The Greater East Texas Community Action Program Head Start is a non-profit corporation serving 680 age and income eligible children and families in rural east Texas. GETCAP was established in 1965 to offer a variety of programs and services to assist low-income individuals and families. GETCAP Head Start Programs in Nacogdoches, Houston, Trinity, Walker, and San Jacinto counties are individually designed and implemented to address specific county-wide problems. In 1968 the Head Start program reached Nacogdoches, Texas. It began by serving 90 enrollees from ages 3 to 5, with 14 employees and a $60,000 annual operating budget. It now consists of an Early Head Start and Head Start program and serves 680 enrollees with 156 employees…show more content… The different departmental specialists that comprise GETCAP Head Start are the Human Resource Specialist, Nutrition Specialist, Executive Assistant, Education Specialist, Technology Specialist, Transportation Safety Specialist, Health Services Specialist and Social Services Specialist. In the Human Resources department there are Human Resource and Fiscal assistants who help in managing of funds, budgeting, and most importantly payroll. The Nutritional Specialist department has the Lunchroom Supervisor and the food service personnel whose main focus is food safety in the preparation and dispersal of meals. The Executive Assistant aids the Head Start Director in overseeing the different departments and maintaining adequate productivity. The Education Specialist, Education Coordinator, teachers, caregivers, teacher assistants, and floaters work directly with the enrollees to educate the enrollees and assure a positive learning environment. The Technology Specialist ensures that all of the necessary networking technology functions and operates correctly. The main function of the Transportation Safety Specialist is to provide children with transportation to and from the Head Start Center in safe and reliable vehicles. The Health Services Specialist works with the Social Services Specialist to provide the children with the proper services while following policy and…show more content… Activities that involve the parents in the development of the children and help foster healthy relationships within the family and community are primary targets in the planning process. With 20% of allocated funds set aside for program operations, this gives the planning committee which consists of the caseworkers and teachers who work directly with the families a set budget to work with. Parents of the children who participate in the policy council also get the opportunity to participate in the program planning process. All staff take turns in participating in the programs. Program dates are set depending on the school district. The agency has a calendar that all employees have access to which allows them to prevent any discrepancies that may happen when planning future programs. By using the current year to plan for next year's programs they have given themselves adequate time to plan, gather resources, and evaluate current programs that are
