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    Lady Bird Johnson attends the ceremony for National Head Start Day, June 30, 1965. Front row, left to right: Timothy Shriver, Robert Shriver, Danny Kaye, Lady Bird Johnson, Mrs. Lou Maginn (Director of a HeadStart project in East Fairfield, Vermont), Sargent Shriver. (LBJ Presidential Library)

    EARLY HEAD START HISTORY 

    President Lyndon B. Johnson created  — a program to help meet the emotional, social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs of preschool-aged children from low-income families.

    In his State of the Union address in 1964, President Johnson declared a "War on Poverty." Soon after, Sargent Shriver, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1964 to 1968, brought together experts to develop a child development program to help communities meet the needs of disadvantaged preschool children.

    Since its creation in 1965, Head Start has provided comprehensive child development services for 32 million children — services that foster children’s growth in social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development, and monitor their progress in these areas to ensure that they are well prepared for kindergarten. Early Head Start programs were established in 1995.  

    Galena Park I.S.D. Becker Early Head Start has proudly serviced children and families in this community since 1999.