11 Jan Department of Health and Human Services Awards $5,263,034 Grant to Kansas City Kansas Public Schools

Kansas City Kansas Public Schools was recently awarded a $5,263,034 grant from Department of Health and Human Services to help provide for child development services of Head Start eligible children and families in Wyandotte County.

Successful Beginnings will continue to provide educational, health, mental health, nutritional and oral health services to 878 children in Wyandotte County in the next year.  Both full-day and part-day services have year round options to meet the needs of working families in the community. Successful Beginnings Wyandotte County Head Start anticipates reassessing these needs on a yearly basis.

Health needs of Wyandotte County residents continue to be of great concern.  According to the 2013 Health Factors section of County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, Wyandotte County was ranked last out of 105 counties. The Health Factors also showed that 24% of Wyandotte County residents did not have health insurance, compared to only 16% in Kansas and 11% nationwide.  The Wyandotte County Food Security Profile shows that over 25% of households are food insecure, meaning families were uncertain of their ability to obtain enough food for everyone in their household.  The high unemployment rate has led to a very low number of families needing full day services.  Successful Beginnings estimates 180 families need full day services and 35 need services full day full year.

Kansas City Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS) provides early childhood services to 1,062 children ages 3-5 through the following programs: Parents as Teachers, Migrant Family Literacy, Early Childhood Special Education, Early Childhood Block Grant, State PreK, and the Kansas Preschool Program. Turner serves 68 State Pre-K children and Piper serves 8 State Pre-K children.  Successful Beginnings currently serves 878 of the 1,018 children, not currently enrolled in other school district early childhood programs in the county.

KCKPS conducts comprehensive enrollment for all early childhood programs.  Family Service Workers work with the family to determine the needs of the child and family and the best option for a high quality program.