Educational Services
Our Head Start (HS) and Early Head Start (EHS) staff have a natural love for children that shows each day through their acceptance, understanding, and nurturing. We truly believe that our parents are the first and most influential teachers of their children, and we partner with parents to help children in their developmental progression by providing a multitude of opportunities to learn and grow. Children in our program spend time in inviting settings where they have the opportunity to develop positive habits, enjoy playing with learning materials, and work on tasks with friends. We witness firsthand when these children leave
Head Start how prepared they are for kindergarten, excited about learning, and ready to succeed!
Head Start how prepared they are for kindergarten, excited about learning, and ready to succeed!Our mission is to help children develop social competence and become enthusiastic learners who are eager to explore and be confident in their growing skills. This means encouraging children to be active and creative explorers who are not afraid to try out their ideas and express their own thoughts and individuality. Our programs teach children how to work together and how to learn skills that will benefit them throughout their lives.
The YCOE Early Childhood Education programs are based on CDE Foundation, Head Start Frameworks, Developmentally Appropriate Practices, and Creative Curriculum Models. To achieve these goals, preschool programs address goals in the four areas of development:
- Social: supporting children to feel comfortable in school, trust their new environment, make friends, and feel they are a part of the group.
- Emotional: guiding children to experience feelings of self-confidence, develop independence and self-control, and support the development of self-esteem.
- Cognitive: Assisting children to become confident learners by encouraging them to try out their own ideas and experience success; and to help children acquire learning skills such as problem-solving, asking questions, and using words to describe their ideas, observations, and feelings.
- Physical: help children increase their large and small muscle skills and feel confident about what their bodies can do.
Equal Access
YCOE Early Childhood Education program does not discriminate on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender, ethnic group identification, race, ancestry, national origin, religion, color; or mental or physical disability in determining the eligibility of children. The curriculum refrains from Religious Instruction.
School Readiness
YCOE HS / EHS School Readiness goals have been updated to support the current needs of the children. To best support the children in our program we promote a strong connection between home and school. Our extended year classrooms, seven total, continued to serve children until June 30th. This extension helped to shorten the gap in learning opportunities for children transitioning to Kindergarten.
Mentor Coaching
Currently, mentor coaches work across Yolo County with our Infant, Toddler, and Preschool classrooms to build classroom quality and teacher support. Additionally, thirty-one early childhood classrooms have been positively supported by the Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) initiative derived from the California Department of Education to improve and build classroom quality. Teachers have gained new knowledge about teacher-child interactions, environmental setup, teaching best practices, and professional development.
