Introduction
Head Start is a national program that helps young children from families with low incomes prepare to succeed in school. It does this by working to promote children’s early learning and health and their families’ well-being. Head Start connects families with medical, dental, and mental health services to ensure that children are receiving the services they need to support their development. Head Start also involves parents in their children’s learning and development and helps parents make progress on their own goals, such as housing stability, continuing education, and financial security (Administration for Children and Families 2020). Head Start provides grants to local public and private nonprofit and for-profit agencies. The agencies in turn deliver comprehensive services to children and families with low incomes.
In 2021, the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, contracted with Mathematica to design and conduct the 2021—2022 Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey Programs (the 2021—2022 Study). The 2021—2022 Study builds on the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES). This report includes information on the 2021—2022 Study design and presents key findings from the study’s fall 2021 data collection.
Topics
The study focused on family and staff well-being, including:
Children’s social-emotional and learning skills
Children’s physical health and disability status
Teacher characteristics
Purpose
This report (1) provides information about the 2021—2022 Study, including the background, design, methodology, assessments, and analytic methods; and (2) reports detailed findings on children, families, and teachers from fall 2021. The study focused on family and staff well-being.
Key Findings and Highlights
For children’s characteristics, family background, and home environment (Section A), the tables show:
Demographic characteristics (for example, age, race/ethnicity, sex, language(s) spoken in the home, child’s primary caregiver(s), who lives in the household)
Participation in an Early Head Start program
Parents’ level of completed education and employment status
Changes in parents’ employment status and household income due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Family economic well-being (for example, total household income; household income as a percentage of federal poverty threshold; financial strain; food security; family housing, utility, and medical hardships; and sources of public assistance)
Parents’ mental health (for example, depressive symptoms scores, anxiety symptoms scores, and stress and anxiety level compared to stress and anxiety before March 2020)
Parents’ overall health status
Social and community supports available to and useful for parents
Family housing status, stability, and quality
Parents’ report of relationship with the child
How the child attended school in fall 2021
Strategies parents use to meet child care needs outside of their regular child care arrangements
Household routines (for example, reading to the child and bedtime and family dinner routines)
Children’s access to healthcare providers
Families’ health experiences with COVID-19
Challenges or and coping strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic and events related to racial injustice
For children’s social-emotional and learning skills (Section B), the tables show:
Reliability of and scores for teacher-reported items that measure children’s social skills, problem behaviors, approaches to learning, and literacy skills scores,
Reliability of and scores for parent-reported approaches to learning
Parent report of changes in the child’s behavior since March 2020
Teacher-reported early literacy skills
Teacher-reported math knowledge and skills
For children’s physical health and disability status (Section C), the tables show:
Teacher’s report of child’s disability status and type and Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) status
Parent’s report of child’s health status
For teacher’s characteristics (Section D), the tables show:
Teacher demographic characteristics (for example, sex, age, and race/ethnicity)
Teacher experience, credentials, and education
Teacher’s mental health (for example, depressive symptoms scores; anxiety symptoms scores)
Teacher’s feelings about their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Teacher’s caregiving situations, among teachers who were primary caregivers at home (for example, stress and anxiety level compared to stress and anxiety before March 2020; parenting behaviors and stress; instructional approach offered by their own children’s schools or child care providers; strategies used to meet child care needs outside of regular child care arrangements
Methods
The 2021—2022 Study gathered data from three sources in fall 2021:
- A survey of children’s parents, in which children’s primary caregivers answered questions about their children in Head Start FACES programs and their households.
- A teacher child report (TCR) survey, in which teachers answer questions about the development of specific children in their classrooms.
- A teacher survey, in which teachers answered questions about themselves.
In total, 60 programs and 113 centers participated in the study in fall 2021. Within those programs and centers, we received parental consent for 1,363 children to participate. We received 785 completed parent surveys, 887 completed TCRs, and 191 completed teacher surveys. Of the parents and teachers who completed surveys, most did so in January 2022, during the omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although we selected a nationally representative sample of children and teachers in fall 2021, fewer children and their families participated in the 2021—2022 Study than expected. Therefore, the responding sample may not be representative of all Head Start children and their families. Teachers participated at expected rates and estimates based on their survey data represent teachers in Head Start FACES programs in the 2021-2022 program year.
Because participation and response rates were lower than expected, readers should use caution when interpreting the 2021—2022 Study estimates in this report.
Citation
Doran, Elizabeth, Davis Straske, Natalie Reid, Charlotte Cabili, Tutrang Nguyen, Xinwei Li, Myah Scott, Aden Bhagwat, Will Ratner, Judy Cannon, Jeffrey Harrington, Addison Larson, Ashley Kopack Klein, Katie Gonzalez, Nikki Aikens, and Sara Bernstein (2024). Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start FACES Programs in Fall 2021: The 2021-2022 Study, OPRE Report 2024-037, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.