The ‘Phenomenal’ Effect of Head Start/EHS Programs

After working in Head Start for 20 years, Julie Tiller has seen hundreds of children come through her agency and transition into kindergarten. The children’s pre-K education helps prepare their “school readiness” by getting them comfortable in a classroom setting. “As we transition the children to kindergarten, teachers are always happy when they get a Head Start child,” Tiller said. “Because they know that they are ready [for kindergarten].”

Tiller is a Family and Community Partnerships Manager at the Sequatchie Valley Head Start (SVHS) in Jasper, Tennessee. As a Head Start manager, she has “multiple jobs, which is normal.” Her responsibilities have also increased because SVHS recently implemented an Early Head Start program.

They introduced this early education program to be “more of a support service” for parents who are “surviving day-to-day.” According to Tiller, families at SVHS are struggling with a range of issues, such as addiction, rehab and homelessness, but Early Head Start provides a safe haven for families. “With education, the earlier you can get it, the more phenomenal,” Tiller said.

Although Head Start improves the lives of both children and parents, the program’s standards has “high expectations” for parents. The Office of Head Start implements a “Family Engagement” process, which involves a lot of collaboration between early childhood professionals, families, and children.

The Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) states, “Family engagement focuses on culturally and linguistically responsive relationship-building with key family members in a child’s life… It requires making a commitment to creating and sustaining an ongoing partnership that supports family well-being.”

Such a commitment can possibly pose a stressful environment for parents. “They’re surviving,” Tiller says. “A real Head Start family is not like a middle-class family. These are low-income families that are struggling. They have multiple jobs and are trying to live every day.”

Even with the pressure of performance standards, there’s no doubt SVHS’ Head Start program improves the lives of their families, especially because they recently received a grant. This grant allowed an influx of new staff members, and an overall expansion of the program. Although Tiller is excited for the new Early Head Start Program, it “has been challenging” for the agency to evolve with the expansion.

As a ChildPlus user since 1996, SVHS utilizes our software in order to keep up with their evolving program. Tiller says they frequently use ChildPlus’ module designer to create customized reports, which helps them “monitor things with the child and the staff.” Through the module designer, they customized a “staffing form.” She says, “We use [the staffing form] when managers go out to our centers and talk to the teachers about if everything’s being done for the child. We kind of market off of ChildPlus — every child’s got that staffing form, and we make sure that’s done for every child. So, we kinda customize that for our own monitoring purposes.”

As a Family and Community Partnerships Manager, Tiller constantly uses the Family Services module in ChildPlus in order to keep her agency organized. Her “favorite” feature in Family Services is the Events tab, which helps agencies track all of the children’s Family Services data, including home visits, family goals, chronic health issues, and much more.

“The tracking part [of the Family Services module] is also my favorite part. I run reports out of there, look at goal setting and just see what’s going on with each family service worker to see how exactly they’re doing things.”

Tiller says, “ChildPlus has come a long way the 20 years I’ve been here, and I just keep learning new things.”

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