Over the past decade, significant changes to Head Start environment may have created challenges for some Head Start grantees when they tried to find children to fill funded slots. For example, in the 1990s there was a decline in welfare caseloads following welfare reform and a decline in the number of children living in poverty, which may have decreased the number of children eligible for Head Start. At the same time, the expansion of other federal and state early childhood programs may have increased child care options available to Head Start-eligible families. Consequently, it is possible that federally funded Head Start slots in some areas remain unfilled even while eligible children elsewhere remain on waiting lists. ACF regional officials and officials of underenrolled Head Start grantees often cited a mixture of factors that made it difficult to achieve full enrollment, including increased parental demand for full-day child care, a decrease in the number of eligible children, facilities-related problems, and more parents seeking openings with other sponsors of early education and care. More>> [PDF, 670KB]