Head Start of Northern Fairfield County
--Services
Children living in poverty who participate in high quality early care and education programs during their first five years are more likely to develop the essential skills needed to succeed in school and throughout their life. Working with parents as partners, Head Start of Northern Fairfield County strives to break the cycle of poverty by empowering and educating low-income families and their children, including those with disabilities. Working together, we foster social, emotional, physical and intellectual growth by providing early, continuous, and comprehensive child development and family support services including early childhood education, medical, dental, mental health, nutrition and social services.Head Start of Northern Fairfield County serves more than 300 low-income children age three to age five in seventeen full and part-day classrooms throughout the City of Danbury. Our staff is highly skilled and caring, providing learning environments that are safe, and rich with language, age appropriate curricula, and stimulating materials. Our Family Advocates work with our Head Start families each day to strengthen their role as parents, and to help our parents acquire the necessary education and support services that will enable them to improve their quality of life educationally, economically and societally.
Children With Special Needs
Parent Involvement
Health and Nutrition
Educational Curriculum
Children With Special Needs
Children of all abilities are welcome at Head Start of Northern Fairfield County. Our teacher training and classrooms are designed to assure inclusive educational programming, with individualized activities to meet each child’s unique physical, emotional, and cognitive needs. If a teacher or parent has concerns about a child’s development, we work with the family to further assess the child, and with parental consent, can refer the child to the Danbury Public Schools for further evaluation.
When a child with a disability or special need is enrolled in the program, the education team, including the Disabilities Manager and Family Advocate works with the family, the child and any outside agency that may be involved, to develop an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that is developmentally appropriate.
Parent Involvement
Our Head Start program serves a very vulnerable population. Eighty-five percent of our parents do not have college experience; indeed, only 30% have a high school education. In today’s world, that lack of education limits earning potential, and places employment security in a constant state of jeopardy. Research confirms that family environment and the quality of parenting are major predictors of cognitive and social-emotional development of young children. Our Head Start parents want what is best for their children; however, they do not always have access to the knowledge and resources available to their more advantaged peers. Through Head Start, we are able to promote positive parent-child interactions by working with families to become more knowledgeable and effective in meeting the developmental needs of their children within healthy, safe environments through home visits, participation in the classroom and curriculum planning, teacher modeling, monthly parent meetings, and social/educational activities throughout the year. Woven throughout the program is the message that the care and education of children is a shared responsibility between mothers, fathers and Head Start staff. Our task at Head Start is to provide a level of services to parents that enable them to better understand and support their children’s development and to strengthen their own role as parents over the course of their child’s development into adulthood.
Health and Nutrition
All children enrolled in Head Start of Northern Fairfield County receive health, vision and hearing screenings. Dental screenings are provided by the Danbury Public Schools Community Oral health Initiative. Each child’s health, dental and nutritional records are reviewed to ensure that all health needs are being met. Individual health plans are developed for children with medical conditions or restrictions.
Children receive nutritionally sound meals, (breakfast, lunch and/or snack according to their enrollment schedule). Individual nutrition plans and adapted menus are developed for children who may have food allergies, diet restrictions, or require special utensils.
Educational Curriculum
Teachers in the Head Start of Northern Fairfield County program use The Creative Curriculum to develop their lesson plans. It is a nationally recognized curriculum based on child development research that establishes best practices for early childhood education. The curriculum is consistent with Connecticut’s Preschool Curriculum and Assessment Framework and Head Start Performance Standards, and allows for adaptations and modifications to ensure that all children, regardless of their stage of development or special need, receive a quality early childhood education.
Quality early childhood education focuses on the needs of the individual child, rather than on specific subject matter, steadily adapting to the maturing needs, interests and abilities of each child, and understanding that preschool children are active learners. In our classrooms, children engage in ongoing interactions with people, materials and ideas that promote their cognitive, social/emotional and physical development. Teachers guide learning with rich experiential activities that encourage children to explore, investigate and develop their creative potential.
Our children are surrounded by positive adult-child interactions that build upon children’s strengths. The classrooms are designed to be child friendly, filled with materials that promote learning and provide opportunities for children to make choices and decisions. The space is organized into specific interest areas such as blocks, art, science, dramatic play, math and reading library.
Teachers provide a consistent, daily routine in the classrooms. This enables children to anticipate what will happen next and gives them a sense of control over what they do throughout the day. The daily schedule balances between activities that include the entire group and periods where children can choose from a wide variety of activities. This serves an important benefit in developing children’s independence and responsibility.
The Head Start of Northern Fairfield County offers both part-day and full-day options for families.
Following is a sample of a typical full day in our classrooms. Part day schedules run from 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM or 2:30 PM to 6:00 PM, September to June. Full day options operate year-round.
7:30 am - 9:00 am Arrival/ Meet & Greet Free Play**
Small Group & Individualized Instruction
9:00 am - 9:15 am Clean up & Transition Activity
9:15 am - 9:30 am Morning Meeting (Large Circle)
9:30 am - 10:10 am Breakfast & Transition Activity
10:10 am - 11:10 am Free Play**/ Tooth Brushing
11:10 am - 11:25 am Small Group Activities/ Individualization
11:25 am - 11:55 am Gross Motor Activities (Outdoor Play/ Gym)
11:55 am - 12:15 pm Large Group Activity/ Story Time/ Music
12:10 pm - 12:50 pm Family Style Lunch & Oral Hygiene Rinse
12:50 pm - 1:00 pm Transition Activity (Clean Up & Bathroom)
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Rest Time
2:30 pm - 2:45 pm Transition Activity
2:45 pm - 3:05 pm Large Group Activity - Music/Movement
3:05 pm - 3:30 pm Snack & Oral Hygiene Rinse
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm Free Play**
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm Gross Motor- (Outdoor Play/ Gym)
5:00 pm - 5:40 pm Free Play** & Individualized Instruction
5:40 pm - 5:50 pm Closing Circle
5:50 pm - 6:00 pm Prepare to go Home/ Dismissal & Pick up
Schedule is flexible and responsive to the needs of the children. ** All Interest Areas Open & Available to Children