Head Start and Early Head Start are federal programs that serve the education, psychological, and health needs of low-income infant, toddlers, preschool children and their families. Head Start began in 1965 as an eight-week summer program that quickly expanded into a school year program. Early Head Start evolved out of Head Start’s long history of providing services to infants and toddlers through Parent Child Centers, Comprehensive Child Development Centers (CCDPs) and Migrant Head Start programs.

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Since 1968 Greater Bergen Community Action (formerly BCCAP) has served more than 25,000 families through their Bergen County, Jersey City and Paterson Head Start and Early Head Start programs. They began operating Bergen County Head Start in 1968 and in 2010, they added Early Head Start to their Bergen County program. In the fall of 2013, the agency began operating Head Start and Early Head Start programs in the city of Paterson and in 2014 the same programs in the city of Jersey City.