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Attendance

For your child to flourish at Head Start, attendance is very important. Children who come late (after breakfast) miss part of the routine and take additional time to feel part of the school family.

Communicating with your child's teaching staff is important. Head Start has to sumbit a meal count for breakfast and lunch each day. Contact your child's teacher as early as possible if your child will not be coming due to illness or family situation, will be coming late or leaving early.

Severe Weather and School Closures

If severe weather closes down the public school, our Head Start class(es) in that location will also close.

When to Keep Your Child Home

At Head Start, we want to protect the health and safety of all children and staff in each classroom. For this reason, there may be times when your child is ill and should not come to class. Please review the following symptoms and diagnoses of disease to know when to keep your child at home.

Symptoms:

Fever above 101° F orally, 100° F temporal (forehead) or 100° F axillary (armpit)
Sore throat and/or uncontrolled coughing
Difficulty breathing and/or wheezing
Extremely tired or irritable
Cold with yellow or green drainage from nose
Diarrhea and/or vomiting: child can not return to the Head Start classroom until it has been at least 24 hours since the last episode of diarrhea or vomiting
Mouth or skin sores that are oozing
Rash with fever or behavior change

Diagnoses:

Scabies
Impetigo
Strep Throat
Chicken Pox
Other infectious diseases

Bus personnel may ask you to keep your child at home if they feel your child is too sick to attend. If your child develops any of the above symptoms while in class, the teacher may call you to come and pick up your child.

Additional information about common diseases of children and when you must keep your child at home may be found on the "When Your Child is Too Sick to Attend" page in the Parent Handbook.

Get Involved at Head Start

We encourage all Head Start parents to have an active part of West River Head Start. The classroom and offices are open to you at all times.

Your participation is needed to develop a program that is responsive to the needs of your children and your family. Also, the staff needs your help to provide the many services to you and your child. We need volunteers to assist in every part of the program.

Volunteering DIRECTLY helps our Head Start program. Head Start programs that show support from their communities continue to receive money!
Gain a better understanding of your child and how to best meet his/her needs.
Enjoy the special time spent with your child. You are really needed and very much appreciated!

Would a grandparent or other family member like to volunteer? Talk to your child's teacher to make the arrangements.

Volunteering is Simple!

Help in the classroom.
Read books to Head Start students, play games.
Help on a field trip.
Be a bus rider.
Repair broken Head Start toys.
Assist the staff in setting up, cleaning up, and helping with activities at Head Start.
Do the activities on the in-kind sheet. Complete the in-kind sheet and return it to your child's teacher.
Be active on one or all of our committees.

Policy Council

Policy Council meetings are held at the Head Start site in Mandan (1004 7th Street SW). The meeting is run much like a school board meeting with the classroom representatives at the head table and additional attendees seated at a table behind them. If you would like more information on Policy Council, please visit with your family support coach.

Health Services Advisory Committee

Health Services Health Services Advisory Committee is an advisory group that brings together staff, parents, and local health care providers to discuss the planning, operation, and evaluation of the health services in Head Start. The mission of this committee is to support the wellness of each Head Start child and family. All families are welcomed and encouraged to be part of this committee.

Goals of the Health Services Advisory Committee:

Access health care and medical homes
Establish and implement policy and procedure to respond to medical and health issues as well as emergencies
Develop partnerships with community organizations to make it easier for children and families to access health services
Implement services that meet the needs of the community

Parent Committees

West River Head Start has four parent committees, one at each center. Parent committees are comprised exclusively of the parents and guardians of children who are currently enrolled at the center. Functions of the Parent Committee include:

Advise staff in developing and implementing local program policies, activities, and services;
Plan, conduct, and participate in informal as well as formal programs and activities for parents and staff; and
Within the guidelines established by the governing body, Policy Council, or Policy Committee, participate in the recruitment and screening of Early Head Start and Head Start employees.

Parent committees are the driving force in fundraising for our program!

Parent Information