Recruitment for the Dent County Head Start and Early Head Start programs for children from low-income families is now underway.
The federally-funded programs, based locally at 1405 S. Wines St., are offered free of charge and are administered by the South Central Missouri Community Action Agency.
Head Start is for three- and four-year-olds and is available during the school year. Early Head Start runs year-round and serves children from six weeks to three years old. To schedule an appointment, call 729-3188.
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When they come in to register, parents should bring proof of income for the past 12 months, the child’s birth certificate, current immunization records, social security cards for all household members and a Medicaid or other insurance card. Children must be three or four years old by July 31 to qualify for Head Start.
Head Start is the largest early childhood and family education program in the country, providing comprehensive education, health, nutrition, parent involvement and family support services and has primarily served at risk children and their families since 1965. Early Head Start began in 1994.
The Dent County Head Start center in Salem served 58 children in Head Start last year and about 25 in Early Head Start. Head Start has classes four days a week, seven hours a day. EHS offers its services five days a week, seven hours a day.
Myra Martin, manager of program operations and ERSEA (eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment and attendance), said the program provides high quality child development services with an emphasis on learning.
“It’s a wonderful program,” she said. “Education is important, but we also serve the family as a whole. If the family has a need, for example, let’s say they call us and their electric has been turned off. We refer them to our agency and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program that can help them with that.”
Head Start can also help arrange a visit to a doctor or dentist if a child has health needs. “We follow through with the family and assist them in getting the services and follow-up they need,” Martin said. If a family meets income guidelines for Head Start, they normally qualify for Medicaid to cover the cost of health services.
Head Start is working on a re-opening plan with a tentative return date of July 20, she said. Once open, the center will follow all CDC and state level health department guidelines for dealing with COVID-19.
“We’re writing the plan to fit those guidelines,” Martin said. “Anything we’ve been doing, we’ll be going above and beyond with further steps.”
That will include guidelines on wearing masks above age 2 if the parents choose for their child to do so, cleaning and sanitizing and social distancing.
“We don’t know what that’s going to look like for sure yet because we’re still in the process of writing the plan,” she said. “We hope to have that done within the next week and then start working out all the issues that come up with staff and number of children and how you’re going to social distance in a classroom that’s maybe a smaller size.”
EHS has three classrooms with eight children in each class. Head Start has three classrooms of 17 each.
The South Central Missouri Community Action Agency serves the counties of Butler, Carter, Dent, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon and Wayne.
The SCMCAA also offers weatherization to reduce energy costs for low income families, particularly for the elderly, people with disabilities and families with children.
It also offers job programs, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and SkillUP, a program aimed at providing education and training for long-term employment with good wages for Food Stamp recipients.
The idea of community action came out of the enactment of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. The overall purpose of the statute was to eliminate the causes and results of poverty in the United States.
