The Troy Head Start Center is actively recruiting children ages 3 through 5 for the 2011-2012 school year.

Octavia Jones, site manager, said there is no limit to the number of children who can apply for the pre-school program.

“Head Start offers a comprehensive early education program for children ages 3 to 5, including children with mild to severe disabilities,” she said.

The Troy Head Start Center does not offer transportation to and from the center; however, the center does offer transportation to and from a specified list of services.

“We encourage parents with children in the 3 to 5 age range to make application for them to attend Head Start,” Jones said. “Head Start is a program of the United State Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families.”

For more information about Troy Head Start, call 334-670-6907 or 334-566-1712. Registration packets are available at the Troy Head Start Center, 201 B, Lake Avenue in Troy.

Head Start promotes school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services, Jones said.

Launched in 1965 by its creator and first director, Jule Sugarman, Head Start was originally conceived as a catch-up summer school program that would teach low-income children in a few weeks what they needed to know to start kindergarten. Experience showed that six weeks of preschool couldn’t make up for five years of poverty.

The Head Start Act of 1981 expanded the program. The program was further revised when it was reauthorized in December, 2007. Head Start is one of the longest-running programs to address systemic poverty in the United States.