§ 1304.2-2 - Education services plan content: Operations.

(a) The education services component of the performance standards plan shall provide strategies for achieving the education objectives. In so doing it shall provide for program activities that include an organized series of experiences designed to meet the individual differences and needs of participating children, the special needs of handicapped children, the needs of specific educational priorities of the local population and the community. Program activities must be carried out in a manner to avoid sex role stereotyping. In addition, the plan shall provide methods for assisting parents in understanding and using alternative ways to foster learning and development of their children.

(b) The education services component of the plan shall provide for:

(1) A supportive social and emotional climate which:

(i) Enhances children's understanding of themselves as individuals, and in relation to others, by providing for individual, small group, and large group, activities;

(ii) Gives children many opportunities for success through program activities;

(iii) Provides an environment of acceptance which helps each child build ethnic pride, a positive self-concept, enhance his individual strengths, and develop facility in social relationships.

(2) Development of intellectual skills by:

(i) Encouraging children to solve problems, initiate activities, explore, experiment, question, and gain mastery through learning by doing;

(ii) Promoting language understanding and use in an atmosphere that encourages easy communication among children and between children and adults;

(iii) Working toward recognition of the symbols for letters and numbers according to the individual developmental level of the children;

(iv) Encouraging children to organize their experiences and understand concepts; and

(v) Providing a balanced program of staff directed and child initiated activities.

(3) Promotion of physical growth by:

(i) Providing adequate indoor and outdoor space, materials, equipment, and time for children to use large and small muscles to increase their physical skills; and

(ii) Providing appropriate guidance while children are using equipment and materials in order to promote children's physical growth.

(c) The education services component of the plan shall provide for a program which is individualized to meet the special needs of children from various populations by:

(1) Having a curriculum which is relevant and reflective of the needs of the population served (bilingual/bicultural, multi-cultural, rural, urban, reservation, migrant, etc.);

(2) Having staff and program resources reflective of the racial and ethnic population of the children in the program.

(i) Including persons who speak the primary language of the children and are knowledgeable about their heritage; and, at a minimum, when a majority of the children speak a language other than English, at least one teacher or aide interacting regularly with the children must speak their language; and,

(ii) Where only a few children or a single child speak a language different from the rest, one adult in the center should be available to communicate in the native language;

(3) Including parents in curriculum development and having them serve as resource persons (e.g., for bilingual-bicultural activities).

(d) The education services component of the plan shall provide procedures for on-going observation, recording and evaluation of each child's growth and development for the purpose of planning activities to suit individual needs. It shall provide, also, for integrating the educational aspects of other Head Start components into the daily education services program.

(e) The plan shall provide methods for enhancing the knowledge and understanding of both staff and parents of the educational and developmental needs and activities of children in the program. These shall include:

(1) Parent participation in planning the education program, and in center, classroom and home program activities;

(2) Parent training in activities that can be used in the home to reinforce the learning and development of their children in the center;

(3) Parent training in the observation of growth and development of their children in the home environment and identification of and handling special developmental needs;

(4) Participation in staff and staff-parent conferences and the making of periodic home visits (no less than two) by members of the education staff;

(5) Staff and parent training, under a program jointly developed with all components of the Head Start program, in child development and behavioral developmental problems of preschool children; and

(6) Staff training in identification of and handling children with special needs and working with the parents of such children, and in coordinating relevant referral resources.