IMMIGRATION IS A POWERFUL FORCE FOR CHANGE
HOW DOES IT AFFECT HEAD START?

by Brad Edmondson

A look at the 2000 Census provides insight into local population growth and the needs new families will bring to your Head Start programs.

• Most immigrants are between the ages of 18 and 30, the prime ages for childbearing.

• More than one in five U.S. households now use a language other than English at home, and among this huge group are 4.5 million households where no one speaks English fluently. The Census Bureau’s term for these households is “linguistically isolated.”

• Of the more than one million children who were enrolled in Head Start in 2001-02, one in four (264,000) spoke a language other than English at home (Program Information Report). In 83 percent of these other-than-English speaking households, the home language was Spanish.

• The proportion of all Head Start children who hear Spanish at home is increasing at a rapid pace: rising from 19 percent in 1998 to 22 percent in 2002.

Who is likely to qualify for Head Start?

• About 29 percent of all U.S. households earn less than $25,000 a year, and 42 percent of Hispanic foreignborn households fall in this lowincome category.

• The total number of U.S. children aged birth to 5 who live in poverty declined slightly in the 1990s, but the number of Hispanic children (aged birth to 5) living in poverty increased from 900,000 to 1.2 million. For example, in Rhode Island, the Hispanic proportion increased from 19 percent to 40 percent.

• Children who live in households where no one speaks English are likely to live below the poverty line. About six in ten households in linguistic isolation speak Spanish.

• Linguistically isolated households make up more than 5 percent of all households in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas. These states were most affected by immigration in the 1990s.

• The most dramatic growth in Spanish-speaking low-income households occurred in the Southeast. For example, the number of households in Georgia where no one speaks English increased from 8,000 in 1990 to 44,000 in 2000.

• Linguistic isolation is found wherever unskilled immigrants get their first jobs, in urban, suburban, and rural areas.

At the local and national levels, Head Start has responded to the population trends.

• About 28 percent of the child development staff in Head Start programs speaks a language other than English. The Head Start Program Performance Standards require that when a majority of children speak a language other than English, at least one of the classroom staff or a home visitor must speak their home language (1304.52(g)(2).

• Head Start’s Hispanic Implementation Initiative collected and analyzed data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses to show how the demand for Head Start services has changed in each U.S. county during the 1990s. The project also calculated county populations by age and Hispanic origin for 2010 and 2020, to indicate how local client bases might change in coming years.

What can you do?

• To view the changing demographics of your county, go to your region below and follow the links to your county. By anticipating changes in the population profile of your community, your Head Start program will be better able to serve the children and their families.

This article is adapted from work conducted for Head Start’s Hispanic Implementation Initiative (2002).

Brad Edmondson is Vice President of ePodunk Inc., and a business consultant in Ithaca, NY. T: 607-272-1832; E: Brade@lightlink.com.

Regional Demographics Master List

Region I (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York/New Jersey/Long Island CMSA, Boston/Worcester/Lawrence CMSA) Region II (New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, New York/New Jersey/Long Island CMSA, Philadelphia/Wilmington/Atlantic City CMSA) Region III (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Philadelphia/Wilmington/Atlantic City CMSA, Washington DC/Baltimore CMSA) Region IV (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Miami/Fort Lauderdale CMSA) Region V (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Chicago/Gary/Kenosha CMSA, Detroit/Ann Arbor/Flint CMSA, Cleveland/Akron CMSA, Cincinnati/Hamilton CMSA, Milwaukee/Racine CMSA) Region VI (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Dallas/Fort Worth CMSA, Houston/Galveston/Brazoria CMSA) Region VII (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska) Region VIII (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Denver/Boulder/Greely CMSA) Region IX (Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, California, Los Angeles/Riverside/Orange County CMSA, San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose CMSA, Sacramento/Yolo CMSA) Region X (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington)