Explore the role that Positive Goal-Oriented Relationships play in effective parent, family,
and community engagement. This guide offers definitions, tools, and reflective practice
and supervision strategies to help program staff develop positive, ongoing, and goaloriented relationships.

This resource is intended for the entire Head Start and Early Head Start community and
professionals in the early childhood field. Individuals, groups of staff, and supervisors
can use this tool as part of training and reflective practice and supervision. This guide
is aligned with the Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE)
Framework.

The Head Start Forward campaign supports grantees in reaching more children and families and moving toward fully in-person comprehensive services, as local health conditions allow. Listen to the fourth webinar in the series for guidance around important health and safety considerations, including recommended risk reduction strategies, updates on toothbrushing, family style meals, masks, and screening, introduction of a new Head Start Forward: COVID-19 Health and Safety Operational Checklist, and more! Keep the conversation going on social media using #HeadStartForward.

Disclaimer: In light of the Omicron variant, the Vaccine and Mask Requirements to Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19 in Head Start Programs Interim Final Rule with Comment Period, and the new Head Start Enrollment Forward series, OHS cautions that while majority of the information included in this video remains factual, some pieces may no longer be accurate or up-to-date. For the most up to date guidance, please consult OHS COVID-19 Updates.

This suite describes how education staff can implement a responsive curriculum. It also highlights the importance of understanding children's development and learning. Explore the ways a curriculum guides the learning environment, learning experiences, and adult-child interactions. Consider ways to use a curriculum's guidance to support children's development and learning and promote positive child outcomes.

Early Head Start’s publication, Observation: The Heart of Individualizing Care provides information on what observation is, goals of observation, using observation, setting up systems to support observation, reflecting on observation, responding based on observation. Although it is targeted toward use with infants and toddlers, it provides information that can be reused, revised, and remixed to address observation more broadly as it is in the public domain.

In 1991, the Head Start Bureau published the Multicultural Principles for Head Start Programs information memorandum and resource handbook (hereafter referred to as the Multicultural Principles) following two years of work by the Head Start Multicultural Task Force. Its purpose was to “stand as a challenge” to programs to “focus efforts on individualizing services so that every child and family feels respected and valued and is able to grow in accepting and appreciating difference” (Administration for Children, Youth, and Families 1991, 3). The memorandum presented this challenge to programs:

Effective Head Start programming requires understanding, respect, and responsiveness to the cultures of all people, but particularly to those of enrolled children and families. (Administration for Children, Youth, and Families 1991, 5)

This statement implies that Head Start programs are effective when their systems and services reflect well­developed understandings of the cultures of enrolled families. Furthermore, individual staff members must be able to demonstrate their respect for, and respond to, all of the different cultures within their service area. The Multicultural Principles also recognized that program staff and administrators are rooted in their own cultures. Culture is, therefore, a fundamental feature of Head Start program systems and services.

During the first five years, children constantly acquire new skills and knowledge. Caregivers who know what children can do and how they can get hurt can protect them from injury.1

All children develop differently. Staff individualize their approach because "children have different rates of development as well as individual interests, temperaments, languages, cultural backgrounds and learning styles." Ongoing child assessment helps staff determine each child’s developmental level.

This tool provides safety tips for early childhood staff working with young children in classroom environments. Each section includes a description of development and safety tips organized by daily routines. Some tips apply to all children. Others address the developmental needs of children in a specific age group. If children in your classroom fit more than one developmental level, review the safety tips for each.

Safe and supportive environments are critical to shaping children's overall development, including nutrition habits. Children living in unsafe or unstable environments that don't support healthy eating, physical activity, or adequate sleep may experience poorer health outcomes, affecting their ability to be ready for school. Learn about the environmental factors that impact children's health. Find out how programs can tailor health services to help children build better nutrition habits and experience improved health.

Note: The survey and certificate mentioned were only available to participants of the live webinar.