Head Start staff can strengthen their partnerships with families and promote family centered care by incorporating the following principles into practice and policy:

• Recognize that the family is the constant in a child's life, while the program, staff, and services within the delivery system change over time.
  
  
• Actively solicit and respond to the family's preferences, questions, and needs.
  
  
• Exchange complete and unbiased information with families which takes into account their different needs and coping strategies.
  
  
• Honor individual, family, and cultural diversity and strengths.
  
  
• Assure that the program's support systems are flexible, accessible, comprehensive, and responsive to the needs of all children and their families.
  
  
• Facilitate and encourage family-to-family support and networking.
  
  
• Strengthen family partnerships at all levels in the way you:

  care for children with disabilities and their families

  develop, implement, evaluate, and refine programs for children with disabilities

  form and strengthen policies for children with disabilities and their families.

• Appreciate families as families and children as children. Recognize that all families and children possess a wide range of strengths, concerns, emotions, and aspirations beyond their need for specialized health and educational services and support.