Long term studies comparing Head Start students to disadvantaged, non- Head Start students show that Head Start Students:
Are less apt to be held back in school
Are less likely to be placed in Special Education Classes
Are more likely to graduate from High School
Have less criminal activity
Earn a Higher Salary
Cognitive Benefits:
Results from a randomly selected longitudinal study of more than 600 Head Start graduates, shows that the final grades of Head Start graduates in kindergarten, compared to their non-Head Start peers, were higher in numeracy, language, literacy, social conduct, and physical development.
Head Start children in the Family and Child Experiences Survey demonstrated a greater increase than the typical child in vocabulary and early writing.
A Higher proportion of Head Start parents read to their children more frequently than those parents of children who were not enrolled in Head Start.
Economic Benefits:
Society receives nearly $9 in benefits for every $1 invested in Head Start children.
Those benefits are increased earnings, employment, family stability, decreased welfare dependency, crime costs, grade repetition, and special education.
As adults, those who attended a quality early childhood program are about three times as likely to be homeowners by age 27 compared to those who did not benefit from the program.
Health Benefits:
Children in Head Start receive significantly more health care screenings than their non-Head Start peers.
Head Start children are at least 8 percentage points more likely to have had their immunizations than those children who did not attend pre-school.
Research suggests that Head Start reduces childhood obesity.
The mortality rates for 5-9 year old children who had attended Head Start are 33 to 50 percent lower than the rates for comparable children.
Social Benefits:
Head Start children are significantly less likely to have been charged with a crime than their siblings who did not participate in Head Start.
Young women who have experienced a quality early childhood program are 1/3 less likely to have out- of- wedlock births.
At-risk children not afforded the opportunity to participate in a quality early childhood program are five times more likely to be arrested repeatedly.