SEASIDE – Several children jumped up immediately to hug Seaside Police Chief Bob Gross as he entered the preschool last week. He sat and read “Officer Buckle and Gloria,” a book about a police officer and his dog.

Gross is a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national law enforcement personnel and violence survivor organization that advocates reaching at-risk children before they grow old enough to commit crimes. He was visiting the Seaside Head Start, a government-funded preschool program for children of families with incomes below the poverty line. Law enforcement leaders are visiting Head Start centers statewide to tout the crime prevention benefits of the program.

Jason Leiber, whose 5-year-old Destiny Leiber is in the class, had nothing but praise for Head Start and its teachers. Destiny has attended Head Start since September, and he said it has helped prepare her for kindergarten. She has learned letters, counting, writing her name, getting along with other children, self confidence and the routines of attending school like riding the bus. Having graduated from Head Start, she is now attending the summer class.

“I think she’s excelled since she’s been in there,” he said. “She loves it.”

Leiber said he would not be able to afford preschool for Destiny without Head Start.

“Every kid that has an opportunity to get into Head Start is a success,” said Fred Mihm, manager of the Seaside program.

Yet Head Start has been affected by state and federal funding cuts. Programs have reduced hours and staff statewide. The local program had to cut one of its two classes to three days a week. Mihm expects about 90 applications for next year by the end of the summer, including applications from families over the poverty line who have special-needs children. He has 22 openings.

Head Start is able to provide services to about 60 percent of 16,000 eligible Oregon children.

The program is slated to receive no additional federal funding in 2007. It may receive more state funding.

Head Start focuses on preparing “the neediest of the needy” children for school, Mihm said. The program involves the parents and educates them about good child rearing practices. For instance, the school is posted as a No Spanking zone.

Mihm said Head Start works with families on health and dental care, since healthy children are more likely to succeed in school. The program connects families with services available in the county if needed.

Head Start feeds a healthy lunch to all of the children, and breakfast to some. They learn dental hygiene and hand washing: “The little things that can really be important,” as Mihm said. When he first came to Head Start, a teacher alerted him that his hand washing was not thorough enough to set a good example, and he had to change his ways.

This was the first Clatsop County event for Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. The organization promotes strategies for keeping kids from becoming criminals. According to the group, strategies include early care and education for preschoolers, prevention of child abuse, good schools, after-school programs and programs that get troubled kids back on track. A Fight Crime study claims that Head Start improves language and math skills, decreases flunking in later grades and increases graduation rates. Another finding is that the program reduces deaths from childhood diseases with its health component.

Fight Crime advocates improving Head Start further by increasing teacher qualifications and pay.

Kids catch up

Martha Brooks, director of the Oregon segment of Fight Crime, said children entering Head Start are generally behind their peers, but catch up by the end of the year. They then cause less disruption in school.

Fight Crime estimates that if the state provided a very high-quality Head Start to all eligible children, as many as 500 children each year could be prevented from committing crimes when they grow up.

Gross said he has seen the children and grandchildren of criminals commit their own crimes in an unending cycle. But Head Start trains children to make good choices, he said. “If you give them a chance to succeed, it keeps them out of trouble,” he said. Head Start costs $8,000 a year per child. Housing a person in jail costs between $35,000 and $50,000 each year – and that does not calculate the cost to victims of crime.

Law enforcement officials will call on Oregon’s congressional delegation and state policy makers to increase Head Start funding, according to a Fight Crime press release.

Mihm encourages anyone interested in Head Start to file an application as soon as possible, to allow time for a home visit and checks of health, immunizations and income. Children get a position on the waiting list based on how they fill Head Start’s criteria, and the program takes the children from the top of the list. Anyone interested in volunteering with Head Start is invited to call him at 738-0873, but must go through a background check before volunteering.

Mihm thanked the city of Seaside for leasing the building to the center. He said the Seaside Public Library helps with the program, and the fire and police departments teach safety tips to the children.

After reading his book, Gross made the children junior police officers and handed out pencils that change color when squeezed.