Head Start

Migrant and Seasonal Head Start
Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) is a program designed to provide comprehensive Head Start services including child development and social services to low-income families working in agriculture, or families who migrate while working in agriculture. MSHS programs are funded directly through the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC.

Source: Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Quality Improvement Center:
http://www.mhsqic.org/aboutus/au.htm
http://www.mhsqic.org/pubrel/qicbrochure.pdf
Date: 2006

Note: View definitions of data parameters related to Migrant and Seasonal Head Start:

Note: Migrant and Seasonal Head Start is a program branch of Head Start. Services provided by the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs are identical to those of regular Head Start, but meet the specific needs of migrant and seasonal farm worker families. Programs have a unique emphasis on serving infants and toddlers as well as preschool-age children so that they will not have to be cared for in the fields or left in the care of very young siblings while parents are working. Infants as young as 6 weeks of age are served in Migrant and Seasonal Head Start program centers.

(ACF Office of Public Affairs, Head Start Bureau, Fact Sheet
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/opa/fact_sheets/headstart_factsheet.html#migrant)

Note: Eligibility requirements state that migrant and seasonal farm worker families must:

Meet the annual Head Start poverty guidelines, and
Earn their income primarily from agricultural work that involves the production and harvesting of tree and field crops.

The Head Start Act defines MSHS eligible families as:

Migrant farm worker families engaged in agricultural labor who have changed their residence from one geographical location to another in the preceding 2-year period.
Seasonal farm worker families engaged primarily in agricultural labor and who have not changed their residence from one geographic location to another in the preceding 2-year period.

(Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Quality Improvement Center, Migrant & Seasonal Head Start. Seasons of Change: Harvest of Hope:
http://www.mhsqic.org/pubrel/qicbrochure.pdf)

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