Early Childhood

Head Start Announces Nearly $600 Million in Funding Opportunities

By Christina A. Samuels — September 29, 2014 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Early-childhood providers in more than 100 communities have an opportunity to apply for Head Start or Early Head Start funds, the Office of Head Start recently announced.

Many of the grant opportunities encourage potential grantees to offer a “birth-to-5" model, which allows mingling of Early Head Start and Head Start funds. Early Head Start covers pregnant women and children though age 2, while Head Start is intended for children ages 3 to 5. Some of these grants are also in communities where Head Start providers were asked to recompete for continued federal funding. Not all of the providers were successful at the end of that process, prompting the department to open the region up to new community groups that might be interested in offering child-care services to children from low-income families.

The Office of Head Start, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is particularly interested in this birth-to-5 program. Acting Head Start Director Ann Linehan spoke about the model in an interview with Education Week in August.

The communities that are open for new providers can be found at this listing of funding opportunities. (You can sort the list by posting date, so that the newest grants are at the top of the list instead of the bottom.)

The newest grants were posted Sept. 23-25, and the application deadline is Nov. 24.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Early Years blog.