Full-day Head Start preschool program expands income eligibility

Jennah Pendleton, The Sacramento Bee on Jan 10, 2025

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Each day after outside play time, preschool teacher Dometila Casillas sits her classroom of 3- to 5-year-olds down on a rug to read a story together. Wednesday, she read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”

Each time the initially tiny insect eats an additional piece of fruit, Casillas asks the kids, “guess what?”

“He was still very hungry!” her students shout back.

Casillas’ classroom is one of Sacramento City Unified School District’s 33 Head Start preschool classrooms, a federally-funded program for families whose income marginally exceeds the federal poverty line. The threshold last year was $31,200 for a family of four. In high-cost-of-living regions like Sacramento, families can exceed this while facing significant financial hardship.

A recent change to the income eligibility standards introduces flexibility to adjust for excessive housing costs. Families whose income exceeds poverty wages but spend a large portion of their income on housing may become eligible to enroll their children in Head Start.

If families spend more than 30% of their gross income on housing costs — including rent and mortgage payments, insurance, utilities and taxes — their total income can be reduced by the amount spent on housing costs in excess of 30%.

Head Start is one of many preschool programs available to children under 5 in the county, and one of the most desirable because it offers a full day — six and half hours — of instruction. SCUSD’s Transitional Kindergarten program, which is free to all 4-year-olds, offers a half-day of instruction, with an option for a child care after school.

In light of the changes to eligibility, SCUSD administrators are trying to reach newly eligible families to fill 100 immediately available classroom spots across the district. Head Start preschool is also offered by several other districts and community groups in the county.

“We really anticipate this opening the door to serve many more families,” said Christina Roseli, an early learning and care coordinator with Sacramento City Unified.

Another key piece of the Head Start program at SCUSD is family engagement. In addition to a full day of learning, the school offers parent education workshops, family fun days and helps them connect with resources in need of necessities like clothing and food.

A day in a preschool classroom

Casillas has been a preschool teacher for 25 years, all but one with Sacramento City Unified. She can’t imagine herself doing anything else.

When asked about their favorite part of Casillas’ class, three pupils each gave the same answer: playing. Shann Gomez-Molina likes playing outside, and Maria “Lily” Sandoval and Priscilla Hernandez Perez each said that they enjoyed the classroom playhouse. The playhouse, a corner of the classroom outfitted with a play kitchen, dress-up clothes and other toys is so popular that classroom aides have to allow students inside in shifts.

Casillas’ favorite part of the day is also free play because it allows her to foster their learning through whatever activity her students choose. For example, playing with blocks offers an opportunity to discuss concepts like spatial relationships, shapes and measurement.

“Instead of bringing it to them, we’re just meeting them where they’re at,” she said.

Head Start classrooms at Sacramento City Unified all use Creative Curriculum, a play-based educational program that incorporates language, literacy and math into hands-on learning experiences. The curriculum is made available to TK teachers in the district to incorporate into their lesson plans.

A day in a Head Start or TK classroom is “controlled chaos” in that the constant stream of activities is beneficial to early development, said Assistant Superintendent of Early Learning and Care Mikako Fisher Hill. In preschool, play and learning are one as educators guide children through foundational academic skills like counting and language and social-emotional concepts like collaboration, friendship building and personal responsibility.

“We help foster those skills in them — problem-solving, conflict negotiation and building friendships and peer interactions that are positive — so that when they get to kindergarten, they’re able to make friends, they’re able to follow directions and they love learning.”

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