Preschool partnering with Head Start pros and cons

In August 2025, we partnered with Head Start and Early Head Start. At that time, the school capacity was 65, with about 25 enrolled. We offered ELC and VPK, plus tuition-based options for parents. Head Start had been reaching out via email to explore a partnership.

Apparently, Head Start had lost the R Club partnership and needed new partner schools to fill slots for children. They approached us about partnering, and we ultimately signed a contract with Head Start and Early Head Start. At that time, only two of our four classrooms were open. They aimed to fill all four classrooms and we informed them that staffing for the remaining two classrooms was a challenge. They assured us they would work with us, but they are now insisting that we build out the other two classrooms despite not having the staff to cover them.

It has become clear that the contract with Head Start/Early Head Start includes several provisions we were not informed about upfront. They keep referencing these undisclosed terms in discussions, which has led to ongoing tensions and misunderstandings about expectations and feasibility.

While they characterize themselves as our partners, their conduct in negotiations has been assertive to the point of overbearing, raising concerns about collaborative decision-making. They claim to be our partners, yet their approach comes across as authoritarian and domineering in our interactions.


That’s why I’m creating this blog—to document the pros and cons of signing the contract and partnering with Head Start, so we can clearly track the advantages and drawbacks of our Head Start partnership and contract.
I am intentionally leaving out the school’s name and county to keep the focus on the Head Start partnership and contract rather than identifying a specific location.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Concerns About Class Placement in Head Start 4B

  Head Start has finally given us enough children to open Classroom 4B, which is designed for four-year-olds. However, younger three-year-olds are being placed into the four-year-old classroom, and many parents are unhappy because their children just turned three and are being mixed with older peers. It seems that the program is prioritizing enrollment numbers over the educational and social needs of the children. These three-year-olds deserve to be with peers in appropriate three-year-old classrooms, rather than being placed in the four-year-old room solely to meet Head Start’s enrollment targets.
Read more

Are we providing childcare for illegal aliens

Head Start requires a government-issued ID from parents in order for their children to enroll in the program. Currently, there is no requirement that the ID come from the United States; it can be from any government around the world. We have parents who have submitted passports from countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, and others. This raises a question: if families are living in the United States, why don’t they have a state-issued government ID? When I raised this with Head Start, I was told that it is not their job to determine immigration status, and that it is not my job to question the government-issued ID.
Read more