Head Start Health Services Competencies
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.
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.
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.
The Head Start Health Services Competencies are a set of 68 competencies. Each describes an attitude, knowledge, or skill important for effective health services.
Read this companion document to the Tool to Support Health Managers and Staff. Program directors, health managers, and health staff can use it to promote successful job performance and support career development.
Watch this short video for tips on how to get started with the VEEC tool.
Watch this short webinar to learn about why the VEEC is important, who contributed to it, and to get a quick overview.
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.
Programs that serve young children are required to ensure that policies and procedures are in place to protect children and keep them healthy and safe. This screener will help to identify where programs need to make changes and build capacity to meet children's needs. It also contains best practices and requirements found in the Head Start Program Performance Standards.
This section is designed for child care providers and health consultants. These resources can be used to help ensure safe, healthy, and high-quality settings for all children.
Learn about the medical home and why it's important to connect families so their child can receive continuous, accessible medical care.
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.
HeadStart.gov
official website of the Administration for Children and Families