Senator Sal DiDomenico was recently honored by the New England Head Start Association at Head Start’s Lobby Day at the State House, where he received the prestigious Champion of the Head Start Children Award. The award was presented to Senator DiDomenico in recognition of his service to Head Start, his advocacy for early childhood education, and his work throughout the district.
During the Lobby Day, Senator DiDomenico addressed the parents and children that had come to urge lawmakers to pass funding to the program. “I am a proud product of Head Start, which is why I am so passionate about providing high quality early childhood education to every child in the Commonwealth,” said Senator DiDomenico. “Thank you to the New England Head Start Association for this honor, and everyone who came to the State House to advocate for additional funding and share your stories on why this program is so important to you and your families.”
Head Start served 15,128 children from 14,069 families during the 2017-2018 school year, with 52 programs at 28 agencies across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. DiDomenico has been a longtime champion of Head Start in the Massachusetts Senate, and has always advocated for an increase in funding for the program, which sees children improve their proficiency in areas such as math and language development over 20% on average.
In his speech at the lobby day, Senator DiDomenico reaffirmed his commitment to fight for Head Start and champion their budget priorities for the new fiscal year. Afterwards, DiDomenico and his staff met with families and educators from his district about the importance of funding for Head Start for low-income families.