Maricopa County Head Start and Early Head Start programs are no cost programs for families with children birth to age five. The Head Start program is federally funded and designed to promote school readiness for children from low-income families, families with children with special needs, homeless families, children in Foster Care, teen parents, and grandparents or kin raising grandchildren or kin. Early Head Start serves pregnant women and families with children under age 3. Head Start programs serve children between 3 and 5 years old.

Maricopa County ensures that all staff engaged in the delivery of services to Head Start and Early Head Start families have sufficient knowledge, training, experience, and competencies to fulfill the roles and responsibilities of their positions to deliver high quality experiences in accordance with the program performance standards. We provide ongoing training and professional development to support staff in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities.

Health and safety are our top priorities for our children, family, and staff. We see to it that each staff member has an initial health examination and a periodic re-examination as recommended by their health care provider in accordance with state, tribal, or local requirements, that include screeners or tests for communicable diseases, as appropriate. This is done to ensure staff do not, because of communicable diseases, pose a significant risk to the health or safety of others in the program that cannot be eliminated or reduced by reasonable accommodation, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Our program also follows strict COVID policies and procedures at all of our locations. Daily cleaning and sanitation take place at all our facilities. Health and safety are our top priorities for our children, family, and staff.

Early Head Start and Head Start are high quality programs that meet strict local and federal regulations and performance standards. 

All of Maricopa County locations follow Office of Head Start Performance Standards, Arizona Child Care Licensing Regulations, Child and Adult Care Food Program requirements, Department of Economic Security Child Care Subsidy Regulations, and local, state, and federal safety regulations. Early Head Start and Head Start implement research-based, age-appropriate curriculum for our children. Early Head Start center-based classrooms implement Creative Curriculum. Early Head Start Homebase implements Partners For A Healthy Baby curriculum. Our Head Start Program implements Creative Curriculum. All education programs utilize Conscious Discipline. For our parent education curriculums, we utilize Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) and Conscious Discipline. We are a trauma-informed focus program.

Maricopa County offers Head Start programs across the region, including Buckeye, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Guadalupe, Mesa, Scottsdale, Surprise, Tempe, and Wittmann. View our locations map for exact details.