Lesson Plans for Early Head Start Children

2020-2021 School Plan

Vision Screening

FocusFirst Vision Screening Permission Form

GLEAMNS Early Head Start History

Early Head Start Menus

The reauthorization of the Head Start Act in 1994 made it possible to establish Early Head Start as a program to serve infants and toddlers under the age of 3, and pregnant women.

 Early Head Start provides early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive child development and family support services to low-income infants and  toddlers and their families, and pregnant women and their families

PowerSchool Registration

Enrollment Instructions

Early Head Start Menus

Early Head Start Locations

Abbeville Early Head Start

Edgefield Early Head Start

Greenwood Early Head Start 

Saluda Early Head Start

The Goals of Early Head Start:

To provide safe and developmentally enriching care giving which promotes the physical, cognitive, social and emotional development of infants and toddlers, and prepares them for future growth and development;

To 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;

To mobilize communities to provide the resources and environment necessary to ensure a comprehensive, integrated array of services and support for families;

To ensure the provision of high quality responsive services to family through the development of trained, and caring staff.

The Principles of Early Head Start

These principles are designed to nurture healthy attachments between parent and child (and child and caregiver), emphasize a strengths-based, relationship-centered approach to services, and encompass the full range of a family's needs from pregnancy through a child's third birthday.

They include:

• An Emphasis on High Quality which recognizes the critical opportunity of EHS programs to positively impact children and families in the early years and beyond.
• Prevention and Promotion Activities that both promote healthy development and recognize and address atypical development at the earliest stage possible.
• Positive Relationships and Continuity which honor the critical importance of early attachments on healthy development in early childhood and beyond. The parents are viewed as a child's first, and most important, relationship.
• Parent Involvement activities that offer parents a meaningful and strategic role in the program's vision, services, and governance.
• Inclusion strategies that respect the unique developmental trajectories of young children in the context of a typical setting, including children with disabilities.
• Cultural competence which acknowledges the profound role that culture plays in early development. Programs also recognize the influence of cultural values and beliefs on both staff and families' approaches to child development. Programs work within the context of home languages for all children and families.
• Comprehensiveness, Flexibility and Responsiveness of services which allow children and families to move across various program options over time, as their life situation demands.
• Transition planning respects families' need for thought and attention paid to movements across program options and into—and out of—Early Head Start programs.
• Collaboration is, simply put, central to an Early Head Start program's ability to meet the comprehensive needs of families. Strong partnerships allow programs to expand their services to families with infants and toddlers beyond the door of the program and into the larger community.

Head Start / Early Head Start Recruitment Flyer