Family and Child Support Services
Education
In Education Services, our teaching staff partner with families to be intentional teachers with their children. Education staff uses hands-on learning activities to prepare your child for school and to be life-long learners. Using Creative Curriculum, staff creates a balance of child-directed and teacher-directed activities to guide the children through the process of learning new ideas, vocabulary and concepts. Our classroom environments create exploration, creativity and problem solving which develop the whole child. E Center focuses on the following school readiness goals:
- Social & Emotional Development
- Literacy Knowledge & Language Development
- Approaches to Learning, Creative Arts & Expression
- Cognitive Development & General Knowledge
- Physical Development & Health
Health
E Center promotes the collaboration of parents and health care providers to ensure children receive health services which result in children having school readiness success. E Center also partners with parents to support children in receiving health and dental screenings and assessments to promote prevention, early treatment and ensure follow-up is received. Prevention and early intervention leads to better attendance and more opportunity to learn. E Center assists and empowers parents with knowledge, allowing them to become advocates in managing all chronic health problems throughout their child’s current and future school years.
Nutrition
E Center nourishes children with healthy meals, feeding minds and bodies so that children will be ready to learn and have success in school. We work with families to establish the positive nutritional habits and routines learned at school into their daily routines at home in order to prevent and fight conditions such as obesity. Through nutrition activities we are able to introduce science, math, art, language, literacy and dramatic play using different modems than might not otherwise be used in the classroom. Mealtime is used as an opportunity for children to express independence and have positive adult-child interactions. All meals are served family style with the adults role modeling good habits while children are serving themselves and experimenting with a variety of nutritional foods.
Family Services
In Family Services, we work in partnership with parents so that they can become advocates and leaders for their children. We encourage and support Foundations for Family Success, thereby closing the achievement gap, resulting in school readiness and positive child outcomes.
Special Needs
Social-Emotional and Developmental screenings are completed for all children ages 0-5 at the beginning of each program year. Completing these screenings allows for early intervention, which then increases the likelihood of future success as an individual and in school. E Center works closely with the parents of children who are diagnosed with special needs by providing them with the information and support needed to become effective advocates for their children. Furthermore, no less than 10% of enrollment slots are designated for children who have a diagnosed special need. We promote the philosophy of full inclusion, recognizing that all children benefit from a diverse classroom environment.
Mental Health
At Head Start, children learn to get along with one another by making friends, sharing, cooperating and negotiating. We promote skills of problem solving, identifying emotions and developing empathy, which are all skills that will be needed for a successful transition into Kindergarten. Teachers are trained in the Second Step Curriculum and CSEFEL (The Center for Social and Emotional Foundations in Early Learning). When children and/or parents are facing emotional challenges that require special attention, we assist them in finding appropriate resources in the community. In addition, E Center contracts with Child and Family Consultants who observe classrooms and provide feedback to teachers about the classroom environment. Child and Family Consultants are also available to attend parent meetings, observe individual children and meet one-on-one with parents.
