City of Chattanooga Head Start and Early Head Start

Mission: To promote school readiness for young children from low-income families by enhancing their cognitive, social, and emotional development.

The Chattanooga Head Start and Early Head Start program has been promoting the school readiness of Hamilton County’s children ages birth to five years since 1965. We believe the best way to prepare our children is to support the development of the whole child and give parents the resources they need to achieve their goals. Our classrooms provide a positive learning environment and our credentialed teachers use research based curricula to create developmental goals that are specifically tailored to each child. Best of all, Head Start is a free program!!

Chattanooga Head Start/Early Head Start serves 998 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers across Hamilton County. We offer our program through our City operated sites and partnerships with local high quality child care programs, and a partnership with Hamilton County Department of Education Voluntary Pre-K. You can find a list of these locations and partnerships here.

Our program is overseen by a Board of Directors and a Policy Council. Board members are appointed by the Mayor of Chattanooga, the Mayor of Hamilton County, and by the Chattanooga City Council. Policy Council members are comprised of parents/caregivers and community agency representatives.