Idaho State Journal
By Bill Foxcroft and Evelyn Johnson
Amber was living in a garage in Fruitland, Idaho with her two young children. Because of her unstable living situation, she was at risk of having her children put in foster care.
Amber was fortunate to connect with her local Head Start program. She enrolled and quickly got help finding proper housing. Through Head Start, she received critical counseling services, her children began to receive Supplemental Security Income payments to meet basic needs and Amber was able to provide a more stable living environment. She and her children are no longer at risk of being separated.
Many Idaho parents with infants and young children face similar challenges which, if not addressed early, put them at risk of family separation. Infants and young children separated from their parents and put in foster care can suffer learning, health and behavioral setbacks that last a lifetime. Amber’s story is one of thousands across Idaho where Head Start has empowered families. In Amber’s case, it helped her keep her family together
Head Start is the nation’s high-quality leader in early childhood education. Head Start gives every child, regardless of circumstances at birth, the ability to reach their full potential. Head Start is also a whole family program, helping families build strength, confidence and skills to move from dependency to self-sufficiency. Through home visiting, family goal setting, mental health assistance, parenting classes and much more, Head Start keeps families together and helps children and families be successful in school and life.
Locally, the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 Head Start serves approximately 200 families with children age 3 to 5 each year at centers in Pocatello and Chubbuck. The Bear River Head Start has centers in Preston, Malad, Soda Springs and Paris and serves families who are expecting and who have children age 5 and younger. There are Head Start centers in Blackfoot, Fort Hall, Aberdeen and more than 125 other communities across Idaho. 5,057 children and their families were served by Idaho Head Start programs in 2018.
Amber’s Head Start experience keeping her family together is supported by recent research. A 2017 study by Sacha Klein at Michigan State University found that participating in Head Start may help prevent young children from being placed in foster care.
Klein found that kids up to age 5 in Head Start were 93 percent less likely to end up in foster care than kids in the child welfare system who had no type of early care and education. She also examined multiple forms of early care and education and found that Head Start was the only one to guard against foster care placement.
Klein concludes that Head Start may protect against foster care because of its focus on the entire family. Services include supporting parental goals such as housing stability, continued education and financial security. She suggests policymakers should consider making all children in the child welfare system, including those living at home, automatically eligible for Head Start. That could help prevent more kids from ending up in foster care.
These findings add to what we already know about Head Start’s return on investment. Children who attend Head Start have better language, cognitive and pre-literacy skills reducing the need for schools to provide remediation and special education. Head Start alumni are more likely to graduate from high school, attend college and on average have higher earnings. Head Start’s emphasis on healthy eating, active lifestyles and appropriate medical and dental care reduces community health care costs. Head Start is a win for the child, the family and the community.
Throughout Idaho, there are long waiting lists to enroll in Head Start. About 20,000 eligible Idaho children and their families are left behind due to a lack of funding. Federal funds don’t go far enough, but Idaho can fill this need.
As Idaho develops strategies to address family separation, poverty, opioid misuse, and child well-being, let’s make sure our state legislators remember the proven track record of Idaho’s Head Start programs. Let’s make sure they remember all the families, like Amber’s, who, through Head Start, have turned their lives around, kept their families intact and met their full potential.
Bill Foxcroft is the executive director of the Idaho Head Start Association. Evelyn Johnson, EdD is the chief executive officer of the Lee Pesky Learning Center and an associate professor at Boise State University.