By Marco Beltran
The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented many children from experiencing comprehensive Head Start services. Head Start programs have always played an important role in helping to support children, and our children continue to have access to health, behavioral health, and oral care and are up to date on their immunizations and health screenings. Although many of our children have access to needed health services, we know the challenges that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic remain and many have gotten worse. We understand that many of you are concerned that your Head Start-eligible children may not have had continual access to health care and may have missed well-child visits and routine immunizations. As Head Start children return to in-person services, programs can work with their Health Services Advisory Committee and community partners to help address these needs. Children and families need Head Start program’s comprehensive services now more than ever.
In order to return to in-person services safely, Head Start programs should carry out COVID-19 risk reduction strategies that are critical to protect all people. This is especially important for children and staff who are not fully vaccinated and in areas with moderate-to-high community transmission levels. This is our current reality:
- Head Start and Early Head Start children are not yet eligible for vaccination
- Low vaccination uptake in communities where the virus may be circulating more prominently
- Increased community transmission of the delta variant, which spreads more easily among children or results in more severe illness in children with COVID-19
As a Head Start community, our priority is to remain ahead of the virus and to carry out a layered risk reduction strategy that includes these seven strategies:
- Vaccines
- Masking
- Health screenings
- Physical distancing
- Ventilation
- Hand hygiene
- Cleaning
Like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we emphasize a layered approach. Science demonstrates that, when carried out correctly, using these strategies together reduces the likelihood of infection from COVID-19. We continue to encourage programs to make all decisions in collaboration with local health officials. Local health officials can help you assess the level of risk mitigation needed based on current levels of COVID-19 community transmission and the capacity of your local public health and health care systems.
We recognize that many of our programs are in communities and serve families that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Head Start programs are an important part of the infrastructure of their communities and can play a pivotal role in our fight against COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccines have become a critical risk reduction strategy for us. We know vaccination is the safest way to protect individuals and the people they live and work with from getting COVID-19. For that reason, Head Start programs are best equipped to:
- Provide vaccination outreach to staff and families
- Become a vaccination site for staff and families
- Adapt and deliver COVID-19 vaccine messages from the CDC that resonate in your program
Consistently carrying out the seven risk reduction strategies for preventing the transmission of COVID-19 is critical for providing in-person, comprehensive Head Start services and keeping programs open. In doing so, we can turn the tide in the number of children that were unable to have a head start during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marco Beltran has a Doctorate in Public Health and is the Lead for Early Childhood Health Services for the Office of Head Start.