Early Head Start (EHS)/Head Start (HS)

Head Start and Early Head Start teachers and specialists have a virtual plan in place to remain connected with you and your children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers, Family Advocates, and Specialists will continue to provide educational resources, interactions, and support daily.

What you need to know about coronavirus, English | Spanish
What to do if you are sick with COVID-19, English | Spanish
Resources related to COVID-19, click here
Share facts about COVID-19, click here
How to prevent respiratory diseases, English | Spanish
Family resources, click here
Harvest Time International, click here

In addition to direct contact through phone, text, and email, we encourage you to LIKE the 4C Florida Head Start Facebook page and follow daily for additional tips and resources. Here is an overview of topics you can look forward to each day.

Mental Health Monday | Theme Tuesday
Wellness Wednesday | Tip Thursday | Food Friday

Educational Resources

Activity calendar, click here
Birth-2 instructional contingency plan, click here
3-5 early childhood instructional continuity plan, click here
COVID book, English | Spanish
Handwashing, click here
PBS KIDS and PBS LearningMedia are offering tools to help support learning at home, including educational videos and games from favorite series, and related skill-building offline activities.
Crayola offers free daily printable activity sheets and videos or easy at-home projects to do with your child. To learn more, click here.
Parents can encourage their children to help in the kitchen in order to cultivate each child’s curiosity and use quality time as an opportunity to teach children about healthy foods. To learn more, click here.
NASA Kids’ Club helps children in pre-K through fourth grade learn the ins and outs of NASA’s missions using hands-on educational games. There’s also a “Now in Space” slideshow that introduces budding astronauts to the crew currently orbiting Earth on the International Space Station, click here.
Thousands of free virtual art lessons available for you and your families to enjoy, click here.
Parents can help their school-age children make their own books using Book Creator’s 90-day free tutorial, which lets kids write and illustrate their own creations, click here.
Cosmic Kids Yoga provides a much-needed activity break — think of it as a replacement for recess, if necessary — with characters, playfulness, music, and, of course, yoga. It’s free on YouTube. Moana, Harry Potter, and Frozen-themed yoga included. To learn more, click here.
The Smithsonian Museum offers virtual tours of their current and permanent exhibits, Take a closer look at some amazing parts of history from your own home, click here.

More Resources

Orange County COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program: Orange County Government has made available this one-time benefit for Orange County residents who qualify. The COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program will provide assistance with one month’s rent, so residents will be able to use their limited funds on other necessities. You MUST call for an appointment in order to bring the necessary documents. Call 407-836-6500 for additional information.
Seminole County Rental Assistance Program: Community Assistance has removed some of the requirements to assist those residents affected by COVID-19. If you are experiencing a financial hardship due to an employer and/or school closures and are seeking rental assistance, submit an application for assistance to www.seminolecountyfl.gov/apply4help. The requirement of on-going management and a two-year waiting period has been waived during this time. For more information, please call 407-665-2300.
Christian Service Center for Central Florida: Offers food, clothing, rental/utilities, and shelter assistance in addition to counseling. For more information on how to access these resources, click here.
Primary Care Access Network: PCAN is a collaboration among Orange County Government, primary health care centers, community agencies, hospitals, and other social services to serve underinsured and uninsured populations. If your insurance has been affected by COVID-19, Covering Central Florida Navigators will explain your options regarding Marketplace, Medicaid, KidCare and COBRA and help you enroll in the option that is best for you and your family. To learn more, click here.
ACCESS Updates: For updates related to ACCESS, child welfare, child care, mental health services, and adult protective services, please visit the DCF COVID-19 update website.
Free Meals: The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services activated its Summer BreakSpot website, where families can find free meals for children under 18 during the current coronavirus school closures. to find meal locations, click here. School districts are also making free meals available to students. For more information, click Orange, Osceola, or Seminole.
Human Crisis Center: Offers a free food pantry every Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Available for specific zip codes in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole County. Call 407-521-7750 to find the nearest location.
UP Orlando: Offers a grocery program available six days a week to qualified families. For more information on qualification guidelines, click here.
Diaper Bank of Central Florida: Aims to ensure every newborn, infant, and toddler in our community is supplied with the most basic need-diapers. For more information, click here.
Free Spectrum Broadband and Wi-Fi: Charter Communications offers free access to Spectrum Broadband and Wi-Fi for 60 days for new Kindergarten-Grade 12 and College Student households. To learn more, click here.
NHSA COVID-19 Policy Resources for Parents and Caregivers: Provides resources to learn how you can help families access federal aid during this challenging time, click here.
Justshelter.org: It offers information on local organizations that can provide advice to renters in distress. To learn more, click here.
Eviction Lab: Princeton University’s Eviction Lab has published a list of local and regional actions to pause evictions of renters. To learn more, click here.
Kinder Konsulting: Practice uses telehealth to continue family support services, click here.

