Head Start Children's Entry into Public School: A Report on the National Head Start/ Public Early Childhood Transition Demonstration Study

Publication Date: November 28, 2000
Current as of:

Introduction

In 1990, the U. S. Congress authorized a major program designed to enhance the early public school transitions of former Head Start children and their families. Former Head Start children, like many other children living in poverty, were at risk for poor school achievement. This new program was launched to test the value of extending comprehensive, Head Start-like supports “upward” through the first four years of elementary school. This project, administered by the Head Start Bureau of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, funded 31 local Transition Demonstration Programs in 30 states and the Navajo Nation from the 1991-92 school year through the 1997-98 school year and involved more than 450 public schools.