Benefits of Head Start

Long term studies comparing Head Start students to disadvantaged, non- Head Start students show that Head Start Students:

• Are less apt to be held back in school
• Are less likely to be placed in Special Education Classes
• Are more likely to graduate from High School
• Have less criminal activity
• Earn a Higher Salary

Cognitive Benefits:

• Results from a randomly selected longitudinal study of more than 600 Head Start graduates, shows that the final grades of Head Start graduates in kindergarten, compared to their non-Head Start peers, were higher in numeracy, language, literacy, social conduct, and physical development.
• Head Start children in the Family and Child Experiences Survey demonstrated a greater increase than the typical child in vocabulary and early writing.
• A Higher proportion of Head Start parents read to their children more frequently than those parents of children who were not enrolled in Head Start.

Economic Benefits:

• Society receives nearly $9 in benefits for every $1 invested in Head Start children.
• Those benefits are increased earnings, employment, family stability, decreased welfare dependency, crime costs, grade repetition, and special education.
• As adults, those who attended a quality early childhood program are about three times as likely to be homeowners by age 27 compared to those who did not benefit from the program.

Health Benefits:

•  Children in Head Start receive significantly more health care screenings than their non-Head Start peers.
• Head Start children are at least 8 percentage points more likely to have had their immunizations than those children who did not attend pre-school.
• Research suggests that Head Start reduces childhood obesity.
• The mortality rates for 5-9 year old children who had attended Head Start are 33 to 50 percent lower than the rates for comparable children.

Social Benefits:

• Head Start children are significantly less likely to have been charged with a crime than their siblings who did not participate in Head Start.
• Young women who have experienced a quality early childhood program are 1/3 less likely to have out- of- wedlock births.
• At-risk children not afforded the opportunity to participate in a quality early childhood program are five times more likely to be arrested repeatedly.

Socio-emotional Benefits:

• Head Start children showed gains in:
• Cooperative classroom behavior
• Reductions in hyperactive behavior
• Improvement in other problem behavior
• Self esteem
• Achievement motivation
• Social behavior