Health Services Advisory Committee
Health Services Advisory Committees (HSACs) help programs to make decisions about health services. Learn how to plan, execute, and evaluate your HSAC.
As part of Head Start’s comprehensive services, every Head Start program provides services to promote health, behavioral health, and safety for children and families. New and experienced health services staff can use these resources to learn more about health services and the role of health services staff. This topic area also includes professional development resources for health services staff, child care health consultants, and others who support health services across all early care and education settings.
Health Services Advisory Committees (HSACs) help programs to make decisions about health services. Learn how to plan, execute, and evaluate your HSAC.
These tools, for new and experienced staff, address science-informed practices for early childhood health staff. Each is indicative of an attitude, knowledge, or skill. Use this for professional development.
Use these videos to acknowledge the hard work of Head Start program staff, and to help families learn more about the comprehensive Head Start health and early learning services.
Learn more about the national standards and the subset of standards called CFOC Basics, which represent the minimum health and safety standards required in Head Start programs.
Use these tools to develop and strengthen the attitudes, knowledge, and skills health services staff need to effectively support the health, safety, and wellness of young children and their families.
These interactive learning activities will help child care health consultants learn to effectively share their expertise with programs. Explore six realistic scenarios to build and enhance consultation skills.
Child care health consultants support the health, safety, and wellness of children, families, and staff in early care and education settings. These resources help CCHCs plan, implement, improve, and evaluate health and safety practices.
Explore Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) health care programs with the HRSA Data Warehouse. Use maps to select and plot health centers, grants, and other agencies' data as separate data layers.
The Virtual Early Education Center (VEEC) is an online tool for early care and education (ECE) programs, including Head Start programs, and child care. It is designed to have the look and feel of an actual ECE center. Visitors can move from room to room within the VEEC to find information on health and safety practices and useful resources. Use it to explore resources and information regarding Head Start Program Performance Standards and Caring for Our Children (CFOC). Learn more about health-focused ECE and best practices.
Good attendance leads to lifelong learning and positive habits necessary for school and work. When young children are chronically absent from Head Start, Early Head Start, or child care, often they are likely to continue to be chronically absent in elementary school.