Pocono Mountain School District provides bus service to and from
area day care facilities, which are listed on their Web site (see contacts and
links for website information). A list of state licensed pre-schools
is available from PA Department of Education. Call 1-717-783-6840 to
request the Directory of Licensed Schools.
Head Start is a
federally-funded comprehensive preschool program for children from low-income
families. In Pennsylvania, the program is offered through a network of nearly
800 centers, operated by a variety of local non-profit agencies, including
public school systems. In 2002-2003, 28,662 three- and four-year-old children
participated in Head Start in Pennsylvania. About 2,599 infants and toddlers
were served through the Early Head Start program.
Head Start provides a
high quality, developmentally appropriate education program to children and
their families. In addition, the program ensures that children receive needed
medical services, including age-appropriate screening and immunizations, dental
check-ups and needed dental care, nutrition and social services. A family
service plan is developed each year to help identify goals that will improve the
ability of the family to meet their needs. Often, this involves making
connections to education, training or employment. Home visits are employed to
ensure that Head Start staff is more fully aware of the family needs and
relevant issues. Parent involvement is a key element of Head Start?parents
participate in every aspect of the program, including program governance. More
than 34,000 parents and former parents volunteered time in the program in
2002-2003.
Recent research on the importance of brain development that
occurs in the first three years argues that Head Start or Head Start-like
services could play an important role in helping low-income children to succeed
in later life, and avoid costly, less successful interventions in later life.
The 1994 Amendments to the Head Start Act recognized this need and authorized
establishment of Early Head Start programs to extend the same comprehensive
services to younger children and their families.