Head Start and Early Head Start programs support young children and families nationwide by providing early learning, nutrition, health, social, and family well-being services tailored to local needs. Staff at these programs use multiple data sources to understand communities’ needs and guide decisions about their programs’ structure and design.

This brief describes the data that Head Start grant recipients used to assess and justify converting enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start, and how staff in six programs used those data to inform slot conversion decisions.

We found that Head Start and Early Head Start programs use a range of data sources to inform a variety of decisions. Specific findings include the following:

• Staff use their programs’ own internally developed data sources to understand the needs of enrolled or waitlisted families and of their broader communities.
• They also access and explore data sources compiled by external entities, including Census data, local school district data, and community health center data.
• Staff described several promising approaches for pulling together data to assess their communities’ needs, including using multiple sources and looking at trends.
• Program staff used data to make decisions about how they would design and implement new or expanded Early Head Start services. This included using data to inform program options, classroom locations, and facility renovations.

This brief synthesizes findings from the Conversion of Enrollment from Head Start to Early Head Start study, which included a multi–case study, coding and analysis of programs’ conversion applications, and case studies with Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs.