The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for federal programs that promote the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals, and communities.

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is a component of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), which is one of the principal components of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). OSEP's mission and organization focus on the free, appropriate public education of children and youth with disabilities from birth through age 21. OSEP is a major funder of Reading Rockets.

The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education strives to promote academic excellence, enhance educational opportunities and equity for all of America's children and families, and to improve the quality of teaching and learning by providing leadership, technical assistance and financial support.

The mission of the U. S. Department of Education is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence for all Americans. The Department WebSite includes information on funding, research, publications, and programs.

In 1997, Congress asked the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health, in consultation with the Secretary of Education, to convene a national panel to assess the effectiveness of different approaches used to teach children to read.

The NICHD conducts and supports laboratory, clinical and epidemiological research on the reproductive, neurobiologic, developmental, and behavioral processes that determine and maintain the health of children, adults, families and populations.

The National Head Start Association is a private not-for-profit membership organization dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of Head Start children and their families. It represents more than 1 million children, 200,000 staff, and 2,700 Head Start programs in the United States. The Association provides support for the entire Head Start community by advocating for policies that strengthen services to Head Start children and their families; by providing extensive training and professional development to Head Start staff; and by developing and disseminating research, information, and resources that enrich Head Start program delivery.

The NGA Center for Best Practices supports governors in their efforts to improve education by providing technical assistance, policy analysis and reports, and information on best practices.

The mission of the National Even Start Association is to provide a national voice and vision for Even Start Family Literacy programs. The purpose of the Even Start Family Literacy Program is to help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving the educational opportunities for families. This is accomplished by integrating early childhood education, adult literacy and adult basic education, and parenting education into a unified literacy program. Even Start is implemented nationally through cooperative projects that build on existing community resources, creating a new range of services for children families and adults.

The Department of Health and Human Services is the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.