Congress improves Head Start program
01/08 -- Congress has approved legislation to reauthorize and expand Head Start that contains many of the changes sought by NSBA. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law.
Head Start currently serves more than 900,000 children and their families. Of the 1,600 public and private agencies that operate Head Start programs, about 17 percent are school districts.
The legislation authorizes $7.35 billion for fiscal year 2008, up from this year’s level of $6.9 billion. It expands eligibility to children in families with household incomes up to 130 percent of the federal poverty limit. For a family of four, that means an annual income of up to $26,800.
Previously, the program was restricted to families below the federal poverty line.
The measure sets a goal to raise teacher qualifications. By 2013, all Head Start teachers must have at least an associate’s degree and half of them must have a bachelor’s degree.
NSBA supports higher standards for Head Start teachers and improved learning standards for children.
The new law updates the program’s educational standards to include specific education performance indicators in the development of language and literacy, math, science, and other cognitive skills.
The legislation includes provisions supported by NSBA to improve coordination among Head Start programs and public schools and better align Head Start curricula and teacher training with state early learning standards and the skills taught in public kindergarten programs.
Head Start agencies also must coordinate educational activities, parent education, staff training, and other areas with the local agency responsible for publicly funded preschool programs.
Several new provisions in the law are aimed at improving accountability and financial management.
Grantees must reapply every five years. Programs failing to provide a high-quality education program must recompete for their grant using an application review process developed by an expert panel and open to public comment. The review process will consider multiple measures of performance.
The bill does not include two controversial provisions that were sought by the Bush administration: a testing program designed to assess 4-year-olds’ verbal and math skills and a proposal to allow faith-based groups to consider an applicant’s religion when hiring Head Start staff.
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