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March 2003Vol. 4, No. 2Early Head Start Grants Announced

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson announced in January the distribution of $72 million in grants to administer the Early Head Start Program. The funds, awarded to 160 local agencies, will be used to increase Early Head Start enrollment by approximately 7,000 infants and toddlers, bringing total enrollment to 62,400.

The Early Head Start program, established in 1995, provides comprehensive child development and family support services to low-income pregnant women and families with children under 3 years old. An evaluation of the program, released in June 2002, found parents in Early Head Start showed more positive parenting behavior, reported less physical punishment of their children, and did more to help their children learn at home.

The executive summary of the evaluation can be found on the HHS website at www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/reports/impacts_exesum/impacts_exesum_title.html.

The list of grants is available on the HHS website at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20030109.html.

More information about Early Head Start can be found at the Head Start Information and Publication Center, on the Web at www.headstartinfo.org.

Related Items

Read more about the impact of preschool programs in "Study Shows Preschool Can Help Prevent Child Abuse" in this issue of Children's Bureau Express.

Read about preliminary results of the Early Head Start evaluation in "Early Head Start Children and Parents Thriving" in the May/June 2001 issue of Children's Bureau Express.