“I want to thank each of you for your support throughout my tenure and especially for your commitment to the poorest children and families across this country,” she wrote in an email to colleagues. “I know the work is not always easy, but I have seen and felt the impact that each of you has had on making the program better. Together we have implemented dramatic reforms that have raised the quality of services that children and families are receiving today and into the future.”
“It has been a privilege to serve in this administration, that knows and understands that the children who go to the best Head Start programs have an experience that can affect the rest of their lives,” she wrote. “And this administration is committed to ensuring that every child in Head Start gets that same chance.”
Head Start provides pre-K and early education services for about 967,000 children nationwide. It has a budget of about $7 billion.
Sanchez Fuentes began serving as director in October 2009. Before that, she was the executive director of the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association. She also worked for the Education Development Center as an early childhood specialist for the International Systems Division and provided technical assistance to projects in Honduras, El Salvador and Egypt.
