ACYF Administration on Children, Youth and Families	U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families
	1. Log No. ACYF-IM-HS-00-25	2. Issuance Date: 11/27/00
	3. Originating Office: Head Start Bureau
	4. Key Word: Family Literacy

INFORMATION MEMORANDUM [See Attachment at the bottom]

TO: Head Start and Early Head Start Grantees and Delegate Agencies

SUBJECT: Family Literacy Services in Head Start and Early Head Start Programs

SUMMARY:

This memorandum reviews policies on family literacy services in Head Start and provides information about training and technical assistance resources that can assist Head Start and Early Head Start grantees and delegate agencies in improving the quality of family literacy services.

BACKGROUND:

Since its beginning, Head Start's central purpose has been to prepare young children for school with emphases on early literacy, language development, physical development, social, emotional and cognitive development. Towards that end, Head Start grantees have played four basic roles in promoting child and family literacy:

• Providing language-rich and print-rich learning environments and effective teaching and assessment strategies to support children's emergent literacy skills.
• Supporting parents in the role of being their child's first teacher to stimulate and sustain the child's interest and potential for future success in literacy.
• Helping parents address their own literacy needs by providing access to Adult Basic Education, GED, and other literacy and education opportunities.
• Assisting families to access materials and services that are essential to family literacy development.

In support of these efforts, the Head Start Bureau has sponsored a wide range of family literacy initiatives. Please see the attachment for an overview of major initiatives from 1991 to 2000.

Head Start Program Performance Standards and Legislation

The revised Head Start Program Performance Standards (1996) contain requirements related to promoting children's literacy, providing family literacy services, and developing family partnerships, including the following:

"Provide for the development of cognitive skills by encouraging each child to organize his or her experiences, to understand concepts, and to develop age-appropriate literacy, numeracy, reasoning, problem solving and decision-making skills which form the foundation for school readiness and later school success." (45 CFR 1304.21(c)(ii))

"Grantee and delegate agencies must provide, either directly or through referrals to other local agencies, opportunities for children and families to participate in family literacy services by:

(a) Increasing family access to materials, services, and activities essential to family literacy development; and
(b) Assisting parents as adult learners to recognize and address their own literacy goals." (45 CFR 1304.40(e)(4))

"Grantee and delegate agencies must engage in a process of collaborative partnership-building with parents to ... identify goals, strengths, and necessary services and other supports." (45 CFR 1304.40(a)(1))

In the reauthorization of the Head Start Act in 1998, Congress approved amendments designed to improve child and family literacy. The amendments sharpened the definition of family literacy services as, "services that are of sufficient intensity in terms of hours, and of sufficient duration, to make sustainable changes in a family...." The amendments clarified the components of family literacy services, defining them as:

• Interactive literacy activities between parents and their children.
• Training for parents regarding how to be the primary teacher of their children and full partners in the education of their children.
• Parent literacy training that leads to economic self-sufficiency.
• An age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life experiences.

In addition, this legislation also called for new technical assistance and training services to strengthen Head Start family literacy services, outcomes and partnerships.

The Head Start Family Literacy Project

In 1999, the Head Start Bureau awarded a five-year grant for the Head Start Family Literacy Project to the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), located in Louisville, Kentucky. The overall goal of the Family Literacy Project is to improve the quality, intensity and outcomes of the family literacy services provided by Head Start and Early Head Start grantees in order to increase lifelong learning for children and parents and to assist families in achieving economic self-sufficiency.

The National Center for Family Literacy, in partnership with the Head Start Bureau, ACF Regional Offices and the Head Start Quality Improvement Centers, offers a range of services to grantees nationwide including:

• Conducting orientation workshops on how comprehensive family literacy services can enhance the quality and outcomes of Head Start and Early Head Start for young children and their parents.
• Providing training to local management teams in planning integrated, sustained, and comprehensive family literacy services and models in a variety of community settings.
• Providing intensive implementation training on family literacy to teachers, home visitors, and other key front-line staff and community partners.
• Offering individualized local technical assistance to build on core training events and assist in the adaptation and implementation of family literacy strategies in local programs.
• Developing high quality materials and resources, including an information hot-line and internet web-site to support training and implementation efforts by local programs.
• Creating a cadre of Certified Family Literacy Specialists that will support grantees, ACF Regional Offices, Head Start's training and technical assistance network and other key partners in family literacy implementation.
• Creating a nationwide network of innovative model family literacy sites, representative of a variety of forms of Head Start and Early Head Start approaches and strategies.
• Supporting more widespread and effective partnerships between local, state, regional and national leaders, agencies and funding sources across Head Start, Even Start, and other family literacy and early child care programs.

The NCFL Co-Directors are Bonnie Lash Freeman and Sharyl Emberton. They can be reached at (1-502-584-1133) or at http://www.famlit.org. For general information about family literacy, NCFL has a toll-free number, 1-877-326-5481.

Recommended Action Steps for Head Start Grantees and Delegate Agencies

1. You are urged to review your current family literacy strategies, including community partnership agreements, in terms of the elements contained in the Head Start Act. For example:

• Is your program providing all four family literacy elements (interactive activities between parents and children; training for parents as the prime educators of their children; age-appropriate education for children and; literacy training for parents that leads to economic self-sufficiency) and taking advantage of opportunities to connect and integrate these four elements?
• Is discussion of family literacy needs, assets, goals and available resources a regular part of the family partnership agreement process in your agency?
• Is your program making active efforts to support children and families so that they participate in family literacy services with sufficient intensity and duration to make sustainable impacts?
• Does your program assess and keep track of the progress of families and children in terms of increasing confidence and competencies in family literacy and emergent literacy?
• Are there identifiable gaps in family literacy services, missing connections among components, or need to improve the quality of services?

2. Based on this internal review, you are encouraged to explore new opportunities to work with state and local agencies, resources and institutions, including Even Start and other family literacy programs, adult literacy programs, public libraries, museums, and community volunteers to enhance services.

3. You are urged to learn more about the services of the Head Start Family Literacy Project, to participate in workshops and other training and technical assistance options, and to access available materials.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information, please contact your ACF Regional Office.

Douglas Klafehn
Acting Associate Commissioner
Head Start Bureau

Attachment:
Overview of Head Start Literacy Initiatives 1991-2000