BRECKINRIDGE COUNTY

HEAD START

Annual Report to the Public

Program Year July 1, 2015-June 30, 2016

Demographics

Breckinridge County is located in a rural setting in central Kentucky. Children are transported by families; however, special transportation is available for children with special needs. The Head Start/Preschool Programs are located at Irvington, Hardinsburg, Custer, and Ben Johnson Elementary Schools. Classrooms provide at least 35 square feet of space per child and are equipped with a large variety of materials arranged to be accessible to the children for selection and return. The children have access to an appropriate outdoor play area, indoor gym, and other various large muscle activities.

The program serves 135 Head Start children as well as a limited number of preschool children.

Statement of Philosophy

The Breckinridge County Head Start/Preschool Program believes in supporting parents/families as lifelong educators of their children. The program recognizes, supports, and engages them in their efforts to prepare their children for school readiness through collaborative efforts of not only the comprehensive services of the program, but also through our many community partnerships and resources.

We believe that young children are capable of making decisions and solving problems while being involved in developmentally appropriate activities that are interesting to them personally. Teachers, parents, program staff, and caregivers must work together and build upon these personal interests, along with knowledge of child development, to construct an appropriate and safe learning environment in the home, school, and community. It is through these coordinated efforts and planning that the program goals, family goals, and goals for the child’s social competence and educational readiness will be best attained.

We believe that the assessment procedure: must document children’s on-going progress, is a resource for long and short-term planning on an individual, classroom, and program level, and that assessment results should be easily understood by all stake holders, including parents.

In Kentucky, School Readiness means that each child enters school ready to engage in and benefit from early learning experiences that best promote the child’s success. Families, early care and education providers, school staff and community partners must work together to provide environments and developmental experiences that promote growth and learning to ensure that all children in Kentucky enter school eager and excited to learn.

Breckinridge County School Readiness Mission Statement

Striving to promote growth for all children with the skills, behaviors, and family support necessary for successful transition to kindergarten and beyond.

The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 had defined school readiness under five categories. The categories are Health and Physical Well-being, Social and Emotional Development, Approaches to Learning, Language, Literacy, and Communication Development, and Cognitive and General Knowledge.

Objectives for individual categories are:

Health and Physical Well-being

  • Children will demonstrate control of large muscles for movement, navigation, and balance.
  • Children will demonstrate control of small muscles for such purposes as using utensils, self-care, building, writing, and exploring.
  • Children and families will practice healthy and safe habits for everyday living.

Social and Emotional Development

  • Children will develop and demonstrate positive interactions and relationships with adults and peers.
  • Children will develop and demonstrate the ability to recognize and regulate emotions, attention, impulses, and behavior that are appropriate for the situation, both at home and in the classroom.
  • Children will become independent with personal needs.
  • Children will develop and display a sense of self and confidence in their own abilities.

Approaches to Learning

  • Creative Arts Expression – Children will demonstrate an interest in and participate in a variety of visual arts, dance, music and dramatic experiences.
  • Approaches to Learning – Children will demonstrate flexibility, inventiveness, curiosity, motivation, persistence and engagement in learning.
  • Children will learn and use words and concepts that parallel the information available in activities and materials.

Language, Literacy, Communication Development

  • Language Development – Children will be able to utilize language to express their wants and needs.
  • Language Development – Children will engage in conversations, follow directions, and comprehend language.
  • Children will increase, use, and comprehend advanced and varied vocabulary.
  • Literacy Knowledge and Skills – Children will be able to demonstrate knowledge of print and develop the awareness that print conveys meaning
  • English Language Development – Children who are dual language learners will demonstrate competency in their home language while acquiring beginning proficiency in English.

Cognition and General Knowledge

  • Logic and reason – Children will find multiple solutions utilizing symbolic representation to questions, tasks, problems and challenges by using reasoning skills.
  • Mathematics knowledge and skills – Children will use math in everyday routines to count, compare, relate, pattern and problem solve.
  • Science knowledge and skills - Children will engage in exploring their environments through observations, manipulation, asking questions, making predictions and development hypotheses.
  • Social Studies knowledge and skills – Children will engage in exploring their family and community, its history and events, and interacting with people and the environment.

