To promote the comprehensive health, safety, and well-being of children receiving child care through Head Start programs, a program provider shall provide educational services to children participating in the program so that each child is prepared to enter school and is ready to learn after completing the program. The educational services provided must include components designed to enable a child to:

1. (1) develop phonemic, print, and numeracy awareness, including the ability to:

   1. (A) recognize that letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named;
   2. (B) recognize a word as a unit of print;
   3. (C) identify at least 10 letters of the alphabet; and
   4. (D) associate sounds with written words;
2. (2) understand and use language to communicate for various purposes;
3. (3) understand and use an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary;
4. (4) develop and demonstrate an appreciation of books; and
5. (5) progress toward mastery of the English language, if the child's primary language is a language other than English.

Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 402, Sec. 2, eff. Aug. 30, 1999.