How to Use this Document
It is the hope of the New York State Head Start Collaboration Project that the early childhood community will use the information contained in this document to help improve as well as maintain the quality of their programs.
To make finding and comparing specific standards easy, each of the sets of standards has been divided into 11 topic areas:
- Community Partnerships
- Education and Early Childhood Development Services
- Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment and Attendance
- Facilities and Physical Environment
- Family Partnerships
- Health and Safety
- Mental Health Services
- Nutrition Services
- Program Design and Management
- Services for children with Disabilities
- Transportation
In addition a Staff-to-Child Ratios chart has been developed and is available by clicking on the "Staff/Child Ratios" link to the left. The chart compares staff-to-child ratios and group size limits from several standards.
Many of the topic areas also have subtopics to enable users to find specific information more efficiently. For example, to find Head Start Performance standards related to Staff Training, first select the topic "Program Design and Management" and then select the subtopic "Staff Training." Finally, select set of standards that you are interested in reviewing ("Head Start").
If you are interested in comparing Head Start standards related to staff training to NAEYC accreditation standards choose both standards, and the database will display Head Start and NAEYC accreditation standards related to this subtopic side by side.
In some cases, a particular set of standards may not address a specific topic or subtopic.