WENATCHEE — Chelan-Douglas Head Start will enroll 18 more babies and young children in January thanks to a nearly $294,000 federal stimulus grant awarded Monday.

The local Head Start was one of 1,200 agencies nationwide competing for the Early Head Start Expansion funding, said Chelan-Douglas Head Start Director Sara Bartrum.

Early Head Start is a learning and support program for poor or at-risk children ages birth to 3, and their families.

The program is split into two options: weekly in-home visits with monthly group social time, or a full-day class at the Wenatchee Head Start Center for working families. Most of the 64 children already enrolled are in-home.

The program also supports parents and pregnant mothers with employment, social services and medical care.

The expansion will serve 10 more in-home children and another eight children in a class in Wenatchee.

Head Start will hire about seven more staff members by January.

The grant is limited to two years.

“The hard part, of course, is we’re going to hire seven to eight staff and there will be no guarantees they’ll have a job after two years,” Bartrum said. “We’re hopeful when the economy turns around and they start looking at the importance of early childhood education — birth to 5 is a critical age in terms of brain development — we’ll be funded continuously.”

Chelan-Douglas Head Start applied but was not awarded federal stimulus money to add a preschool center in Entiat and another Head Start class in Wenatchee for 3- and 4-year-olds.

Rachel Schleif: 664-7139

schleif@wenatcheeworld.com