Davids Announces $4.1 Million to Support Early Childhood Head Start in the Kansas Third

Today, Representative Sharice Davids announced the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) awarded a total of $4,113,744 to two Head Start programs in Kansas' Third District. These Head Start programs work daily to emphasize children's cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. Children that participate in Head Start programs receive benefits that appear immediately and last a lifetime.

HHS Head Start Grant Recipients include:

• Kansas City Kansas Public School's (KCKPS) Successful Beginnings Head Start: $2,447,671
• The Family Conservancy (TFC) Head Start: $1,666,073

Davids reading to Head Start students at KU Medical Center's Project Eagle

"It's a proven fact - children in Head Start programs are healthier, have better social skills, and are more likely to graduate high school and achieve further education," said Davids. "These two programs provide life-saving, family-centered services in our community that promote child development, enable parents to provide financially, and deliver significant returns on investment to our society long-term. I am grateful we have such strong early education programs in our community and will continue to support them."

"We are grateful for the invaluable benefits that will come from this grant which will provide our children access to early education services," said Dr. Anna Stubblefield, KCKPS Superintendent. "Regardless of a family's socio-economic status, every child deserves the right to a quality education, and our school district is thankful for this financial support for our Head Start program."

"The first five years of a child's life represent a critical and unrivaled period of growth and development," said Paula Neth, The Family ConservancyPresident and CEO. "During this time, they develop cognitive, physical and social-emotional skills that form the foundation for future learning. With this funding, we can continue our work to ensure those foundations are strong and stable for hundreds of Wyandotte County children."

In order to curb child poverty and support early childhood development, Davids also voted for the American Rescue Plan which expanded and improved the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to deliver a new tax cut to middle- and working-class families with children. Not only does the CTC directly benefit 77% of the children in the Third District, research finds that increasing family incomes has concrete positive outcomes for children, including higher test scores, higher graduation rates, improved health outcomes, lower rates of incarceration and higher future earnings. Last year, Davids announced a Head Start grant of over $3 million to the University of Kansas' Project Eagle.

Background:

KCKPS's Successful Beginnings Head Start serves 529 children - 499 with USD 500 and 30 with Bonner Springs – through both part-day and full-day programming. Children, whose eligibility is determined by family income level, are served either breakfast, snack, or lunch through the federally funded program. Two parent-teacher conferences and two home visits are conducted for each child and bussing is provided by USD 500 for those in need of transportation. There is a licensed teacher and a teacher associate in each classroom, some of which are collaborative classrooms where an Early Childhood Special Education teacher is available.

TFC's Head Start services are administered through a community partnership model that reaches far beyond the children and families enrolled in Head Start. At most TFC child care partner sites, only a fraction of the children in each classroom are enrolled in Head Start, but all children at the sites benefit from the improved environment and teaching practices that result from the investment. This grant represents a continuation of a grant awarded in 2019, which expanded on TFC's existing Early Head Start - Child Care Partnerships and enabled children to remain enrolled in Head Start through age 5.

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted the education, health, and nutrition of all young children, but at a disproportionate rate for students of color. The Children's Mercy Hospital's 2016 Community Needs Assessment estimates that 36.7% of children in Wyandotte County live in poverty and nearly half of experience one or more adverse childhood experiences. These risk factors, coupled with persistent challenges and barriers to adequate and quality services and interventions, can lead to lower levels of school readiness, poor health outcomes, lower levels of parental engagement, and dismal long-term outcomes.

Federal funding for these grants was authorized under Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations, which Davids voted for in December 2020.