Since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's proposal of the New Deal in the 1930's the United States government has instituted programs to provide relief to low income citizens. Whether it be through an educational program, food stamps, housing projects, or health care aid, the government invests huge amounts of money and resources to helping the poor. In the late 1980's the government focused on tackling unemployment. Every state instituted vocational training schools and job training programs. As the numbers of employed Americans increased, the nation finally began to gain confidence that our problems were being solved. However, as we approach the Twenty-first century, we see that problems of unemployment and poverty still exist, despite years of building up relief programs. The increase in employment gives rise to another problem: the need for child care services. With more working, single parents and dual income families, the children seem to be left behind with no adequate care while their parents work long hours. Children in elementary schools can attend school day care programs which, with federal and state funding are usually free or offered at a low cost. However, parents with pre-school age and younger children have very limited child care resources. Most day care facilities for young children are extremely crowded and the children are not offered quality care because of the high student to teacher ratio and unsatisfactory supplies. Research has shown that these formative years are extremely important in to a child's development and future success. In an effort to address these issues, in 1964 the Federal Government asked a panel of child development experts to devise a program for children of underprivileged families. This panel devised a plan that has been transformed into what is now one of the most highly federally funded and successful childcare programs in the world, called Head Start.

Compensatory education is designed to make-up for deficiencies and disadvantages in an individual's learning experiences. Offering services in areas which the individual may be at a deficit, allows the individual to survive in the educational system. Head Start is a form of compensatory education that was designed to provide an equal playing field for children born into poor circumstances. When the panel of child development experts met in 1964, they established a program for children of underprivileged families that began as an eight-week trial program offered in the summer. This summer program, started in 1965 was extremely successful and demonstrated the need for such a program throughout the year. Out of this summer program grew Head Start, which began as a year round program in 1965. In its first year of operation the Federal Government supplied the program with 96.4 million dollars. In the thirty- four years since its inauguration the program is now annually funded with 3.2 billion dollars and has served 13.1 million children and their families. The services provided by Head Start are complex and varied, but the main goals of the organization are to improve intellectual and academic performance, monitor physical health and provide treatment when necessary, and afford social services that involve parental cooperation.

By studying the East Palo Alto branch of Head Start, I could experience the program first hand, and have an opportunity to speak with the parents and teachers about various aspects of Head Start, including the services that are working well and those that need improvement. The East Alto branch is part of the Santa Clara! San Benito County Head Start Program, which currently has 1,799 federally funded slots. However 2,296 are enrolled between the two counties. Private donors, community health centers, colleges, medical centers, city and county governments, and

churches subsidize the remaining spots that are not federally funded. Head Start is free for all the children who attend, whether their tuition is covered by the federal government or other sources. The majority of the children in the East Palo Alto branch are Latino (57%), followed by Asian (21.7%), then African American (13%) and finally Caucasian (7%). This diversity causes a language barrier problem for many children. All of the teachers at the East Palo Alto branch are bilingual in Spanish and English, with one of the teachers also fluent in Chinese. From interviews with the teachers and parents it became apparent that the language barrier is not a detriment to the children's education, as nearly all of them understand and can communicate in English. Ten percent of the students have disabilities that require special attention, ranging from behavior disorders to physical handicaps. The facilities and curriculum account for these disabilities and the staff are trained in teaching physical or mentally disabled children.

Since Head Start can only provide services to a limited amount of children, there is a selection process to determine suitable children and families for the program. Priority is given to four-year-olds, as the age of the program is three to six years old. Secondly, the family income must be below federal guidelines set according to the number of people in the family. The program reserves ten percent of the total funding for children with disabilities. If this is not all used by disabled students, then the funds may be extended to other children in the program. The East Palo Alto branch also offers full day services as long as the parents or guardians meet one of the three criteria. The parent or parents must be employed full time (32.5 hours per week), attending school full time (12 units), or be enrolled in GAIN or JTPA vocational training programs. If the primary caregiver is severely disabled, such as blindness or a handicap, the child is also eligible for Head Start's full day care.

The first goal of Head Start is to attempt to improve children's intellectual and academic performance. When the program was first established, many criticized it for being unrealistic in its goals. One criticism was that there was no method of testing success of the program, because of the challenge in measuring the academic progress of pre-school children. In response to these ideas, Judy Lessler and Marcus Fox conducted a study in 1973 to test intellectual improvement of Head Start students. By taking twenty qualified but not enrolled children, and twenty Head Start children, they conducted a yearlong study and published the results. Lessler and Fox found that the Head Start children had much more improvement in visual- motor coordination, attention, memory, verbal fluency and vocabulary, and following directions than the control group did. This was an extremely important finding because it increased the federal and community support of the program and gave the organization leaders confidence in the program. The curriculum combines visual and motor skill development, with creative and mathematical activities in order to improve all aspects of the child's growth and intellect.

