May 18th was filled with celebrations across the country as community leaders joined their local programs to celebrate Head Start's 52nd birthday! More than 1,400 Head Start programs hosted birthday parties and community reading events, using 80,000 new books generously donated by Scholastic.

With only two months left in this year's Dollar per Child campaign (DPC), programs, parents and staff are continuing to step up to support NHSA's advocacy efforts.

NHSA has created easy-to-use information sheets summarizing the important impacts that Head Start has on the children and families we serve. If you're looking for engaging information to share, about the outcomes that Head Start gets, you're in the right place!

During the past two weeks Members of Congress were back home in their Districts and NHSA took this opportunity to encourage programs to invite their Members for a visit. A total of 24 Members of Congress and staffers in 16 states learned how effective Head Start is by hearing from Directors, staff and parents and reading to the children.

This week, NHSA and 63 cosigned national, regional and state Head Start associations rallied together to send a letter to Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Congressman Jim Banks (R-IN) expressing concerns with the bills they introduced, the Head Start Improvement Act of 2017.

What a wonderful weekend of learning and engagement in Chicago at the 44th National Head Start Conference and Expo. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

As we prepare for decisions on Head Start spending, budgets, and other potential policy proposals, NHSA is leading a new coalition among the national early childhood advocacy community to align strategies. Find out why coalitions are so important and how they can help Head Start!

NHSA is excited to announce a new partnership with Scholastic to donate 50 new, age-appropriate books to every Head Start grantee that plans to celebrate Head Start’s 52nd birthday on Thursday, May 18th!

On Thursday, Yasmina Vinci represented Head Start at a House hearing focused on the importance of investing in early childhood.

Since Monday, over a thousand letters have been sent from Head Start directors, staff, and parents to their Members of Congress asking them to sign on to the bi-partisan Jenkins/Clark letter.