For more resources related to Coronavirus, click here

Head Start and Early Head Start are here to provide continuous support and partner with families as together we build a strong foundation for every child.

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Every child deserves the opportunity to succeed in life. And that learning process starts at an early age. 4C Head Start and Early Head Start programs promote school readiness and child development for eligible low-income families with children from birth to 5 years old. Early Head Start is open to children under 3 years old, while children 3 to 5 years old participate in Head Start. Head Start combines services such as education, early childhood development, health, nutrition, mental health, disability services, family support, and parental involvement with the goal of enhancing the child’s life and building a strong family unit. Through these services, Head Start empowers children with the confidence to excel in school and achieve self-sufficiency as adults.

Head Start is a federally funded program for low-income children and children with disabilities, with an emphasis on cognitive, social, emotional, physical and mental development for the child. Community Coordinated Care for Children, Inc. (4C) is the approved non-federal entity that provides Head Start services for Osceola and Seminole counties, and Early Head Start in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties.

CONTACT US

Orange County
Early Head Start (under 3): 407-532-4295, 407-532-4285
Head Start (ages 3-5): 407-836-6590 (Services through Orange County Gov.)

Osceola County
EHS and HS: 321-219-6201

Seminole County
EHS and HS: 407-332-5090 (Longwood), 407-915-6510 (Sanford)

Program Goals

The overall goal of Head Start is to bring about a greater degree of social competence in children of low-income families. The child’s entire family, as well as the community, is involved to create a quality program and assist the child with school readiness. Here are the four main components:

Head Start

Present a variety of learning experiences to help children grow intellectually, socially, and emotionally.
Provide health services such as immunizations, dental, medical and mental health, as well as nutritional services and early identification of health problems.
Involve parents in the planning and implementation of activities. Parents serve on policy council and committees that make administrative decisions, participate in classes and workshops on child development, and volunteer in the program.
Provide outreach to families to determine what services they need.

Early Head Start

Provide safe and developmentally enriching care which promotes the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development of infants and toddlers, as well as prepares them for growth and development.
Support parents, both mothers, and fathers, in their role as primary caregivers and teachers of their children, and families in meeting personal goals and achieving self-sufficiency across a wide variety of domains.
Mobilize communities to provide the resources and environment necessary to ensure a comprehensive, integrated array of services and support for families.
Ensure the provision of high-quality responsive services to the family through the development of a trained and caring staff.

Policy Council

Policy Council is a parent’s way to get involved in the governance of the 4C Head Start program. Parents/guardians have a voice in major program decisions, including such things as recruitment and selection policies, personnel policies, budgets, and funding proposals. Every classroom elects a parent/guardian as a policy council representative and an alternate substitute representative. Meetings are held the fourth Wednesday of each month at the Orlando 4C office, 3500 W. Colonial Drive, starting at 6 p.m.

CONTACT US

Orange County
Early Head Start (under 3): 407-532-4295, 407-532-4285
Head Start (ages 3-5): 407-836-6590 (Services through Orange County Gov.)

Osceola County
EHS and HS: 321-219-6201

Seminole County
EHS and HS: 407-332-5090 (Longwood), 407-915-6510 (Sanford)

Early Head Start Child Care Partnership

EHS-CCP is a partnership between Early Head Start and the School Readiness financial assistance program to offer high-quality child care with comprehensive services at limited child care sites to eligible parents who are working or attending school. Early Head Start will cover six hours at no cost to the parent, and the other four hours will be covered by School Readiness financial assistance with little cost to the parent. To participate in the program, a parent must be eligible for and be on the wait list for Early Head Start and School Readiness financial assistance. A parent must be working, attending school or a combination of both for at least 20 hours a week. A parent must be a resident of Orange County or Seminole County. Children must be between the ages of 6 weeks and 3 years old.