In addition to fostering an intellectual environment, Head Start also provides medical care for children in the program. The lower income families that send their children to Head Start often are not covered by medical insurance. Usually the children entering the program have not had regular check ups with a physician, so any medical problems often go undiagnosed and may become more severe due to lack of treatment. Before a child attends Head Start they must go through a complete check up by a physician, and any problems they detect are subsequently taken care of. These checkups are completely funded by the Head Start organization. Health care is an extremely important part of the program as a whole. Studies have shown that poor health and vitality causes central nervous system dysfunction, which may contribute to lower performance of disadvantaged children on tests. Often underprivileged children perform poorly because they are

malnourished or sick, and have not received proper care. Therefore, each branch of Head Start employs a nutritionist and a physician. The nutritionist designs daily menus that contain healthy, balanced meals. The nutritionist also provides the families with information pamphlets and lectures on healthy eating. The most common medical problems at the East Palo Alto branch are anemia, infections, dental problems, sight and hearing deficiencies. Often these children do poorly on tests and are thought to be intellectually inferior, when in reality the problem is that they cannot see or hear the materials being tested. After physical examinations demonstrate these deficiencies children are provided with glasses or hearing implants free of charge to the child's family. Head Start medical intervention focuses on prevention and early detection of disease. Since many families do not have medical insurance, the only time they visit a medical facility is when a disease or infection is advanced enough to need emergency care. By routine check ups, problems may be detected early enough that they can be treated before irreversible damage is done.

Each of the children enrolled in the program is given proper immunizations before he or she is allowed to attend school. However, often the children have younger siblings who are not getting the necessary immunizations that children need at a very young age. The Head Start Immunization Project, started in October of 1993, is a branch of the medical care program that was established to provide medical services for the younger siblings of Head Start students. In 1992 the Santa Clara! San Benito County Head Start sector was awarded a grant from the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF). With this grant the Immunization Project was started in an effort to demonstrate effective models for immunizing the younger siblings of its children. (Meyers, 22) The goal of the project was to insure that 90% of the younger siblings of Head Start children had current immunizations. Head Start funded the establishment of immunization clinics in the area for residents of the local neighborhood. Inoculations were free for Head Start students and their families, and were given for a very low price for the rest of the city. According to Gretchen Wehrle, Director of the Immunization Project for Santa Clara County, a new part of this project started a year ago. "We are now entering all of the immunization records for Head Start children and their families into a computer program. This will keep us from losing records and having children be over-immunized." Often since children from poor communities do not visit a doctor regularly, they do not have accurate and complete medical records. This ongoing computer project will ensure better care for these families and guarantee that they have sufficient immunizations.

After monitoring the success of the Immunization Project, Head Start officials decided to implement another program to help families with children younger than three years old. In January of 1998, the Federal Government increased the funding for Head Start by 12%, which was enough money to start the Early Head Start program. By September of 1998, sixty-eight EHS programs were operating in thirty-two states. The other sponsors for this program were state and county governments, churches, and private donations. The EHS programs do not offer as broad services as Head Start, but it does operate for ten months out of the year and provides many families with toddlers to have a safe and enriching environment for their children.

The third segment of the Head Start mission statement is to provide social services that involve parental cooperation. The only way that the effects of Head Start can be maintained and help a child is if their parents become invested in their growth and progress. Parents are encouraged to be active in their child's education by participating in hiring staff for the program and being involved in other decisions of the program. Parents make up most of the volunteer staff as well, which is an essential part of the making the school run smoothly. English, math, and reading courses for parents are given at community colleges and fully funded by Head Start. Transportation is also provided for those parents who do not have their own form of transportation. Part of the Parent Program includes seminars on successful parenting, employment programs, and access to discounted mental, physical, and dental services. All of these provide the parents with a support system and skills to assist them in giving their child adequate attention and support. By involving the parents, the children will have more supportive atmospheres at home and their progress will extend beyond their time at Head Start.

Head Start gives children a chance at success that never would have had the chance otherwise. During an interview with a parent at the school I realized how influential this program is to so many lives. Laura is a single mother who works full time and has twin sons in the East Palo Alto Head Start. When she spoke about her son's development over the past two years, her eyes welled up with tears. "C.J. and Teddy have grown so much here. They are safe and cared for and I feel so comfortable dropping them off in the morning knowing that the people here love them. I don't know where we would be without this program, and I owe so much to the teachers and staff for helping me and my little boys."

From immunization shots to parent classes, Head Start covers all the necessities that these low- income families lack. However, after the children leave the care of the program they are thrown back into an educational system that does not see to individual needs, and the children's progress deteriorates. In order to maintain the successful results of the Head Start program, the public school system needs to make some changes. These include reducing the student to teacher ratio, increasing the use of teacher aides and volunteers, providing personal tutorial assistance, supplying nutritional meals, encouraging the participation of parents, and providing social service to poor families. In order to ease the child's transition into elementary school, Head Start began the Bridge Program in 1994. This program follows up on the children after they leave Head Start. The Bridge Program is mostly run by volunteers that call or visit the home of the family to make sure that their child's adjustment to school is going smoothly.

Head Start lays the foundation for underprivileged children to succeed later in life, for without compensatory education these children may never get a chance to break out of their circumstances and life style. Underprivileged children are born already with two strikes against them, and it takes a program like Head Start to keep them from striking out before they even get a chance to play.

Verbal interview: (Laura Johnson), Head Start mother. May 14, 1999.

Verbal interview: (Gretchen Wherle), Director of Immunization Project. May 6,1999.

Wesley, William. "Where to Go?", Child Development. Printers Inc: New York, 1986.