School Readiness Committee

The school readiness committee includes head start teaching staff, curriculum specialists and kindergarten teachers from the district, the head start education manager, the head start health manager, family service coordinators, and parents of children enrolled in the program as well as various community partners.

The committee meets 3-4 times per year to determine children’s school readiness needs based upon data collected from Teaching Strategies Gold assessment scores. This data is aggregated and analyzed three times a year: fall, winter, and spring; it will be reviewed to determine areas of support needed to enhance school readiness and what areas are strengths. Data will also guide professional development for the staff. Necessary updates or changes to the School Readiness Plan are made annually.

Curriculum and Ongoing Monitoring

The curriculum used is Creative Curriculum. It is a research-based curriculum that is aligned with the newly revised Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework, the Kentucky Early Childhood Standards, and with our assessment tool Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG). The curriculum provides framework that offers many concrete ideas on how to set up an environment and help children learn. Teachers supplement the curriculum with activities including math, science, social studies, and health. Second Steps program is used for teaching social and emotional skills. Assessment is on-going throughout the year. The TSG assessment tool, the Dial 4, the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework, and the Performance Standards are aligned which allows for more accurate assessments. Teachers plan individually and for groups of children based upon the Dial 4 screening tool, an Early Skills Check List, Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s), Response to Interventions (RTI), and through their daily classroom observations of the children.

PFCE-Parent, Family, and Community Engagement

Parents contribute to planning as a result of home visits, parent/staff conferences, committee meetings, volunteer work in the classroom, and through parent input questionnaires. The questionnaires along with a shared goal setting sheet are used once the child’s baseline is set to engage the parents in working with the teacher to set educational goals for the child. These “shared” goals reinforce the Head Start partnership and aligns with the program-wide Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) focus which is “Parents as Life-Long Educators”.

General Information

  • Each classroom in the program offers planned activities and experiences daily in the form of large and small group as well as individualized instruction to meet the needs of all children covering all five developmental domains. Children engage in both teacher guided and student choice activities that build upon previous knowledge and skill level.
  • The program partners with the Breckinridge County Community Early Childhood Council to promote early literacy and school readiness awareness throughout the community.
  • The program partners with families by offering various parent engagement opportunities throughout the year.

-Parent-Teacher Conferences

-Parent-Committee Meetings

-Parent Training Opportunities

  • The program works with each elementary school to coordinate transition visits/plans for each child entering kindergarten in the fall. Parents are invited and encouraged to be a part of this process.

Data Information

Funding Sources

100% of program funding comes from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Head Start Bureau

Budget

Personnel $649,951

Fringe Benefits$298,746

Travel $750

Equipment$1,200

Supplies$6,236

Contractual $4,250

Training $17,186

Enrollment

135 Children Enrolled

119 Families

Average Monthly Attendance

88.91% of Funded Enrollment of 135

Percentage of Eligible Children Served

100% of the eligible children in our area were served

Monitoring Reviews

During the 2014-15 school year the program had reviews in the areas of fiscal operations, CLASS (teacher, classroom review), and Environmental Health and Safety. All reviews were passed with no areas needed for correction.

Financial Audit

Link to our latest financial audit:

Percentage of enrolled children that received medical and dental exams

100% of enrolled children received dental exams

100% of enrolled children received medical exams

Parent Involvement Activities

100% of our families participated in a goal setting process resulting in a “shared” goal partnership between home and school

100% of our families received at least one service during the report period

116 of our parents volunteered in our program for a total of 3165 hours

Student Performance

According to spring 2015 data, the following percentages represent students that are meeting or exceeding each category:

Category / Meeting or Exceeding
Social-Emotional / 93%
Physical-Gross Motor / 90%
Physical-Fine Motor / 96%
Language / 90%
Cognitive / 92%
Literacy / 92%
Mathematics / 86%

Kindergarten Readiness

53.8% of our Head Start students that entered kindergarten were kindergarten ready. The state average is 50.0%

Management Staff

Jarrod Brockman – Director

Donna White – Education/Disabilities Manager

Tara Greenwell – Health Services Manager

Breckinridge County Head Start

120 Docile Drive

Hardinsburg, KY 40143

Office – (270)756-3144 Fax – (270)756-3037