Head Start History: ChildPlus makes former Compliance Reviewer’s heart sing

Did you know that ChildPlus Instructor Heidi Labbe-Emery worked in Head Start for 24 years before making her way to ChildPlus in 2018?  Twenty-four years is a long time for one person to work in the same industry, but that’s because Heidi loved it.

She began working at Head Start after receiving her degree in Social Work in 1991 with a focus on Child Development and Youth Services, but she found her interests shifted from teenagers to early childhood services. Then she applied at Head Start and it changed her life forever.

Heidi worked at two different agencies and worked various positions, including a Home-Based Visitor, Site Supervisor, and Family Service Manager.

Heidi didn’t stop her Head Start work there – she also worked as a compliance reviewer from 2005 to 2016 and a grant reviewer from 2011 to 2018.

“I loved how the information gathered from children and families by Home Visitors, Teachers, and Family Service Workers could be aggregated in order to support intentional decision making at the level of the agency managers,” Heidi said. “Being able to provide feedback on services offered and the families’ responses was foundational in reporting to the governing bodies of the Policy Council and the Board of Directors.”

According to Heidi, the two agencies she worked at did not use ChildPlus at the time, but she’s proud to say they are now a part of the ChildPlus community.

“The decision makers must have ‘seen the light’ after I was employed by them,” Heidi joked.

As someone who has worked in Head Start and now works with ChildPlus, Heidi believes that the software helps agencies in so many ways that it’s hard to describe them all.

“Because my background encompasses direct service, management, and national compliance duties, there is one thing that unites them – the Head Start Performance Standards,” Heidi said.

Heidi said she likes to focus on Performance Standard 1302.101(b)(4), which says “… availability, usability, integrity, and security,” which are used to describe the strategies Head Start and Early Head Start management must make sure are in place.”

“ChildPlus checks off each of these expectations,” Heidi said. “In 2018 when ChildPlus offered ChildPlus Mobile as an additional option for data entry and analysis, it expanded the availability of the software across many different devices. The usability of the software is evident in the windows and fields available to collect data. This was designed with the Head Start direct service and management team staffs in mind.”

“As a Compliance Reviewer, my heart sings at how ChildPlus Software provides support to an individual grantee’s mission and values, and directly relates the services provided to the Head Start Performance Standard expectations,” Heidi said.