Early Head Start and Head Start are two branches of the same federal program, and the dividing line is age.
Early Head Start classrooms serve children under 36 months; Head Start preschool classes serve a majority of 3-year-olds or a majority of 4- and 5-year-olds.
For teachers, that line drives the practical differences — how big the class is, which credential gets you in the room, and what the day holds.
Ages: under 36 months vs preschool
Both programs answer to the same federal rulebook — the Head Start Program Performance Standards (45 CFR Part 1302), which the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) issues — and the rulebook splits the two by age.
Early Head Start is the infant-and-toddler side: its class rules are written for children under 36 months.
Head Start is the preschool side.
Its standards write separate group-size rules for classes with a majority of 3-year-olds and classes with a majority of 4- and 5-year-olds, so the ages in front of you shift slightly by classroom even within preschool Head Start.
The programs are also far from equal in size.
In FY 2024, funded enrollment was 488,792 Head Start preschool slots against 181,049 Early Head Start slots — counts that exclude AIAN and Migrant/Seasonal programs.
Slot counts do not translate directly into classroom counts, because Early Head Start classes are much smaller; the class-size rules are next.
Ratios and group sizes: 8 or 9 children vs up to 20
Under the current standards, an Early Head Start class of children under 36 months must have two teachers with no more than eight children, or three teachers with no more than nine.
Each teacher is assigned consistent, primary responsibility for no more than four children (45 CFR 1302.21).
Preschool classes run larger.
A class with a majority of 4- and 5-year-olds is capped at 20 children — 17 in a double-session program — staffed by a teacher and a teaching assistant or by two teachers.
A class with a majority of 3-year-olds is capped at 17, or 15 in double session.
| Early Head Start | Head Start preschool | |
|---|---|---|
| Ages in the room | Under 36 months | A majority of 3-year-olds, or a majority of 4- and 5-year-olds |
| Class size | 8 with two teachers; 9 with three | 20 for a majority of 4- and 5-year-olds; 17 for a majority of 3-year-olds — 17 and 15 in double session |
| Teaching team | Two or three teachers | A teacher and a teaching assistant, or two teachers (majority 4- and 5-year-old class) |
Coverage works the same way across both programs, because both run under the same standards: ratios may lapse only for brief teacher absences of no more than five minutes, and during nap time one teaching staff member may be replaced by a staff member or trained volunteer who does not meet teaching qualifications.
These are the current standards — a federal rewrite is proposed
Credentials: a CDA floor vs a degree floor
Early Head Start sets a credential floor.
Center-based teachers of infants and toddlers must have at minimum a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential or a comparable credential, plus training or equivalent coursework in early childhood development with a focus on infant and toddler development (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(1); Head Start Act §645A(h)).
A degree is not part of that federal floor.
The credential itself is age-shaped.
The Council for Professional Recognition's center-based Infant-Toddler CDA covers children birth to 36 months, and the 480 hours of work experience behind it must include all three sub-age groups: young infants (birth-8 months), mobile infants (9-17 months) and toddlers (18-36 months).
The center-based Preschool CDA covers ages 3 to 5.
Head Start preschool teachers step over a degree floor instead.
Every Head Start preschool center-based teacher must have at least an associate or bachelor's degree in child development or early childhood education, equivalent coursework, or otherwise meet section 648A(a)(3)(B) of the Head Start Act.
The bachelor's figure you may have read about is a national workforce target — at least 50% of Head Start preschool teachers nationwide — not a rule for each teacher.
Assistant teachers have their own route on the preschool side: a CDA or a state certificate that meets or exceeds it, enrollment in an associate or bachelor's program, or enrollment in a CDA program to be completed within two years of hire (45 CFR 1302.91(e)(3)).
The career read: the two tracks differ in kind, not just level.
Moving from an Early Head Start classroom to a preschool lead role means meeting the degree route or its statutory alternative; moving the other way means adding the infant-toddler credential and coursework.
The detail behind each track is in the Head Start teacher career guide and the Early Head Start teacher career guide.
Daily work: caregiving routines vs the preschool day
Where the job sits differs first.
About 97% of funded Head Start preschool services were center-based in the 2023-24 program year, so a preschool Head Start teaching job is a classroom job.
Early Head Start was about 67% center-based and about 28% home-based, so the same program family also staffs home visiting.
In an Early Head Start room you work in a two- or three-teacher team with eight or nine children and hold primary responsibility for no more than four of them, and the work follows the age group's routines — feeding and diapering — rather than a preschool schedule.
O*NET's task profile for childcare workers, the occupation that lists Infant Teacher and Toddler Teacher among its reported titles, describes that hands-on work: dressing children, changing diapers, sanitizing toys, and keeping records on individual children, including meals served and medications given.
A Head Start preschool room runs on a teaching team over a much larger group, and the task profile shifts toward instruction.
O*NET's preschool teacher profile includes teaching basic skills — colors, shapes, numbers, letters, hygiene and social skills — serving meals and snacks that meet nutritional guidelines, meeting with parents about children's progress, and maintaining student records.
One operating rule sits on the Early Head Start side: its center-based programs must provide 1,380 annual hours of planned class operations — the operating commitment behind an Early Head Start center teaching job.
Staff across the program family, meanwhile, complete at least 15 clock hours of professional development a year, plus annual mandated-reporter training and annual training on positive social-emotional strategies, under the current standards.
If the infant-toddler side sounds like your fit, Early Head Start teacher jobs collect openings from centers and programs hiring for classrooms of children under 36 months.
The two career guides linked above walk each role in full.
Career information, not licensing or legal advice. Early Head Start and Head Start classroom standards are the Head Start Program Performance Standards at 45 CFR Part 1302, administered by the Office of Head Start; requirements for teaching staff in state-licensed settings come from your state child care licensing agency. Confirm current requirements with the Office of Head Start, your state agency and the program you would work for.