Armstrong County Community Action Agency Head Start and PreK

To provide income eligible children a high quality preschool experience with a special focus on helping preschoolers develop the early reading and math skills they need to be successful in school. Head Start is one of the few preschool programs in the County to include special needs children.

            The Armstrong County Community Action Agency Head Start program is a federal program that promotes the school readiness for children 3-5 years of age from low-income families by enhancing their cognitive, social, and emotional development.                                                        Head Start families must fall within 100%-130% of the Poverty Guidelines to be eligible

The Head Start program has 11 classrooms throughout Armstrong County with no more than 20 children in each classroom.  The sites are currently located in Apollo, Dayton, Ford City, Freeport, Kittanning, and Rural Valley.  The classes are Tuesday through Friday for four hours a day.  Children receive breakfast and lunch on the days they attend Head Start.

The Pennsylvania PreK Counts program is based on quality components adopted for pre-kindergarten by the State board of education.  The program increases access to quality pre-kindergarten to children and families throughout the commonwealth with a priority in at-risk communities.  Early results from this initiative show that children’s early learning improves when all early learning programs in a community share resources to improve quality and coordinate early learning experiences in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and beyond.