Changes to the Head Start Act

ACYF Administration on Children, Youth and Families	U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families
	1. Log No. ACYF-IM-HS-98-20	2. Issuance Date: 12/21/98
	3. Originating Office: Head Start Bureau
	4. Key Word: New Head Start Act

INFORMATION MEMORANDUM

TO: Head Start Grantees and Delegate Agencies

SUBJECT: Changes to the Head Start Act

LEGAL AND RELATED REFERENCES: Head Start Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 9831 et seq.

SUMMARY:

The Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-285), signed by the President on October 27, 1998, amends the Head Start Act and extends authority for the Head Start program through FY 2003. The new legislation reaffirms core features of Head Start's mission and structure and adds significant new provisions to strengthen program quality, accountability, expansion, partnership, and research efforts.

Attached is a copy of the revised head Start Act and a summary of the major changes incorporated into the Act.

The Head Start Bureau will-be working in partnership with ACF Regional Offices, Head Start grantees and delegate agencies, and other leaders in early childhood services and research to guide and support implementation of this legislation. We will be issuing additional instructions to grantees and delegate agencies over the next several..months as part of our implementation procedures.

INQUIRIES:

Questions on this Memorandum should be directed to your Regional Office.

/S/
Helen H. Taylor
Associate Commissioner
Head Start Bureau

Attachment

SUMMARY OF MAJOR CHANGES TO THE head START ACT OCTOBER, 1998

Program Quality & Accountability

SECTION 636 amends the statement of purpose to emphasize Head Start's role in promoting school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of low-income children.

SECTION 641A (a) (1) (B) requires the Secretary to establish new education performance standards focused on, among other purposes, ensuring school readiness.

SECTION 641A (b) requires the Secretary to assure that Head Start Performance measures are results-based--measuring the impact of head Start services on the children and families served by the program--and are adaptable for use in peer review and program evaluation by no later than July 1, 1999. The Secretary is also required to develop education performance measures designed to ensure that head Start children are familiar with the written and spoken language.

SECTION 641A (c) expands the purpose of program monitoring to include a determination as to whether programs are meeting results-based performance measures.

SECTION 641A (d) revises some of the timelines for correcting deficiencies identified through the monitoring process by allowing the Secretary to give a head Start agency up to 90 days to correct a deficiency without submitting a Quality Improvement Plan (QIP).

Staff Training & Assessment

SECTIONS 642 (d) (5) and 648A (a)(1) require that classroom staff demonstrate specific competencies and that grantees assess these competencies when hiring and evaluating teachers.

SECTION 648A (a) (2) requires that, by Sept. 2003, at least 50% of all Head Start teachers nationwide in center-based programs have an AA, BA, or advanced degree in early childhood education, or development, or a degree in a related field and experience in teaching preschool children.

Program Funding

SECTION 640 (a) (3) (A) (i) increases the proportion of funding increases (after awarding COLA) that must be used for quality improvement purposes from 25% to 60% in FY 1999, 50% in FY 2000, 47.5% in FY 2001, and 35% in FY 2002, returning to 25% in FY 2003.

SECTION 640 (a) (3) (C) requires preference in awarding salary increases, above cost-of-living increases, be for staff who obtain additional training.

SECTION 640 (a) (3) (C) (III) places a priority on the award on "non-salary increase" quality improvement funds on training staff to meet education performance standards.

SECTION 640 (a) (3) (B) & (c) establishes several new priorities for quality improvement funds while eliminating authority contained in the previous statute to use quality improvement funds for transportation, renovation of facilities or the acquisition of equipment.

SECTION 640 (a) (4) revises the State allocation formula by moving the "hold harmless" year from FY 1981 to FY 1998 and requiring the distribution of funds among States be based solely on each State's relative number of children, under age 5, from families with incomes below the poverty line.

SECTION 640 (g) (2) specifies several additional criteria in allocating program expansion funds, including the applicant's ability to collaborate and participate with other child care providers to provide full-day, full-year services and the applicant's plans to coordinate and foster partnerships with other community providers.

Procedures for Establishing Head Start Grantees

SECTION 641 (a) allows for-profit organizations to become Head Start grantees and delegate agencies.

SECTION 641 (d) expands the criteria used for designating new grantees. These include an applicant's capacity and plans to collaborate with other child care providers, public schools, and organizations serving children with disabilities; its past performance in meeting performance standards and measures; and its capacity to serve children with disabilities, non-English background children and drug and alcohol-exposed children. It also requires the Secretary to give preference to any qualified agency that functioned as a Head Start delegate agency.

