Child care providers who participate in the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Early Head Start/Head Start programs have been working together for many years to meet the needs of children and families. The Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) initiative brings together the best of Early Head Start and child care through layering of funding to provide comprehensive and continuous services to low-income infants, toddlers, and their families. EHS-CCP enhances developmental services and supports for low-income infants and toddlers, and their families, by providing strong relationship-based experiences and preparing them for the transition into Head Start and preschool.
The long-term outcomes of the EHS-CCP program are:
- Sustained, mutually respectful, and collaborative EHS-CCP;
- A more highly educated and fully qualified workforce to provide high-quality infant/toddler care and education;
- Increased community supply of high-quality early learning environments and infant/toddler care and education;
- Well-aligned early childhood policies, regulations, resources, and quality improvement support at national, state, and local levels; and
- Improved family and child well-being and progress toward school readiness.
The EHS-CCP brings together the strengths of child care and Early Head Start programs. Early Head Start provides comprehensive family centered services within high-quality early learning environments that adhere to the research-based Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS). Integrating Early Head Start comprehensive services and resources into the array of traditional child care and family child care settings creates new opportunities to improve outcomes for infants, toddlers, and their families. Child care centers and family child care providers respond to the needs of working families by offering flexible and convenient full-day and full-year services. In addition, child care providers have experience providing care that is strongly grounded in the cultural, linguistic, and social needs of the families and their local communities.
Together, all children in classrooms with EHS-CCP-enrolled children benefit from low teacher-to-child ratios and class sizes, qualified teachers receiving ongoing supervision and coaching to support implementation of curriculum and responsive caregiving, and broad-scale parent engagement activities. And, all infants and toddlers attending an EHS-CCP site benefit from facilities and homes that are licensed and meet safety requirements. EHS-CCP maximizes program resources across Early Head Start and CCDF in order to support effective partnerships that expand high-quality early learning opportunities for working families so that low-income children have the healthy and enriching experiences they need to realize their full potential.
EHS-CC Partnership Resources
- See the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships Brochure (PDF).
- See the State, Territory and District of Columbia Grantee Profiles:
- Alabama (PDF)
- California (PDF)
- Delaware (PDF)
- Georgia (PDF)
- Pennsylvania (PDF)
- District of Columbia (PDF)
- Commonwealth of the National Mariana Islands (PDF)
- Visit the National Center on Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships
- View a PowerPoint overview (PDF) of the EHS-CC Initiative
- View the EHS-CC Partnerships Briefing for Tribal Partners (PPTX)
- Explore additional webinars, tools, and resources related to the EHS-CC Partnerships
- Moving Forward With the Early Head Start — Child Care Partnerships: Highlights, Lessons Learned, and Early Successes webinar, November 12, 2016.
- See the Power Point Moving Forward with the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships (PDF) - November 12, 2016.
Additional Resources
- View the CCDF IMs here
- View the Head Start IMs here
- Read the Tribal Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership Highlight — Partnering in Rural Northern California (DOC)
- Explore resources to develop successful partnerships between Early Head Start grantees and family child care