SUQUAMISH — The federal Administration for Children and Families has awarded a $980,514 grant to the Head Start early child education program operated by the Suquamish Tribe.

Suquamish Head Start will receive $980,514 a year for five years. The Administration for Children and Families is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Head Start is a federal program founded 50 years ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty; other programs created at that time: Job Corps, the Community Action Program and VISTA, which later became AmeriCorps.

The funding is a renewal of previous federal grant funding. But educators are celebrating anew, saying Head Start helps prepare pre-kindergarten children for elementary school by enhancing their “social and cognitive development … through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services.”

“It’s a system that works,” said Joe Davalos, a former public school principal who now leads the Suquamish Tribe’s Education Department.

“They get two good meals a day and a snack; they get to go on field trips and play in our gym or get in the water; they get to learn cultural things. It helps a lot of kids get ready for school; and it’s something that the Tribes and a lot of communities lobby for real hard back in D.C.”

Suquamish’s program is open to Native American and non-Native children.

Davalos said Head Start is a federal program administered locally by the Suquamish Tribe (the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe also administers a Head Start program at its early childhood education center). Federal funding helps cover the cost of staffing and keeps the student-teacher ratio small.

Suquamish Tribe public information officer April Leigh said there are 46 staff members and 148 children in Suquamish’s Head Start, Early Childhood Education Assistance and child care programs. Suquamish’s Head Start is in its 19th year, Leigh said.

Leigh said that in addition to the federal grant, the Tribe “does make a significant investment in Head Start.”

Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Bremerton, said the federal grant is an “investment” that is “great news for the Suquamish Tribe.”

“Education is the door to opportunity, and Head Start is a key that helps our youngest students open that door. This grant will help young people develop a lifelong love of learning and get started on the right foot.”