School Readiness
Research shows that what happens during the first five years of life is critical to healthy child development. Head Start's comprehensive focus on the five central domains of birth to 5 development is essential to children getting ready for school.
Head Start programs offer services that support families and strengthen communities so that children are healthy, safe, and ready to learn. They focus on early identification, treatment, and health promotion. Staff use these health strategies to make sure children engage in learning. They are critical parts of Head Start's school readiness activities.
The tools and resources in this section may help program managers and staff plan and implement health services that help children get ready for school.
Assessing Child Health Status
Children's health guides program managers and staff as they develop and implement plans for the program and each individual child served. Developmental, sensory, and behavioral screening offers a data snapshot of children that helps staff identify and address concerns quickly. When necessary, staff refer children for appropriate follow-up and treatment. Children are more likely to stay healthy when they have an ongoing, continuous source of care.
- Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive
- Daily Morning Health Check
- Screening in Head Start
- What is Screening? Early Head Start Tip Sheet No. 6 (Revised)
- When Health Affects Assessment
- Why, What, and How of Screenings and Exams? [A Learning Activity]
Program managers, staff, and families work together to celebrate children's milestones. They also conduct developmental screening to identify possible delays early and enhance developmental supports. Find resources to help programs develop and implement these processes using research-based developmental screening tools.
Head Start and Early Head Start staff conduct health checks every day, collecting observations of children's appearance and behavior. Learn what to look for and how to use this information. Staff can record their observations using the Enrollment/Attendance/Symptom Record [PDF, 245KB].
View the PDF: Daily Morning Health Check [PDF, 109KB]
This issue of the Health Services Newsletter focuses on the enrollment visit as an opportunity to gather health information. Engaging families early and often helps staff plan effective health services for children.
View the PDF: Screening in Head Start » [PDF, 918KB]
Young children grow in predictable ways. Explore definitions, requirements, and recommendations for screening children in Early Head Start programs.
Read the full article: What is Screening? Early Head Start Tip Sheet No. 6 (Revised) »
Thinking about child health when planning assessments and evaluating results offers staff a more accurate understanding of each child's skills and abilities. This fact sheet uses questions to describe how child health may impact assessment. It also includes a list of tools that programs can use to improve child assessment strategies.
Many program staff are responsible for explaining screening and examination procedures to families to help them advocate for their child's health. This activity offers strategies to have these conversations in culturally appropriate and sensitive ways.
Read the full article: Why, What, and How of Screenings and Exams? [A Learning Activity] »
Growth and Development
Managers and staff use child assessment to learn about child progress. At the program level, managers use ongoing child assessment data to plan health services for all children. It also helps staff identify specific health or developmental needs that may impact learning. Using assessment data, staff are able to individualize and nurture each child's growth.
- Healthy Children Are Ready to Learn
- News You Can Use: Foundations of School Readiness
- Physically Healthy and Ready to Learn
Head Start programs help families access ongoing, continuous health care for their child and promote healthy, safe behaviors in centers and at home. Find out how Head Start's management systems support comprehensive health services that benefit children's school readiness.
The first years of a child's life set the stage for a child's cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development. These resources describe the importance of school readiness for infants and toddlers and offer strategies to their healthy development:
Programs develop health plans that include early identification, health promotion, and other strategies. Read about the required health services necessary to keep children healthy and safe.
Open the PDF file: Physically Healthy and Ready to Learn [PDF, 597KB]
Goals
School readiness goals describe what children will be able to achieve in order to be ready for kindergarten. Program managers and staff offer high-quality health services that help children meet those goals and get ready for school.
- Compliance with Care: A Crosswalk Between the Head Start Program Performance Standards and Caring for Our Children, 3rd Edition
- Embracing Our Future
- Health Manager's Orientation Guide
- Making the Link Between Health and School Readiness
- State Early Learning Guidelines & Standards Regarding Health
- Weaving Connections: Training Kit and Video
Health managers develop health plans to meet the Head Start regulations and implement evidence-based recommendations. Explore this crosswalk to see how the Head Start Program Performance Standards and Caring for Our Children connect to help programs develop goals and plan strategies to achieve them.
When managers and staff know the potential of their program, they set goals to meet children's needs. Watch and see how four children benefit from Head Start health services to get ready for school. Designed as a training tool, the video highlights the range of health services offered by Head Start.
Effective health managers know their responsibilities and ways to meet them. This guide offers information and tools to help plan, implement, and evaluate the health services they deliver.
Each child enters a program with different health needs. Program managers and staff identify concerns early to promote healthy development. They also guide families through screening, referral, examination, and treatment. Use this tool to identify strategies to support program school readiness goals through health service plans.
Read the full article: Making the Link Between Health and School Readiness »
Each state has developed early learning guidelines or standards that recognize the importance of safe and healthy environments. This resource offers health and education managers a sense of where health fits in each state's expectations for early childhood programs. Use this tool to identify your state’s Early Learning Guidelines and align your program’s school readiness goals with state standards.
Read the full article: State Early Learning Guidelines & Standards Regarding Health »
Head Start programs, families, and community organizations work together to support the health and safety of young children. Likewise, Health Services Advisory Committees (HSACs) help programs make decisions about health services for children and families. Use Weaving Connections to help plan, recruit, engage, and evaluate the work of the HSAC.
Read the full article: Weaving Connections: Training Kit and Video »
Strategies
Program leaders plan health services that help children meet school readiness goals. They use many different strategies to identify health concerns, offer timely treatment, and promote children's health. Including these strategies in school readiness planning ensures children are healthy, safe, and ready to learn.
- Health Services to Promote Attendance
- Making the Link Between Health and School Readiness
- News You Can Use: Foundations of School
Children who regularly attend their Head Start program are more likely to be ready for kindergarten. Health policies and procedures can improve child attendance through short-term exclusion and illness prevention. Discover ways that health services support attendance and find strategies to reduce absenteeism.
Read the full article: Health Services to Promote Attendance »
Each child enters a program with different health needs. Program managers and staff identify concerns early to promote healthy development. They also guide families through screening, referral, examination, and treatment. Use this tool to identify strategies to support program school readiness goals through health service plans.
Read the full article: Making the Link Between Health and School Readiness »
The first years of a child’s life set the stage for a child’s cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development. These resources describe the importance of school readiness for infants and toddlers and offer strategies to their healthy development:
School Readiness
Last Reviewed: December 2016
Last Updated: December 13, 2016