Community colleges are mission-driven institutions committed to access and community needs. They serve a diverse population: The majority of students are employed, so they have to balance work with school; about one-third are first-generation, so they are navigating an unfamiliar system for the first time in their families; and 15% are single…

While college costs have risen significantly in the past few decades, some of those cost increases can be partially mitigated by financial aid for low-income families. But many low- and moderate-income families vastly overestimate the cost of college, leading them to assume that enrolling their children in college, particularly a four-year school,…

The National American Indian Alaska Native Head Start Collaboration Office (NAIANHSCO), created under Public Law 110-134 ("Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007"), is directed "to facilitate collaboration among Head Start agencies (including Early Head Start agencies) and entities that carry out activities designed…

This toolkit is designed to help interagency state and local/regional career pathway partnerships identify and use federal resources to support career pathways for adults and youth; it will also be a helpful tool for partners to use when doing unified career pathway planning under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Specifically,…

Federal funding for early childhood education and care promotes three overarching policy goals: (1) increasing children's access to services; (2) raising the quality of early childhood programs; and (3) fostering greater coordination among the many providers--public schools, center-based child care, home-based child care, Head Start, and more--of…

While both the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and he U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) base their services and eligibility criteria on the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (hereafter referred to as "The McKinney-Vento Act"), each agency uses a different definition of "homeless" due to differences…

Since 1999, Nebraska's Early Head Start Infant/Toddler Quality Initiative has supported Early Head Start (EHS) and community child care partnerships to improve the quality and professionalism of infant and toddler care. EHS programs apply to receive funding to establish partnerships with center-based or home-based child care.The initiative has…

Maine has two initiatives that build on Early Head Start (EHS). The first initiative, Fund for a Healthy Maine, has since 2001 provided tobacco settlement money to existing Head Start and EHS programs to expand the number of children who receive full-day, full-year services. Local programs have the option of using these funds for EHS, depending on…

This paper highlights several current collaborative activities of the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC). There are many specific examples of TA (Technical Assistance) collaborations that take place on a regular basis; the seven examples presented here were selected to represent different types of collaboration. The…

The concept and implementation of direction services, a one step center offering assistance to parents of handicapped children, are traced. Three basic functions of the federally funded direction service centers are noted: to help locate and provide access to the most appropriate resources for handicapped children and youth; to collect and…

The Child and Family Resource Program (CFRP) of the Office of Child Development (OCD) is described. CFRP is designed to provide family-oriented, comprehensive services to children from the prenatal period through age 8, according to their individual needs. The program description stresses the use of existing community resources in a linked program…

This fact sheet examines the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program established by the U.S. Congress in 1990 to support families by increasing the availability, affordability, and quality of child care. It outlines the program's funding level, eligible grantees of CCDBG funds, regulatory requirements, family eligibility, and…

Years of categorical funding have led to fragmented service delivery systems related to children and families. States have had to devise mechanisms to coordinate the variety of funding streams which finance the array of children's programs. Creation of a single focal point for children's policy at the national level is recommended. Attempts to…

On Head Start's 30th anniversary, highlights its components of parent involvement and family support, commitment to meeting local needs, training and technical assistance support, and collaborative approach. Also discusses the Head Start Reauthorization Act and the special advisory committee's recommendations for the improvement of the Head Start…

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a federally funded preventive health and nutrition program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through state and local agencies and provides services to nutritionally at risk low-income pregnant women, postpartum women, infants, and children up to…