Category: Latest Blog

New Head Start Performance Standards and the Importance of Self-Care

Head Start has recently updated its Performance Standards to better support the holistic development of young children and strengthen the workforce delivering these critical services. These updates reflect the evolving needs of children, families, and staff and emphasize the importance of a supportive, inclusive, and well-balanced approach to early childhood education.

Key Update in the New Head Start Performance Standards
The revised Performance Standards include a stronger emphasis staff well-being.

The standards highlight the importance of creating a supportive workplace for Head Start staff, recognizing that educators and caregivers need access to well-being programs to perform at their best.

  • The Role of Self-Care in Head Start Programs
    Self-care for educators and staff is increasingly recognized as an essential component of effective early childhood education. The challenges of working in high-stress environments, particularly in programs like Head Start that serve vulnerable populations, can lead to burnout and reduced effectiveness. To counter this, the new standards emphasize:
  • Wellness Initiatives: Encouraging staff to engage in self-care practices such as mindfulness, physical activity, and stress management to prevent burnout and promote long-term health.
  • Workplace Flexibility: Providing a balance between professional responsibilities and personal needs by implementing flexible schedules, paid leave, and access to counseling services.
  • Supportive Leadership: Ensuring that administrators are trained to recognize the signs of burnout and support their teams through regular check-ins, peer support networks, and ongoing professional development opportunities.

Ultimately, the new Head Start Performance Standards reflect a more holistic, child-centered approach to early education while recognizing the need to nurture the well-being of the adults who are instrumental in children’s learning and development. By prioritizing self-care, Head Start programs can create an environment where both children and staff thrive.

Essential Elements offers trainings in Self-Care and Staff Well-Being. We would love the opportunity to help you support your staff. Please contact Susan at (704)277-7473 (susanwitek@hsessentials.com or Kristine at (704)451-3255 (kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.)

Beyond Training

Head start servicesYou know what our high-quality trainings can do for your program, whether it be for your teaching staff, your family service workers or your Board of Directors and Policy Council.  We can also help you with our other services.  Your time is valuable, let us help you.

We offer the following services:

  • Grant Writing. We write your grant application. First, we collect information about your program. We then write the entirety of your grant application and tailor it to your program. We’ll highlight your strengths and include all the requirements necessary in the instructions.
  • Strategic Planning. Knowing where you are going is key to a program’s success. Our strategic planning services provide an opportunity to come together, as a team, and plan for the future.  We review your program’s mission and vision (or help you create them) as well as your guiding principles.  We work together to analyze your program’s strengths and challenges.  We work with you to create both long-term and short-term goals.
  • Annual Reports. Your Annual Report should capture the activities, experiences and accomplishments of your program. We will work with you to include all information required by the Head Start Performance Standards, as well any additional information which will highlight the successes of your program.  We will highlight your program’s mission, vision and core values.
  • Wage Comparability Studies. Being competitive when it comes to salaries and benefits is important. It ensures that you can hire, and retain, the best employees.  We review your program’s current salary and benefits structure, and then compare it data collected from comparable agencies.  We go beyond collecting the data. We analyze it and explain it using charts, graphs and narratives.  Armed with this information you can ensure that your program remains competitive.
  • Community Assessments. Your Community Assessment should do more for your program than fulfill a requirement; it should be a working document. It should be a resource when writing your Refunding Application, your Recompetition Grant Application, or when applying for other grants.  Our Community Assessments are custom designed to meet the specific needs of your program or agency, while meeting the requirements of the Head Start Performance Standards (and those of your CAP or other program regulations).  We also include information on Covid-19 and it’s impact on your program and the families that you serve.
  • Policy and Procedures Manuals. We can rewrite your Policy & Procedure Manual (PDM, Program Governance & all content areas) and turn it into a user-friendly document.  The Policy & Procedure Manual will be concise, with easy to find specific policies, and procedures and reflective of the Head Start Program Performance Standards.  We recommend that the order of the Policies & Procedures in the manual are reflective of the order of the Head Start Performance Standards.  We further recommend that your procedures are kept broad enough so that your program can accomplish them without having to change the policies. It also protects you so that, during a Review, you are never caught not following your own policies.

