out the short form and you’ll be contacted within a few days. Congratulations! You’re doing the right thing for your child and family.

Success starts at Idaho Head Start

Learn more about Head Start and Early Head Start

Find A Program Near You

Head Start and Early Head Start Outcomes and Impacts

Children in Head Start and Early Head Start receive innumerable benefits. These
advantages appear immediately and last a lifetime.

Education is the movement from darkness to light.

– Allan Bloom