Fannie Harp-Hanson COM3948

Reflection Paper

The agency I have chosen to work with is the Santa Rosa County District Schools Head Start and Early Head Start Program. This program has classrooms in several elementary schools around Santa Rosa County but the offices are located at T.R. Jackson Pre-K Center in Milton, FL. The Pre-K program at T. R. Jackson includes Head Start, Early Head Start, and ESE. The Early Head Start program serves children age birth to 3.

The Head Start program serves children ages 3 and 4. The ESE (Exceptional Student Education) program serves children ages 3 and 4 with disabilities. If a child is placed in the ESE program they must have either an IEP (Individual Education Plan) or an IFSP (Individual Family Support Plan) on record. The plan for each exceptional student must indicate the strengths and needs of the child; parent's concerns; goals and objectives that will meet these needs and a reporting time line. It will also establish the amount of time and services the child will receive. All programs will work toward meeting the State/Federal Head Start Performance Standards of School Readiness. This program also offers a

Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program serving children age 4. The program has a developmentally appropriate curriculum and is designed and implemented to prepare children to enter Kindergarten. The curriculum encompasses the Florida Sunshine State Standards. The program also provides services in the areas of social and emotional development, mental health, and nutrition. In addition to the many services offered through the Head Start Program, they work closely with many outside agencies to provide services to the children and families in the program. For Example, the Child Find Program provides services to children with disabilities from aged s birth to 2. This helps to cover the gap where the Head Start funding only covers ages 3 & 4. The Pre-K program currently has 280 students enrolled countywide, 40 in Early Head Start and 240 in Head Start.

The mission of the Head Start program is to provide children a nurturing environment in which they can grow. The faculty and staff of the program are also available to provide assistance to families in need. The Head Start/Early Head Start Program utilizes grant dollars to provide meals, dental and many other services to the children at no cost to the family. Because the program is grant funded it relies strongly on

community involvement and support. A large number of children in the Head Start/Early Head Start program children are from low-income families. Enrollment in the Head Start program is based on age, income, and residence. Program eligibility is determined by federal income guidelines, the local program has no control over the guideline amounts.

The Head Start program is comprised of three areas, Program Design & Management (PDM), Family and Community Partnerships (FACP), and Early Childhood Development and Health Services (ECDHS). PDM is responsible for human resources, facilities, management systems, materials and equipment, ERSEA (Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment and Attendance), and fiscal operations for all Head Start Programs in Santa Rosa County. FACP is designed to assist families in improving the quality of their lives by providing opportunities for parents and guardians to be an active part of their childd s education. FACP handles parent involvement, health activities, community involvement, agency collaboration, and transition services just to name a few. ECDHS is responsible for scheduling and completing all hearing and vision screenings, dental trips, and height/weight checks. There is a licensed psychologist located at TR Jackson who is available to help deal with children who may have behavior

problems or other undiagnosed problems. The school also has 2 licensed nurses on campus at all time. The first nurse is stationed in the clinic at all times in case a child is brought in to receive a breathing treatment or some other schedule type of medication. The other nurse is available to go anywhere on campus in case there is any emergency in the cafeteria, on the playgrounds, or in one of the classrooms.

The purpose of the Head Start is to promote school readiness in children by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children. This is accomplished by providing developmentally appropriate instruction and teaching strategies based on the age and individual needs of the student. When I say developmentally appropriate this means that the skills they are teaching the children are the skills determined appropriate for the age of the child by the Florida Sunshine Standards (FSS). To put is simple the FSS are a set of standards that were approved by the State Board of Education in 1996 to provide expectations for student achievement in Florida. Santa Rosa County's Early Head Start/Head Start Program provides children with developmentally appropriate activities that enhance the childd s skills, emotionally, socially, physically, and intellectually. Children develop concepts about themselves, others and the

world around them by observing and interacting with other people and objects. Santa Rosa County Pre-Kindergarten children seek solutions to concrete problems. Daily activities in these areas are planned to provide teacher-directed and child initiated experiences in individual, small, and large group instruction. When a child initially begins the program, the teacher administers the Acuscreen to Head Start children and Ages & Stages to Early Head Start children within the first forty-five days of the child entering school. The Individual Observation Records will be used to report each child's progress. Each child will have an Individual Learning Plan. This will plan will include the following areas: Social/Emotional Development, Language and Literacy, Early Math, Nature and Science, Approaches to Learning, Fine and Gross Motor Skills, Physical Health Development, and Creative Arts (computer, music, dramatic play).