For more information on any of these services, or to request a sample, please contact susanwitek@hsessentials.com.

You’ve Reopened – Now What?

head start reopeningMany of our Head Start programs have reopened, with more planning to open soon.  The rules of the game have changed and very few have the playbook.   The concerns in the classroom are real:

  • With no hugs or high fives, and smiles hidden behind masks, how can we provide a learning environment that encourages emotional connections?
  • With all of the restrictions on distance and groupings, how can we remain flexible and student-focused?
  • Routines and transitions take so much more time now, how can we make the most of that time?
  • The tendency to say “no” or “stop” is real. Teachers are feeling that they are consistently redirecting children’s behaviors.  How can we frame this in a positive manner?
  • The staff is stressed; what can we do to support them?

All of Essential Elements’ trainings are now offered virtually. As Head Start professionals welcome children back to classrooms that look far different than anyone could have imagined just a year ago, we would like to help. In addition to the topics on our website, our trainers have been developing content that is relevant to the current issues Head Start professionals are experiencing as they reopen.

Below are our most requested topics from programs searching for ways to support staff as their programs reopen, as well as the issues families face while addressing the very real impact and consequences the pandemic and racial tension brought to our programs across the country.

  • Emotional Support to Foster Exploration and Learning during Covid-19
  • Remaining Student-Focused Despite the Increased Need for Structure
  • The Well-Oiled Machine – Classroom Organization
  • Managing Challenging Behaviors
  • Becoming Trauma Informed and Recognizing Secondary Trauma
  • Helping Children Feel Safe in Today’s Society-COVID 19 and Racism Becoming Trauma Informed – Responsive Caregiving
  • Linking the Classroom to Home
  • How to Have Hard Conversations with Families
  • Reflect, Renew & Reenergize: Why we Work with Head Start Families
  • Self-Care: Taking Care of Yourself in Order to Serve Children and Families

For more information, contact us.

Essential Elements Website Launch – New Look and New Virtual Options for Training

We have a new look and new focus for current times!

During the shutdown, EE has been busy updating our website and creating products that will best fit the needs of our Head Start programs. While our world has collectively shifted and nothing is likely the same for you as you begin to look at re-opening your programs, we are here to support you!

There is not a replacement for the dynamics of in-person training and learning and we recognize that. For our many clients who will not be able to access the live training venue, most of our trainings and trainers are now available virtually. While you are navigating how to re-open and are struggling with individual state and county requirements, we want to make that process a little easier if we can. We are monitoring your state and local regulations so we can support you within guidelines.

As newly granted Covid 19 funds have become available to programs we would like partner with you to meet your professional development needs. As you know, there are some requirements for training and technical assistance topics to be met. We have been working with our clients and training professionals through this process, and want to share a list of our most requested virtual training topics:

  • Self-Care Strategies for Difficult Times: Intentional Interventions for Instructors and Caregivers
  • Becoming Trauma Informed
  • Recognizing Secondary Trauma and Developing Coping Strategies
  • Managing Challenging Behaviors: How to re-integrate children to the classroom
  • The Role of the Home Visitor: adaptations for current times

Please take a look around visit our Services area, as well as our Training opportunities.

Happy Birthday Head Start!

What a great week for Head Start programs across the country! Even though we may not be together in person, we are together in spirit celebrating the history and success that is Head Start. Fifty five years ago, the activities and resources put together by a diverse team of dedicated individuals began to make a difference for children and families in our country. As President Lyndon Johnson stated at that time, “We set out to make certain that poverty’s children would not be forever more poverty’s captives.”

The Head Start program began as six weeks of care and education for young children to level the playing field for first grade entry. Through the determination and hard work of individuals in all parts of our country and a variety of support and talent, it now makes a difference every day for children and families, even in challenging times as we face now. Coincidentally, Early Head Start has its 25th birthday this year.

To all those involved in the work of the now birth to five Head Start program, thank you for your efforts and the energy that you have devoted to this work. For those enrolled, welcome to a program that is designer for your success, your involvement and your partnership of guiding your child and family to a positive and productive educational career. Happy Birthday Head Start!