Somerset Community Head Start

Somerset Community’s Head Start program’s mission is to improve the lives of low-income families by providing comprehensive child development services that are family focused, including education, health, nutrition, and mental health. Our mission is accomplished by involving parents in the total operation and administration of the program supporting the growth of children, families, and staff through encouragement, nurturing, and community empowerment.

Head Start recognizes the family as a fundamental socialization vehicle for all children. Through parent involvement children are encouraged to developed powerful leadership capabilities that will prove beneficial throughout their lives. The best interest of the child is promoted by Head Start through the High Scope curriculum (www.highscope.org) while incorporating the needs and aspirations of the family and community.

The Head Start program and the Child Development program uses the High Scope Curriculum, which is a research based curriculum that has demonstrated over time its effectiveness in preparing disadvantaged youth for the first grade and on. “HighScope teachers give preschoolers a sense of control over the events of the day by planning a consistent daily routine that enables the children to anticipate what happens next. Central elements of the preschool daily routine include the plan-do-review sequence, small- and large- group times, greeting time, and outside time.”

Child Ages:

3 months - 12 years

Licenses & Accreditations:

New Jersey Department of Children and Families

Special Needs:

Children with Disabilities -
Somerset Community Action Program annually seeks children 3-5 years of age who have been identified as a pre-school child with a disability and have obtained acertified IEP from their local education agency. Our program offers a half-day alternative for students attending services in the public schools. These children are given the advantage of attending half-day at the public schools and half-day at our inclusive program. The program will help arrange transportation for these students.

Our organization aims to educate parents, healthcare providers, early childhood educators, and other professionals to ensure early detection of a disability, so that we have the best developmental outcomes for every child. Children in this age group who exhibit developmental delays in language, cognition, adaptive, motor, social and/or emotional development, may be eligible for services in the public schools as a preschool disabled child and as an agency we will help you through the steps to have your child evaluated. Parents who have concerns regarding their child's development should contact us for further discussion.

Preschool:

Yes

Hours of Operation:

Monday - Friday 7:30am-6:00pm