Head Start promotes excellence in program management as a primary support for quality services provided to young children and their families. The Head Start Performance Standards govern the services that programs must provide and the standards they must adhere to in operating Head Start. Programs are required to establish management systems and procedures that effectively support programming and ensure success.

A part of Head Start's program management and quality assurance is the annual program self-assessment. Each agency is mandated by the Head Start Performance Standards to assess the quality of its Head Start program on an annual basis. This process must involve parents and must be approved by the Policy Council. An on-site program review by the federal funding agency and annual reports to the program's federal officers also help to ensure program quality.

Head Start programs are governed by a partnership between parents on the Policy Council, the staff, and the governing body of the agency. Head Start is a "federal to local" program, i.e., the funding comes from the federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Administration for Children & Families, directly to the local agency, or "grantee." Some grantees delegate the Head Start services to other agencies.

Only 4 grantees in Illinois have delegate agencies: Chicago Department of Human Services, Community & Economic Development Association (CEDA), The Ounce of Prevention Fund, and the Migrant Head Start Program � IL Department of Human Services.

Head Start programs in Illinois are administered locally by community action agencies, private & public non-profit agencies, public school districts, and city & state government agencies.