For over 30 years, Early Head Start has provided comprehensive services to pregnant women, infants, and toddlers in families to set babies up for lifelong success. It’s been proven to work, especially for the families who need it most.
From health and nutrition to early learning and parent support, EHS gives families the stability and structure they need during the most critical time in a child’s life — the first three years, when the brain is making over a million new connections every second.
Positive impacts for children and families last well beyond enrollment in EHS, with improved long-term outcomes for health, learning and overall well-being.
Decades of research demonstrate that EHS’s long-term benefits are driven by the program’s comprehensive, two-generation, family-centered model, which goes beyond simply enrolling children in slots and works to strengthen child-parent interactions and address the underlying family and caregiving conditions that shape child outcomes over time.
Despite its power and proven success, the program is underfunded and proposed rollbacks to program performance standards would erode the program’s effectiveness.
This isn’t just about policy. It’s about real babies, real families, and the future we’re all building together.
