{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://cuellar.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402917", "Congressmen Cuellar, Gonzalez, Vela Laud Over $27 Million for Hidalgo County Head Start", "2018-12-13", "2018", "2018-12", "Democrat", "House", "TX", "Henry Cuellar", "C001063", "cuellar.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Congressmen Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15), and\r\nFilemon Vela (TX-34) today announced that the U.S. Department of Health and\r\nHuman Services' (HHS) Office of Head Start has awarded a continuation grant of\r\n$27,236,014 to Hidalgo County Head Start. This grant will help implement\r\ncomprehensive child development programs that prepare young students, ages\r\nthree to four, from low-income families for pre-school.\r\n\r\nThe grant will allow Hidalgo County Head Start to continue serving\r\nchildren and families in South Texas. Children participating in this program\r\nare given access to educational, nutritional, health, social, and special\r\nservices. For 35 years, the program has sought to promote school readiness and\r\ndevelopmental achievement.\r\n\r\nHead\r\nStart is a tremendously successful program, having served thousands of children\r\nand families in my district, said Congressman Cuellar. For years, it\r\nhas contributed a great deal to the community by providing students with an\r\narray of comprehensive services and opportunities to shape a path for success.\r\nThese funds are not only an investment in our children's education, but an\r\ninvestment in their future.\r\n\r\nThis is great news  we must always keep the door of opportunity\r\nopen for every child in the 15th District of Texas, Congressman Gonzalez\r\nsaid.The Head Start program empowers students to expand their\r\nhorizons and continues to prepare children for success both in school and beyond.\r\nIn Congress, I will work to ensure that federal dollars are never limited when\r\nit comes to the academic success of our children.\r\n\r\nThe Head Start program strengthens\r\nfamilies and our community by providing children with quality education early\r\nin their development, said Congressman Vela. This funding is a\r\ncritical investment in the education of our future leaders and will help ensure\r\nthat South Texas children and their families have the tools they need to\r\nsucceed.\r\n\r\nTeresa Flores, Executive Director of the Hidalgo County Head Start\r\nProgram, expressed her enthusiasm about the federal funding for the program:\r\n\r\nThe grant is a continuation application to fund the program for\r\nour 3,690 served in 185 classrooms throughout the county for fiscal year 2019.\r\nThis is project is a five year grant beginning 7/01/2016 and ending on\r\n6/30/2021,Executive Director Flores said.We are grateful\r\nto Congressman Gonzalez for his support in the continued funding of our program\r\nto provide comprehensiveHeadStartservices to the neediest\r\nfamilies in our county. It will also continue to fund the 752 employees,\r\n33% who are former parents, and who serve the program in the areas of\r\neducation, family services, health services, staff development, human\r\nresources, mental health services, field operations, finance, special services,\r\ntransition, nutrition and transportation. Our program also developed\r\nandsustains successful partnerships with ten school districts to prepare\r\nchildren for kindergarten and beyond. The districts include: Pharr San\r\nJuan Alamo, McAllen, Weslaco, Mission, La Joya, Edinburg, Monte Alto, Hidalgo,\r\nMercedes, and Edcouch. We will also continue to assist staff in securing\r\nhigher education degrees for early education and provide financial resources\r\nand release time to fill in our classroom teaching vacancies.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://cuellar.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402917"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8603821042925119, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}