Our federal elected officials are working on the budget right now, and there is a real concern that they will not maintain the current levels for Head Start and Early Head Start. Due to the economic recovery package last yaer, Washington programs were able to serve more than 200 additional children in Head Start, and more than 800 new children and pregnant women in Early Head Start. These are great gains, but we have many more children who need help - well over 3500 children in Washington are on the waiting list for these pre-school services, and even after the increases last year we're still serving less than 10% of the eligible children in Early Head Start.
And now these gains are at risk, as Congress works to find funding for many competing programs. If Congress does not provide Head Start/EHS with an increase of $989 million this year more than 1000 low income children in WA and 64,000 kids nation wide will lose high quality early learning services.
Want to help? Contact Congress now at (202) 224-3121, or click here and scroll down to find direct numbers and websites for all our Washington State Senators and Representatives.