Changes in Head Start Will Better Prepare Latino Children to Succeed in School

A new analysis by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—finds that provisions in the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 could significantly enhance the school readiness of Latino children, who, research shows, enter school less prepared than their White peers. A Renewed Head Start: New Opportunities for Latino Children highlights the potential of this new law and makes recommendations for its effective implementation.

“As the Latino population grows, it becomes more important than ever that programs such as Head Start take Latinos’ needs into account,” said Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “Given that Latinos constitute a significant portion of the young child population in the U.S., it is appropriate that this new law recognizes that the success of Head Start depends upon how well it serves Latino families.”

NCLR’s analysis reveals that the new law can improve the access to and quality of Head Start programs for Latino preschoolers, infants, and toddlers—who represent about one-third of children currently enrolled in Head Start—by:

* Increasing funding and mandating a comprehensive needs analysis for the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs that serve the children and families of farm workers
* Expanding services to Latino infants and toddlers by creating a new funding structure that grows Early Head Start
* Measuring children’s gains in literacy and pre-mathematics skills in their home languages in addition to their progress in learning English
* Collecting data to make sure that Head Start services and teachers reflect the diversity of Head Start students

NCLR’s report cautions that the way these provisions are implemented by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be critical to whether they result in improved educational outcomes for Latino and limited-English-proficient children. Thus, the report contains recommendations such as expanding the program to serve a greater number of infants and toddlers, as well as more children of migrant and seasonal workers.

“We are counting on the Department of Health and Human Services to stay true to the intentions of the Head Start Reauthorization Act. If this new law is implemented well, Head Start will do an even better job of putting Latino students on a strong academic path,” said Murguía.

For a copy of A Renewed Head Start: New Opportunities for Latino Children, please visit www.nclr.org/headstartwhitepaper or contact Erika Beltran at ebeltran@nclr.org or (202) 785-1670.”

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