(a) Grantees implementing a home based
program option must:
(1) Provide one home visit per week per family (a minimum of 32 home visits
per year) lasting for a minimum of 1 and a half hours each.
(2) Provide, at a minimum, two group socialization activities per month
for each child (a minimum of 16 group socialization activities each
year).
(3) Make up planned home visits or scheduled group
socialization activities that were canceled by the grantee or by program
staff when this is necessary to meet the minimums stated above. Medical or social
service appointments may not replace home visits or scheduled group
socialization activities.
(4) Allow staff sufficient employed time to participate in preservice
training, to plan and set up the program at the start of the year, to close
the program at the end of the year, to maintain records, and to keep
component and activities plans current and relevant. These activities should
take place when no home visits or group socialization activities are
planned.
(5) Maintain an average caseload of 10 to 12 families per home visitor
with a maximum of 12 families for any individual home
visitor.
(b) Home visits must be conducted by trained home visitors with the content
of the visit jointly planned by the home visitor and the parents. Home
visitors must conduct the home visit with the participation of parents. Home
visits may not be conducted by the home visitor with only babysitters or
other temporary caregivers in attendance.
(1) The purpose of the home visit is to help parents improve their
parenting skills and to assist them in the use of the home as the child's
primary learning environment. The home visitor must work with parents to
help them provide learning opportunities that enhance their child's growth
and development.
(2) Home visits must, over the course of a month, contain elements of all
Head Start program components. The home visitor is the person responsible
for introducing, arranging and/or providing Head Start
services.
(c) Group socialization activities must be focused on both the children
and parents. They may not be conducted by the home visitor with babysitters or
other temporary caregivers.
(1) The purpose of these socialization activities for the children is to
emphasize peer group interaction through age appropriate activities in a
Head Start classroom, community facility, home, or on a field trip. The
children are to be supervised by the home visitor with parents observing at
times and actively participating at other times.
(2) These activities must be designed so that parents are expected to
accompany their children to the group socialization activities at least
twice each month to observe, to participate as volunteers or to engage in
activities designed specifically for the parents.
(3) Grantees
must follow the nutrition requirements specified in 45 CFR 1304.23(b)(2) and
provide appropriate snacks and meals to the children during group
socialization activities.
[57 FR
58092, Dec. 8, 1992, as amended at 61 FR 57227, Nov. 5, 1996]