The culture of the organization is a combination of casual and professional. Since the teachers in the classroom are dealing with young children the dress code is casual, but they are not allowed to wear jeans or t-shirts. The office staff is expected to dress more professional since they deal more with the outside community and area businesses. Normally all faculty and staff are allowed to dress casual on Fridays, this

includes jeans and t-shirts. The classrooms and offices are all very well organized. Each age level is located on a separate corridor. Each service area of the program is located in a separate building. This is very helpful and ensures that everyone work together as a team. Staff meetings are held every other Monday after the children have gone home for the day. The meetings are usually no more than an hour long. The program utilizes the interoffice email system efficiently so information can be sent out daily as needed. In order to show the faculty and staff how much they

are appreciated, regular staff functions and other activities are planned. An example of this is that on the last Friday of each month, lunch is catered for the faculty and staff. As a volunteer in this program I have been exposed to many various areas. I have been involved in front offices activities and planning, classroom activities, and other community involvement activities. Volunteers are very important to this program because they are able to fill in where extra funding is not available. For example, many families are in need of clothing but because grant dollars do not provide for that some of the parent volunteers took it upon themselves to do a clothing drive and maintain a clothes closest at the school so that families are able to get clothing they need at no cost. The volunteers are a major asset and without them many of the planned

activities would not be possible. Each year the program sponsors three major activities, Turkey Trot, Field Day, and Childrend s Day at TRJ. Each of these events is for all Pre-K students and their siblings and they are at no cost to the families. These activities are possible because the volunteers prepare stations for the children to do activities and crafts, and they also help with the set-up and break-down of the activities. Overall, I think this is a very necessary program and it is very beneficial to so many families. These families would be in a very different place if it were not for the Head Start/ Early Head Start program. I think that the volunteers in this program are a primary reason the program continues to be such a success. In addition to the volunteers some of the local business who have partnered with the program to provide assistance are the Sunrise Kiwanis, City Of Milton, Gulf Power Company, CiCid s Pizza, Men With Vision, Milton Professional Firefighters, Papa Johns Pizza, an People's Bank.

Learning Objectives/Action Plan

It was very easy for me to complete the goals listed as my learning objectives. My initial learning objectives where to: (1) Develop and maintain community and parent involvement within the program,

(2)Demonstrate effective written communication skills, (3)Facilitate with the recruitment and registration of students, (4)Encourage and support parents in need of additional resources, (5)Learn how to build relationships with businesses in the community. In order to accomplish

each of the objectives I had a very detailed action plan. My action plan included things such as to: participate in the recruitment and registration events at each head start location in Santa Rosa County, plan and execute activities that encourage parent involvement, help with the daily questions and issues as they arise, organize education classes for parents, organize community outreach activities to help build new community relationships and partnerships to benefit the children. The first objective I was able to accomplish was to demonstrate effective

written communication skills. Many of the forms used for the registration process had to be completely rewritten and put into a language that was more specific to the exact expectations of the program. Because the forms had to be very detailed and at the same time understandable to parents of all education levels the revisions were very tedious. In addition to that each set of forms were printed in English and Spanish. With each revision, came more revisions, and when the documents were

finalized they were sent to the print shop.

It took about 2 weeks for all

of the documents to be returned by the print shop. After all documents were received, I had the opportunity to familiarize myself with each form while I assembled 500 registration folders. Since I was a volunteer, and had not completed my training program, I shadowed Tonya Shepherd, the ERSEA specialist, during the revision process. Also, information had to be put out into the community regarding the upcoming registration dates, times, and locations. It was decided that each child would take information home to their parents and many area businesses would provide the information for their customers. Flyers and brochures were

designed, printed, and distributed in the community at the places parents with young children would most likely be present. We took information to several locations including local grocery stores and doctord s offices. The next objective I worked on was to learn how to build relationships with businesses in the community. In order for the recruitment process to be a success we had to distribute information to as many businesses as possible. It is important to know as much information as possible about the program or organization you are representing. Businesses, especially, want to know what they are allowing you to display in advance. When you have to go to these businesses and let them know what you need

them to do, they sometimes want to know what you can do for them. Many times it is as simple as allowing them to come into a school function and present information to the parents. For example, we went to some of the local pediatricians offices and asked them to display information about the upcoming registration and recruitment days. One of the pediatricians agreed but was aware that each year we sponsored a health expo at the school and they requested to have the opportunity to come and speak with the parents about the importance of teaching children good hygiene such as hand washing and also about the importance of receiving their vaccinations. This was beneficial to both parties because they see so many sick children and so who better to speak to the parents than the people who take care of their sick children. It benefited the Head Start program because we do not have the money to pay for people to participate in the health expo. We were able to use the pediatrician as a creditable speaker for the health expo. In addition to working with local businesses, I was given the opportunity to do a presentation at the local meeting of the Santa Rosa County Fellowship of Churches. The fellowship is comprised of about 12 churches so by presenting as this meeting I was able to distribute information to 12 churches regarding registration dates, times, and requirements. Once I had completed all of the necessary

