INFORMATION MEMORANDUM

TO: Head Start Grantees and Delegate Agencies

SUBJECT: Reaching Unserved Populations and Assuring Equal Opportunity for Enrollment in Head Start

SUMMARY: In recent years Head Start has been able to greatly increase the number of children it serves. However, in most communities grantees can still serve only a portion of the low-income children who are eligible and, therefore, must make choices about which children and families to serve and which not to serve. These decisions can be particularly important in communities that have experienced significant demographic changes in recent years, as immigrants and other new populations have arrived. We urge grantees to make special efforts to contact and recruit these families and consider making changes in recruitment areas if these families live in parts of the community that have not historically been served by Head Start.

This Information Memorandum reviews Head Start's policies concerning Community Assessments and the process for determining which children are enrolled. It encourages grantees to give special attention to the needs of populations that are unserved or underserved by Head Start, including ethnic and racial groups who have recently arrived in communities.

INFORMATION: Regulations on Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment and Attendance in Head Start, (45 CFR 1305), require grantees to conduct a Community Assessment at least once every three years. Grantees must use the results of this assessment, among other purposes, to determine the types of children and families who will be given priority for recruitment and selection and to determine appropriate locations for centers. Based on the results of their Community Assessments, grantees must serve areas within their community that have the greatest need for Head Start. When a grantee proposes a recruitment area that is smaller than its approved service area it must explain why this recruitment area is best for its community in terms of providing enrollment opportunities to low-income families. The area to be served must include as many Head Start eligible families as possible so the greatest number of children can be given a chance to be selected for enrollment and the families with the greatest need for Head Start services can be reached. We urge you to review 45 CFR 1305, where these policies are fully explained.

In recent years, many Head Start grantees have experienced significant changes in the demographic make-up of the low-income families living within their service areas. In some communities, new racial and ethnic groups have arrived, while in other communities low-income families have moved to different neighborhoods. Many grantees have responded to these changes by conducting active outreach efforts to bring new members of the community into the Head Start fold. In addition to new recruitment strategies, their efforts include hiring staff who speak the languages of new groups, modifying their curriculums, relocating centers to new sites and many other innovations.

One of the many reasons Head Start has been so successful over the last 35 years is that it is a locally run program that has been sensitive to the widely varying needs of the local communities it serves. We encourage every program, particularly those in communities with populations that are not currently being reached, to seriously consider new steps to extend the opportunity of a Head Start experience to all eligible children. We hope that all programs will reach out to new families in their communities and welcome them to be part of the Head Start program. Where possible, we encourage grantees to apply for expansion funds to go into new parts of their communities or serve new populations. However, expansion may not always be an option for grantees experiencing demographic changes. Some grantees will need to consider responding to the needs of new families by reconfiguring their current programs, including relocating centers to areas that are currently unserved or underserved.

To help support and focus attention on this issue during on-site monitoring visits, we plan to review the extent to which grantees are conducting and using their Community Assessments appropriately and carrying out the responsibilities described in our regulation on eligibility, recruitment and selection (45 CFR 1305).

In conclusion, each Head Start grantee has an obligation to all the low-income families living within its service area. Families recruited for enrollment into Head Start must be those families with the greatest need for the program, as defined by the grantee's own selection criteria. ACF Regional Office staff and staff from the T/TA Quality Improvement Centers stand ready to work with any grantee needing assistance in this area.

Douglas Klafehn (for)
Helen H. Taylor
Associate Commissioner
Head Start Bureau