The waiting list says it all.

Mercer County Early Head Start is funded to serve 66 pregnant women and families with children up to 3 years old. But it has 176 children on its waiting list for home-bound attention and 122 on a waiting list for center-based activities.

Officials hope those numbers will convince the state to allow it to expand the program to another 48 clients with a $500,000 grant.

"There's always been a need," said Terri Lengyel, director of Early Head Start and its companion program, Mercer County Head Start for children aged 3 to 5.

Applicants are screened and officials seek to choose "the neediest of the needy," she said, leaving out many who could legitimately benefit from the service.

Early Head Start was created in Mercer County by a $2 million grant in February 1999. Mercer County Community Action Agency receives the federal money channeled through the state, and chose Farrell Area School District to run the program.

Key decisions are separately voted on by the school board and the Head Start Policy Committee.

The countywide program reaches low-income families through home visits and a classroom at the Salvation Army in Sharon.

Organizers hope to be able to open a new classroom in the Shenango Valley, and another elsewhere in the county, Ms. Lengyel said. Four family service workers would be hired, and the case load of case managers would be reduced to 10 families each, said Farrell Superintendent Richard R. Rubano Jr.

"There would be more of an individualized approach," Rubano said.

Early Head Start seeks to help pregnant teen-agers stay in school, get prenatal care and proper health care once their children are born, socialize infants and help head off any problems that might prevent a child from doing well in school, Ms. Lengyel said.

When a child enters kindergarten, Head Start and Early Head Start provide the teacher with information on a child's strengths and weaknesses, and the teacher can set up a plan to address the student's needs, Rubano said.

That's important because, in some cases, teachers are getting students who have developmental delays of 18 to 36 months, he said.

Early Head Start funding is very competitive, and the agency was turned down twice before for expansion grants.

Ms. Lengyel said she believes the latest application is better because it shows stronger collaborations with other agencies -- such as area colleges, Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV in Grove City, Mercer County Cooperative Extension, Community Counseling Center, Mercer County Behavioral Health Commission and Prince of Peace Center in Farrell -- and shows an increased need.

Applications were due Monday and will be initially reviewed in June, but a decision is not likely to be handed down until August or September, Ms. Lengyel said.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot at jpinchot@sharon-herald.com