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Summary

Head Start is a federal program that has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1965. Services provided to preschool-aged children include child development, educational, health, nutritional, social and other activities, intended to prepare low-income children for entering kindergarten. The program is administered by the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unlike many other social service programs, federal Head Start funds are provided directly to local grantees, rather than through states. Programs are locally designed, and are administered by a network of over 1,500 public and private nonprofit agencies. In FY2002, Head Start funded enrollment for 912,345 children. Head Start was last reauthorized in 1998 (P.L. 105-285) for fiscal years 19992003, and is due to be reauthorized this year. Alongside his FY2004 budget request (which asked for $6.8 billion for Head Start), President Bush has proposed to give states the option to administer the program, provided they supply a plan that sufficiently explains how Head Start will be coordinated with other preschool programs to foster comprehensive, high quality preschool programs. The budget also conveys the Administration's plan to transfer federal responsibility for the Head Start program from HHS to the Department of Education. The reauthorization bill passed by the House (H.R. 2210) does not include the transfer proposal (but does include an eight-state demonstration program). The Head Start program has received increases of varying levels over the past two decades (see Table 1). P.L. 108-7 provides $6.668 billion for Head Start, of which $1.4 billion becomes available in FY2004. This total reflects a $130 million increase from the FY2002 appropriation of $6.538 billion. Program performance and the long-term impact on children, particularly with respect to educational attainment, continue to be areas of focus and concern. The 1998 revisions to the Head Start Act increased the amount of new appropriations that must be used for quality improvement activities, at least through FY2003. In part, the law requires HHS to develop specific education performance standards, and establishes teacher and staff training related to these standards as a priority use of quality improvement funds. In addition, the 1998 amendments to Head Start mandate and reserve funds for additional studies on the program's impact. Development of a national reporting system that can be used to assess the effectiveness of Head Start programs in achieving successful outcomes for children in terms of school readiness -- particularly the areas of literacy and number knowledge -- is currently underway. This national reporting system is scheduled to be implemented this fall, and will reportedly assess Head Start 4- and 5-year olds twice a year on educational performance measures -- using indicators that were included in legislation as part of the 1998 reauthorization of Head Start. Teachers are also being trained in a Strategic Teacher Education Program (STEP), to use research-based strategies to implement early and emergent literacy.

Related Legislation:
• H.R.2210
• S.1999

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