SECTION 641 (g) permits the Secretary to give priority, in selecting a new Head Start agency, to a non-profit agency if a non-profit and for-profit organizations' proposals are of equal quality. It also requires the Secretary to give priority to applicants with a demonstrated capacity in providing comprehensive early childhood services to children and their families.

Collaboration with State Governments and Programs

SECTIONS 640 (a) (5) (B) and 640 (a) (5) (C) establish new mandates for Head Start State Collaboration Offices to link with services to the homeless and with State child care and resource and referral agencies, and to foster unified planning for quality full-day, full-year services.

SECTION 640 (a) (5) (E) (i) requires the Secretary to review and develop mechanisms to resolve barriers to collaboration with other child care early education programs and to resolve administrative and programmatic conflicts which inhibit the provision of unified child care services.

SECTION 640 (a) (5) (E) (ii) permits Head Start purchased equipment and supplies to be shared with non-Head Start participants in collaborative funding arrangements.

SECTIONS 641(a) 641 (c) and 643 expand the time period from 30 to 45 days allowed for a governor's review of those Head Start grantees proposed for funding in the State and prohibits the Secretary from overriding a governor's disapproval of funding if the grantee fails to meet "...State health, safety, and child care laws, including regulations applicable to comparable child care programs in the State." SECTIONS 642 (b) and 642 (c) require grantees to offer substance abuse counseling; to inform single parents of child support services and to refer eligible parents to child support agencies; to collaborate with state child care and early childhood education programs; and to collaborate with programs for children with disabilities.

SECTION 645 (b) allows Head Start grantees to collect copayments when engaged in full-day partnerships with other agencies that collect copayments, provided that copayment rates shall not exceed those charged to other families with similar incomes and circumstances.

Early Head Start

SECTION 640 (a) (6) increases, subject to the availability of funds, the Early Head Start set-aside to 7.5 percent, 8 percent, 9 percent, 10 percent and 10 percent of the total Head Start budget in FYs 1999--2003, respectively;

SECTION 645A (b) requires Early Head Start programs to develop linkages with agencies providing services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to infants and toddlers with disabilities.

SECTION 645A (f) requires that 5-10 percent of the total Early Head Start allocation be used for training and technical assistance.

Training & Technical Assistance

SECTION 640 (a) (2) (c) & 648 (c) (4) establishes a new $3 million training & technical assistance initiative to assist agencies in providing and improving the quality of family literacy services.

SECTION 648 establishes new priorities for training and technical assistance. These include, among others, collaborative efforts to provide quality full-day, full-year services, fostering early childhood professional development systems, helping provide family literacy services, ensuring school readiness of children, meeting education performance standards and measures, and supporting grantees with significant programmatic, quality and fiscal issues.

Services to Special Populations

SECTIONS 640 (a) (2) (B) and 640 (a) (2) (F) limit Head Start funding for the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau to fiscal years before 2002 (or 2003 if legislation approving renegotiated Compacts of Free Association has not been enacted by Sept. 30, 2001).

SECTIONS 640 (a) (2) (A) & 640 (l) (2) establish the eligibility of seasonal farmworkers to receive services through Migrant grantees, providing there are no adverse effects on services to migrant children and no duplication or overlap with other Head Start services available to children of seasonal farmworkers.

SECTION 641 (b) & 645 (d) allows Indian Head Start programs to serve off-reservation areas designated by an appropriate tribal government in consultation with the Secretary.

SECTION 650 (b) requires a study of the condition, location ownership of facilities used by Indian Head Start grantees (including Native Alaskan and Hawaiian agencies).

Research

SECTION 649 (d) (2) requires the development of evaluation methods to measure the effectiveness and impact of family literacy models and models to integrate family literacy and Head Start services.

SECTION 649 (d) (9) mandates a study of Head Start in small, medium and large states, to include comparisons of Head Start participants with eligible children who did not participate in a Head Start program. SECTION 649 (d) (10) requires an analysis of outcomes of Head Start from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the Survey of Program Dynamics, and dissemination of the results to persons conducting other new studies.

SECTION 649 (g) mandates a new national impact study to assess Head Start's effectiveness in enhancing children's social competence, cognitive, emotional and physical health and in strengthening families. The study's methods should include longitudinal designs, control groups, standardized measures and random selection and assignment, as appropriate.

SECTION 649 (h) mandates a study of the use and outcomes of quality improvement funds allocated since 1991, including the types of activities funded, evidence of accomplishment of goals and the effects on teacher training, compensation, recruitment and retention.

Effective Date

Unless otherwise noted, requirements of the reauthorization are effective as of the date enactment, October 27, 1998.