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training I was able to actively participate in the registration and recruitment activities. This including answering questions for parents, taking and processing applications, copying necessary documents, and doing interviews with the parents to make sure the applications were complete. Each day for 2 weeks a team of 5 people, including myself, visited each of the schools that have Head Start classrooms. We visited a total of 5 elementary schools including Berryhill Elementary, East Milton Elementary, West Navarre Intermediate, Central School, and Pea Ridge Elementary. During the recruitment process I learned the importance of knowing exactly what you are talking about and also how to effectively communicate with people on all financial and educational levels. If you are unsure about an answer when someone asks you a question about the program, it makes them unsure about leaving their child in your care. If you are confident and you know your information you not only represent the program well, but you provide a certain level of comfort for the parents who are leaving their most valuable possession in your care. During my duration with the Head Start program we did several community outreach activities. These activities helped me to reach my goal of learning to develop and maintain community and parent involvement. For example, each year Feed The Children brings a tractor trailer full of

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supplies to the school for distribution to local daycares, schools, agencies, and parents. The supplies include backpacks filled with school supplies, diaper bags filled with toiletries such as wipes, powder, shampoo, lotion, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and many other items. In addition to the supplies, Feed The Children also brings enough snack products to provide food bags on the weekends to children whose families need assistance with food. When the Head Start program receives notification of when Feed The Children will arrive, they send information to the newspaper, local churches, child welfare agencies, daycares, etc. to let them know when they can come and get supplies. This is very helpful to many families because they are able to get supplies for their children for free, and if they are on a fixed budget this can make a huge difference. During the 2 days of PR planning we made a point to cover my final objective which was to encourage and support parents with needed resources. I was able to help organize an orientation session for some parents whose children were recently enrolled in the program. This was necessary to let the parents know their responsibilities regarding the program requirements. The parents were also informed about a new activity taking place at T R Jackson called Parent Talk. This is an opportunity for parents who need help or have questions about childhood

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issues such as behavior, developmental delays, and any other area they may have questions. The meetings are conducted by a licensed psychologist and the meetings are free to everyone. We also made contact with the local adult high school to possibly provide some classes on campus to help those parents who need to complete their GED. When I initially wrote my objectives I was hoping to learn the basic functions of the Head Start program. In the end I have learned so much more than I expected. I thought there would be a lot of paperwork and official meetings, but more so there were a lot of question and answer sessions, networking opportunities, community development. I learned that even though the paperwork is important, that is the easy part. The more difficult part is building relationships with parents and guardians so that they will allow you to help them. It is also extremely important to help provide them with the support they need in raising children. I really wish I would have had more time to work with this agency during this semester. I really feel that I could have learned even more. I think there were some things that I could have had more exposure to if I were an employee instead of a volunteer. Because I was a volunteer a lot of the information is confidential and therefore I was not able to have full and complete access.

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Personal Development

When I began this field study I knew that there would be some things that I needed to be trained on. I knew that I was going to be working primarily with the ERSEA department working on recruiting and registration. I quickly realized that the first thing I had to do was be flexible. I had no idea that the training would be so extensive. I received training for every position in the program. I was trained on how to run the front office. I had to learn who worked in which area and what each person was responsible for. This was very helpful because when people call to speak to someone, they may not know the name of who they need to speak with, but they do know what they need to speak with them about. Once you know who does what it is easy to get the person they need on the phone quickly. I received training on what to make copies of for the files and how many copies of each item to make. This was important because many times the children are involved in a custody issues and there are court papers that have to be honored. These papers have to be in the childd s main folder, which is locked in a vault, in the childd s classroom folder for the teacher to have access, and also on file in the front office for the front desk clerk to access if necessary. If

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the right copies are not in the correct places there is potential for major errors to be made. I was trained on how to go into a classroom and talk to the parents regarding their child and also how to go into the classroom and work with the children. The most in depth training I received was for receiving and processing registration applications. This was a very important step because each application had to be filled out correctly and completely or the child would not be put on the placement list. After the applications were turned in the parent or guardian of the child had to be interviewed to make sure there were no discrepancies between the application and the paperwork they provided. Each of the areas I trained in has a very important place in the program. If one area is weak that other areas have to compensate for them and in turn the entire program is weak. I learned quickly that just because you may be assigned to a certain area, you do whatever is necessary.

I had considered going into the education field once I completed my degree requirements. After this experience I am almost certain that this is the path I would like to take. This is something I could do daily and never get bored. Yes, it is very demanding because you have to know at all times what is happening in the program but the end result is well worth

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it. I define service as completing to the best of your ability whatever tasks you are asked to complete. I define community as the people who surround me and have a common set of beliefs, values, or goals. This experience has been so exciting and I am ready to get into this field full time. The chance to be able to help families and give children an opportunity to get ahead is something I am definitely looking forward to.

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