References: 2025 Head Start State Fact Sheets
- Office of Head Start: Head Start Slots, Grant Counts, and Funding by State in Fiscal Year 2024 (Funding tab).
- First Five Years Fund, Mapping Head Start Across States and Districts (Zoom in by State and District, Program Sites Nationwide).
- Office of Head Start, Performance Indicator Report, Program Year 2024 (Downloaded June 25, 2025) (Infants and Toddlers – (EHS all ages) and (MSHS age 0-2); Preschool Children – (HS all ages) and (MSHS age 3-5)).
- Ibid. (C.50).
- Ibid. (C.48).
- Ibid. (C.24, C.25).
- Ibid. (C.37).
- David Deming, “Early Childhood Intervention and Life-Cycle Skill Development: Evidence from Head Start,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (July 2009).
- Alexander Gelber and Adam Isen, “Children’s schooling and parents’ behavior: Evidence from the Head Start Impact Study, Journal of Public Economics, Volume 101,” (May 2013).
- Terri J. Sabol, P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, “The Influence of Low-Income Children’s Participation in Head Start on Their Parents’ Education and Employment,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (September 2014).
- Office of Head Start, Performance Indicator Report, Program Year 2024 (Downloaded June 25, 2025) (A.2-A.5).*
- Ibid. (A.10).*
- Office of Head Start: Head Start Slots, Grant Counts, and Funding by State in Fiscal Year 2024 (Education Staff Counts tab).
- Office of Head Start, Performance Indicator Report, Program Year 2024 (Downloaded June 25, 2025) (D.7.a and D.8.a).
- Ibid. (D.7.b).
- U.S Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 Table B17001, “Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months by Sex by Age”
Note on Methodology: Head Start eligibility is estimated using the best available data. The Census 2023 ACS 5-year estimate is the most recent and accurate population estimate for children under 6 in poverty. Table B17001 disaggregates the data by age 0 to age 5, age 5, and age 6+. FFYF added the number of children in poverty ages 0 through age 5, and then divided by 6, evenly pro-rating this population of children into single-year age categories. Head Start eligibility is calculated as children ages 3 through 5 living in families with incomes below the federal poverty level.
*Percentages may add to more or less than 100% due to the rounding of decimal points.
