Ellettsville resident Weiwei Zhao’s daughter may not see her Head Start home visitor again after April 26.
The South Central Community Action Program provides Head Start services in Monroe County. The organization’s board of directors and Head Start Parent Council voted to eliminate the home-based program, which serves parents of children up to three years old, after receiving word that the Head Start funding was cut by 5.1% due to federal sequestration.
Zhao said taking the home visitor away was like taking away Santa Claus, because her daughter got the same sparkle in her eyes for both.
“The home visitor is more than just a visitor,” she said. “She’s a part of her life already.”
“One little guy that I’m working with right now has a language delay, so we are working on increasing his vocabulary,” said Julia Pickett, a home visitor for Head Start.
Part of her job is to work with parents to determine what areas they need to focus on developmentally for their children and what activities they can do to help.
“We’re really a parenting education program. Kids are wonderful. They are our focus,” Pickett said. “But, as a home-visiting program, we are there to support the parent so that they can develop parenting skills for the rest of the 15 years the child’s in their home.”
She explained that parents often had concerns about “transitional issues,” such as potty training, food and sleep. She helped them decide how to approach those things.
Zhao and her daughter were part of the program for two and a half years.
Home visitors spend 90 minutes of one-on-one time with their charges every week. They prepare observational reports for the parent and the organization.
Zhao’s home visitor put together more than 100 reports.
“This program builds a stronger relationship between the school and the parent,” Zhao said. “Sometimes I watch the home visitor and I learn tricks, how to play in a more quality style. When I have questions, someone’s always there.”
All 25 home-based slots will be eliminated April 26. But that is not the only area in which Ellettsville Head Start, and Ellettsville residents, will feel the impact of budget cuts.
The Early Head Start coordinator position will be eliminated.
For the first time, the Early Head Start site will close for two weeks in July. And summer Head Start will be cut from six classes to two. Of those two, one will be in Ellettsville. Both classes are for children of working parents and have a cap of 18 students.
Two units at Jack’s Defeat Creek Mall occupied by the Ellettsville Head Start will be closed.
The program, however, will resume in the fall as normal.
Outside of Ellettsville, Head Start at Lakeview Elementary will be shut down entirely.
Transportation services for 157 students will be suspended for the summer and 2013-14 academic year.
A total of 15 SCCAP employees will lose their jobs, including “teachers, teacher assistants, bus drivers, home visitors, managerial and administrative staff,” according to a press statement from Doug Wilson, spokesman for the organization. More will be laid off for summer than usual and they will be laid off earlier.
“We’ve been told not to expect this money to ever come back,” said Todd Lare, executive director of the organization, though he expressed hope that it would if parents made their voices heard by U.S. Congress.
Zhao said it was important that adults speak for children in the home-based program.
“They are younger than three, so they can’t talk to you about how much they love the program, how much impact it has on their lives,” she said.
The importance of the home-visitor program became clear to Zhao during a winter break. Her then-22-month-old daughter began asking to watch videos of the home visitor because she could not see her.
“Suddenly, she’s all gone and I don’t know how I’m going to tell her,” Zhao said.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2013. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.