University of Illinois Urbana‑Champaign

Head Start

Head Start promotes the school readiness of young children from low-income families through agencies in their local community.
small children playing on mat at child care center
Head Start and Early Head Start programs provide comprehensive services to support the mental, social, and emotional development of children from birth to age 5. In addition to education services, programs provide children and their families with health, nutrition, social, and other services. Head Start services are responsive to each child and family’s ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage.

Head Start encourages the role of parents as their child’s first and most important teachers. Programs build relationships with families that support positive parent-child relationships, family well-being, and connections to peers and community.

The Head Start program is administered by the Office of Head Start; Administration for Children and Families (ACF); Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Source of definition: Office of Head Start

Data available on IECAM

Site and capacity data are available for years 2020 and later on the Data Hub by state, county, Birth to Five Illinois region, school district, and Chicago community area.

These data are also available by township, state Senate district, state House district, congressional district, municipality, and ZCTA2010 on the IECAM database and an Excel spreadsheet for 2024 service data.

Number of sites

The number of sites at which children are served in Head Start.

Source of data: Head Start Collaboration Office

Note on center-based and home-based services:

  • The data on “number of sites” include only center-based services. The locations of home-based service are not included as sites. Beginning with FY2015, the data on “funded enrollment” include both center-based and home-based funded enrollment. This is the case for all geographic regions.
  • Note that these reporting practices—of the inclusion of both center- and home-based services, and the reporting by all geographic regions—are different from how home-based service was reported in some previous years.
Note on areas with enrollment but no sites: Note that search results by a geographic region (e.g., county, municipality, or township) may show an area of that region (i.e., a particular county, municipality, or township) with funded enrollment but no sites. This is because all of the service in that area is home-based.

Funded enrollment

The total number of children that a Head Start center is funded by the Office of Head Start to enroll at any one time.

Source of data: Head Start Collaboration Office, Head Start Program Information Report (PIR)

Note on data from PIR, state total: The total of funded enrollment for the state differs as reported on IECAM and as reported in Head Start’s Program Information Report (PIR) because of differences in how grantees reported their site-based data to the IL HS Collaboration Office and how they reported their grantee-wide data to the federal Head Start program.

Note on funded enrollment for center-based and home-based services:

  • See the note below in the section on “Yearly differences in data definitions/descriptions” for information on these data for each year.
  • View Head Start and Early Head Start home-based funded enrollment via IECAM’s online database.
Note on areas with enrollment but no sites: Note that search results by a geographic region (e.g., county, municipality, or township) may show an area of that region (i.e., a particular county, municipality, or township) with funded enrollment but no sites. This is because all of the service in that area is home-based.

Note on number of children served: The number of children that a Head Start center is funded to enroll at any one time may not be the same as the number that the center serves over the course of a school year. Because children may leave the site or center and be replaced by other children, the funded enrollment may be less than the total number of children served.

Note on location of children served: For center-based service, the funded enrollment is reported for the location at which the children are served, not for the location of the children’s home. For home-based service, the funded enrollment is reported for the office location of the Head Start staff who go to the children’s home, not for the location of the children’s home.

Grantees

Agencies or organizations that contract with the Office of Head Start to provide or subcontract Head Start services in their area.

Illinois Head Start Association provides a list of current Head Start grantee members and delegates on its website. 

Source of data: Head Start Collaboration Office, Illinois Head Start Association (ILHSA)

Yearly differences in data definitions / descriptions

For past years, there are some differences in the data definition/description, compared with the most recent year. These are indicated here.

For some years, the data for Illinois as a whole were derived from the Head Start Program Information Report (PIR).

Note that for some years, the ACF Funded Enrollment in Head Start’s Program Information Report (PIR), which can include an unspecified small number of pregnant women, differs from the total funded enrollment reported in the IECAM database. This number differs somewhat because of differences in how grantees reported their site-based data to the Head Start Collaboration Office and how they reported their grantee-wide data to the federal Head Start program. The differences for each year are:

  • For FY2018, the Head Start PIR had a total of 26,885 while the IECAM database has 26,474.
  • For FY2017, the Head Start PIR had a total of 31,685 while the IECAM database has 31,558.
  • For FY2016, the Head Start PIR had a total of 34,074 while the IECAM database has 31,946.
Note on center-based and home-based service, funded enrollment:

  • The data for FY2017 and FY2018 on funded enrollment include both center-based and home-based funded enrollment. This is the case for all geographic regions. For FY2017 and FY2018 data, unlike for data in previous years, Head Start did not report to IECAM any distinctions in center-based and home-based service. Therefore, unlike in previous years, IECAM cannot provide any additional report of home-based funded enrollment separate from total funded enrollment.
  • For FY2015 and FY2016, the data on funded enrollment include both center-based and home-based funded enrollment. This is the case for all geographic regions. IECAM also provides a report on home-based funded enrollment separate from total funded enrollment.
  • For FY2012 through FY2014, although the source data did not identify all home-based service as such, all of the home-based funded enrollment was included in the total funded enrollment reported for all regions (because the source data that IECAM received associated home-based service with site locations). Therefore, it would be accurate to compare total funded enrollment (center-based and home-based) for all geographic regions (except one) between FY2016 and FY2012, FY2013, FY2014, and FY2015.
  • The one region exception is ISBE 2016 regions. Because ISBE changed the ROE regions beginning with FY2016, the ISBE 2016 regions in 2016 cannot be compared with ISBE regions from 2015 and earlier.
  • For FY2009 through FY2011, the home-based service was reported only for state, county, ISBE region, and IDHS region (because the source data that IECAM received did not associate home-based service with site locations). Therefore, it would be accurate to compare total funded enrollment (center-based and home-based) for FY2016 and for FY2009, FY2010, and FY2011, only for the geographic regions of state, county, and IDHS region, but not for any other geographic regions.
  • For family child care homes, IECAM only has data for FY2018 and later, except FY2020. IECAM did not receive data for family child care homes for FY2020.

Additional Resources