A federally funded, locally operated program that provides pre-kindergarten educational opportunities, as well as health, social, psychological, and nutritional services, for disadvantaged three- to five-year-old’s from low-income families, including many handicapped children, who are given special individualized help. Started in 1965, it is presently run by the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), surviving the many social cuts of the 1980s because its value was so widely recognized.