By Stephane Babcock
Hello to everyone who did and did not attend the recent STN EXPO in Reno last week. During the Head Start Forum — one of my favorite parts of the conference — we discussed this blog and how we can use it as another forum to discuss Head Start-related issues. We also realized we had a total of 520 years worth of Head Start experience in the room!! We were able to come up with the following list of common concerns:
- eight-way violations
- covering the cost of replacement buses
- buying buses cooperatively
- child safety restraints
- budget/enrollment issues
- pedestrian safety
- parent involvement
- safety training
- education on the bus
- federal and state reviews
- policies and procedures
- federal vs. state regulations
I will create a post for each of the above topics soon (sorry, the next issue is due this week) and open up the discussion to you. Here's the hitch: You have to get involved and post some comments. If you having issues, send me an email or give me a call at the office, 310-802-7812. It was great to see everyone at the conference. The Head Start community packed every class and made this year even better. Hope to hear from you soon. And yes, I misspelled pedestrian as "pedestrial"...
Hello to everyone who did and did not attend the recent STN EXPO in Reno last week. During the Head Start Forum — one of my favorite parts of the conference — we discussed this blog and how we can use it as another forum to discuss Head Start-related issues. We also realized we had a total of 520 years worth of Head Start experience in the room!! We were able to come up with the following list of common concerns:
- eight-way violations
- covering the cost of replacement buses
- buying buses cooperatively
- child safety restraints
- budget/enrollment issues
- pedestrian safety
- parent involvement
- safety training
- education on the bus
- federal and state reviews
- policies and procedures
- federal vs. state regulations
I will create a post for each of the above topics soon (sorry, the next issue is due this week) and open up the discussion to you. Here's the hitch: You have to get involved and post some comments. If you having issues, send me an email or give me a call at the office, 310-802-7812. It was great to see everyone at the conference. The Head Start community packed every class and made this year even better. Hope to hear from you soon. And yes, I misspelled pedestrian as "pedestrial"...
Posts
Would be nice to see what other Head Start programs are using for transportation education for both parents and children. I find it very difficult to find age appropriate material and to find anything for the children that show the use of child restaints or even seat belt use on a bus. Thanks, Becky
ReplyDeleteWe use a Transportation Safety Curriculum called Safety Sam in our Migrant Head Start program. We have built it right into the lesson plans. It is geared towards preschoolers, however our Education team & staff have modified it to fit the needs of our infant & toddler classrooms. We love this program because it is so user friendly and also gives staff ideas to spin off of for classroom activities. It includes parent safety letters that are sent home to the parents. We have also been included in a grant that has enabled us to provide car seat check/distribution events for our families. You can contact me directly at dcain@telamon.org and i could send you samples of our lesson plans. You can get more information regarding Safety Sam at the EPIC website.
ReplyDeleteDonna Cain, Michigan Migrant Head Start
It's great to see the wheels are beginning to turn...let's keep it going...
ReplyDeleteStephane Babcock, STN
I would be interested to know how many Head Start programs provide health insurance to their employees?
ReplyDeleteThis will be a great tool to communicate, ask questions & pass on proven information. Muskogee County Okla Head Start will participate. Thanks, Jim C.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if you have heard about Head Start's list of places they can't go for conferences but Reno is on the list along with Las Vegas and Orlando. I am sorry that I did not get to come but I hope that conferences like this continue to pull the community together to air problems and look for fixes. Northwest Indiana will be communicating.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Good to see everyone is beginning to join in. I am interested in see the list that "pavolichk" mentioned. Could you post a link?
ReplyDelete