The director of the Kenaitze Head Start has been chosen to participate in a national panel concerning new Head Start policies.
In December, President George Bush reauthorized the Head Start program by signing the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007. The act includes various revisions to the Head Start program, which Debbie Shuey and the national panel will discuss in Washington, D.C., next week.
Shuey is one of 22 representatives chosen to attend the meeting, which will focus primarily on American Indian Alaska Native Head Start Programs located throughout the country.
"I believe I'm the only one from Alaska," she said. "I haven't heard from any of the other directors here that they are going."
The focus of the meeting will be American Indian Alaska Native concerns, including health, oral health, nutrition, child development, early childhood education, children who speak languages other than English and their families, disabilities, mental health, family and community partnerships and program design and management.
Shuey specifically was asked to participate in the meeting due to her expertise in program design and management.
Head Start began in the mid-1960s, but the Kenai-based program is only 10 years old. Despite its relative youth, Shuey said she believes she was selected to participate based on the program's innovation.
"Our Head Start has been recognized as having some good quality programming," she said.
Shuey specifically cited the program's collaboration with community partners and the involvement of the Kenaitze tribe.
"A big part of this is just the dedication of the tribe to the Head Start program," she said. "Without their commitment to Head Start, we really wouldn't have the program that we have."
Hannahlee Allers can be reached at hannahlee.allers@peninsulaclarion.com.
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