The National American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Collaboration Office (NAIANHSCO) was created under Public Law 110‐134, "Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007.” Similar to the Head Start State Collaboration Offices, NAIANHSCO works to identify potential partners for collaboration and communicates the needs of Head Start children and families. In a group effort, they form alliances to provide appropriate support to Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

Unlike the State Collaboration Offices, NAIANHSCO strives to perform these tasks across multiple states. Due to the unique relationship that sovereign American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) entities hold with the federal government, this includes developing relationships with offices and organizations that are national in scope. These partners may include the Indian Health Service, National Congress of American Indians, National Indian Education Association, Office of Child Care, and others.

NAIANHSCO serves 150 AIAN Head Start and 58 AIAN Early Head Start programs in 26 different states across the country.

Mission Statement

NAIANHSCO is committed to assisting Head Start grantees in developing collaborative partnerships that will help improve the quality of life for AIAN children and families.

Goals

Goals are identified using strategic plans derived from the expressed needs of AIAN Head Start grantees and supported by recommendations from the AIAN Head Start National Collaboration Advisory Council. NAIANHSCO supports Head Start programs to create and develop partnerships in the following areas:

• Child care
• Community services
• Education
• Head Start transition and alignment with grades K-12
• Head Start and pre-K partnership development
• Family and child assistance
• Family literacy services
• Health services
• Professional development
• Services for children experiencing homelessness
• Services for children with disabilities
• Language and cultural preservation

Partnerships

• American Indian Language Policy Research and Teacher Training Center
• Bureau of Indian Education
• Indian Health Service
• National Congress of American Indians
• National Head Start Association
• National Indian Head Start Directors Association
• National PTA
• National Science Foundation
• Office of Child Care
• Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
• Tribal Child Care Capacity Building Center
• U.S. Department of Education
  • Office of Indian Education
  • Office of English Language Acquisition

Resources

• Strategic Plan 2015-2020
• 2018 Needs Assessment Report: Four-Year Overview
• 2019 Needs Assessment Update
• Language Immersion
  • AIAN Language and Culture Community On MyPeers.org
  • Immersion Classroom Planning Template
• Health Services
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Visit State-level Profiles and Information to access databases that can be filtered by state.

« Go to Head Start State Collaboration Office Locations

Last Updated: May 24, 2022