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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 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 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 1,600 public and private nonprofit and for-profit agencies. In FY2004, Head Start funded enrollment for 905,851 children. Head Start was last reauthorized in 1998 for FY1999-FY2003, and after unsuccessful efforts to complete the reauthorization process on schedule, the 109th Congress inherited the task of reauthorizing the program. On September 22, 2005, the House passed a reauthorization bill (H.R. 2123), which, as amended, includes the controversial provision to allow faith-based Head Start providers to discriminate in hiring, based on religion. The bill also contains provisions to increase coordination between Head Start and other entities providing early childhood services, and increases competition for Head Start grants, requiring most to recompete every five years. On the Senate side, a reauthorization bill (S. 1107) has not yet gone to the floor, but has been approved in committee, with emphasis on improving coordination among early childhood programs, and increasing staff qualifications. The bill does not include the provision to allow faith-based providers to discriminate in hiring. Earlier (in the FY2004 budget) the Administration conveyed its intent to transfer federal responsibility for Head Start from HHS to the Department of Education. No House nor Senate bills introduced since have adopted that controversial proposal, and the President's FY2005 and FY2006 budgets did not revisit the issue. The Head Start program has received increases of varying levels over the past two decades. The FY2005 appropriations law (P.L. 108-447) provided $6.843 billion, and the temporary FY2006 appropriations measure continues funding at that rate through November 18, 2005. Program performance, fiscal management, 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 required HHS to develop specific education performance standards, and established teacher and staff training related to these standards as a priority use of quality improvement funds. 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 -- got underway during the 108th Congress. This national reporting system was implemented in fall 2003, and is designed to assess Head Start 4- and five-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.
