Healthy Start

Healthy Start, one of the nation's largest school-linked initiatives, grew out of the Healthy Start Support Services for Children Act passed by the California Legislature in 1991. Its intent is to remove the barriers to young people's academic performance by assisting local communities to improve the access of students and their families to a comprehensive range of high quality supports and services. Nearly 300 operational grants have been awarded to sites involving more than 800 schools and more than 600,000 children throughout the state. Ninety percent of the schools that receive state funding must meet eligibility requirements. At the elementary level, at least 50 percent of the student body must be from families with either very low income or limited English proficiency; 35 percent must meet these requirements in junior and senior high schools. State funding, administered by the California Department of Education ranges from $50,000 for planning grants to as much as $400,000 for operational grants over a three- to five-year period. In most sites, the bulk of it is used not to purchase services but to help local collaboratives develop mechanisms to deliver existing services at school-linked locations more effectively. Localities are expected eventually to assume the full cost of maintaining and institutionalizing these systems.

Sites vary in their activities, services and support, but an average site offers a wide variety, with education-related services among the most common. In addition, services to help families meet basic food, clothing and shelter needs; to improve family functioning through child care, child protective services and parenting classes; to address preventive and acute health needs; to foster employment through career services, counseling and job training; and to provide recreational opportunities, are widely available.