Today, September 21, 2022, the Office of Head Start announced Caroline County Public Schools as the Head Start preschool grant recipient. Head Start is a national child development program that provides high quality preschool programs to students three and four years of age. Historically, the grant, which has a five year cycle, had been awarded to private entities who ran the Head Start program with multiple in-kind services from CCPS. In past years, CCPS provided classroom and office space and access to multiple services and resources, which were separate from the current CCPS preschool program. As of November 1, 2022, CCPS will be responsible for fiscal, operations, and instructional oversight, ultimately blending our current Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) and Title I programs with Head Start under one Caroline County Preschool Program. Mrs. Andrea Ross, CCPS Director of Federal Programs shared, “We are confident that blending all preschool programs is best for our community and will expand the school division’s capacity to serve our youngest learners with 95 new preschool seats!”
CCPS will work with the current Head Start staff over the next 40 days to plan for a seamless transition. CCPS will work to minimize disruptions for students, families and staff during the transitional period and for the reminder of the 2022-2023 school year.
Ross shared, “CCPS has been awaiting the opportunity to apply for the Head Start grant for years and is so excited to welcome more eligible three and four year old students and families into the CCPS preschool program!” For more information on preschool enrollment, please contact the Office of Federal Programs at 804-633-5088.
