Mercer County Head Start, Early Head Start, and PA Pre-K Counts provide high-quality early childhood education and comprehensive services for pregnant women and children birth to age 5. Our program support school readiness, family well-being, and lifelong success. We are proud to serve families throughout Mercer County.
About Mercer County Head Start / Early Head Start / PA Pre-K Counts
Click on each program to learn more.
• Federal funded program promotes the school readiness of young children ages 3-5 through the provision of comprehensive services to include education, mental health, healthy habits and social services.
• Eligible families live in Mercer County and have an income at or below the 100% federal poverty level.
• Provision of degreed teaching staff, with a staff to child ratio of 1 to 8.5 children.
• Research based curriculum, Creative Curriculum from Teaching Strategies.
• Two daily nutritional meals, breakfast & lunch or lunch & snack.
• Promotes the role of parents as the child’s first and most important teacher.
• Promoting the parent-teacher-family advocate relationship to help support and build the parent-child relationship, strong community ties and promoting the well-being of the family.
• Monthly parent meetings and quarterly family activities.
• Classrooms are located in all 11 school districts in Mercer County.
Home Based Full Year
Infant & Toddler (0 to 3) Program
• Early Head Start Home Visitor provide weekly 90-minute visits in the comfort of your home.
• Child focused visits assist parents to use the home as the primary learning environment.
• Researched based curriculum-Parents As Teacher, to support the child’s development.
• Focus on proper nutrition, health and safety in the home, periodic health and developmental screenings.
• 22 Socialization-Playgroups to meet with other parents and share experiences and allow children to play and learn with other children their age.
Pregnant Women
• Bi-monthly home visits focusing on pre-natal education and development of parenting skills.
• Focus on health and nutrition in preparation for birth of newborn child.
• Prenatal visits by program health professional.
• Referrals and connections to community resources.
• Researched Based Curriculum – Partners for a Healthy Baby.
• Funded from the Pennsylvania Department of Education since 2007, PA Pre K Counts promotes school readiness of young children ages 3-5 years through the provision of a researched based education curriculum, to families with incomes up to 300% of the FPL(federal poverty level).
• Provision of degreed teaching staff.
• Research based curriculum, Creative Curriculum from Teaching Strategies.
• Two daily nutritional meals, breakfast and lunch provided free of charge.
• Services provided Monday to Friday, for 5.5 hours.
• Classrooms are located in Sharon, Greenville, West Middlesex , Mercer, Grove City and Hermitage school districts, only.
Our Mission
Mercer County Head Start-Early Head Start and Pre K Counts Programs connect children, families, schools and communities by partnering quality education with caring support services today for a better tomorrow.
Our Values
• We believe that parents are a child’s first and best teacher.
• We believe that our entire staff should be committed to children, families, fellow staff members and our community partners by demonstrating the highest levels of professionalism, dignity and respect.
• We believe that the key to self-sufficiency is through quality education, parental responsibility and community partnerships.
• We believe that education and the love of learning is critical to school readiness and a family’s future success.
• We believe that providing comprehensive services for physical and mental health development are crucial to a child’s overall development.
• We believe in the empowerment of families to ensure self-reliance.
Comprehensive Services
Vision and Hearing Screenings
Ages & Stages Questionnaire - Social-Emotional Screening
Mobile Dentist
Lucy & Linus' Closet
Referrals to Community Counseling