The partnership between parents and Head Start staff is fundamental to children’s current and future success and their readiness for school. This relationship ensures success when staff understand the value of information and how to share such information effectively, and when they have the attitudes and skills that support genuine partnerships. This set of documents outlines how information that programs collect about children’s learning and development can be used with families. These documents identify specific strategies that support the development of staff-parent relationships, and provide specific guidance to staff on sharing information with families.

Established in 1965, Head Start promotes school readiness for children in low-income families by offering educational, nutritional, health, social, and other services. Early Head Start (EHS) launched in 1995 and, together with Head Start, has served more than 29 million children, birth to age 5, and pregnant women. In 2011, Head Start was funded to serve nearly one million children and pregnant women in center-based, home-based, and family child care programs in urban, suburban, and rural communities throughout the nation.

The partnership between parents and staff is fundamental to children's current and future success in school readiness and beyond. Discover how programs can share information with families about children's learning and progress toward school readiness outcomes.

Data in Head Start and Early Head Start Data Resources The first table below, “Head Start Resources,” lists the resources —along with their description and source —that are available on the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC) website. The second table, “Other Resources,” lists resources that ca n be found on other websites.