Bay Area Head Start workers look upon proposed changes by federal government with trepidation
By CBS Bay Area
The future of Head Start programs nationwide could be in jeopardy, as the federal government released a new proposal to push for deregulating the program.
The Administration for Children & Families, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is proposing to shift the governing authority for group sizes and ratios from federal to state standards, cap the cost of administrative overhead, and prioritize health and physical activity within the program.
If enacted, Head Start leaders said it would require class instruction be delivered in only English, eliminate teacher-child ratio requirements, and impose new cost caps that could force many program to reduce staffing and/or services.
There are currently 137 Head Start providers in the state, and officials say they serve about 70,000 kids every day to become school-ready. There are roughly 30 Head Start centers in San Francisco alone.
“I love children and families, and found my community with Head Start,” Cheryl Horney, the chief program officer with Wu Yee Children’s Services in San Francisco, told CBS News Bay Area.
She has been an educator with Head Start for the past 17 years.
“One of our staff, her daughter just graduated valedictorian of her high school here in San Francisco. And she went to one of our centers 16 years ago and it does create strong child outcomes,” she said.
Head Start runs on government funding, and helps children from low-income families prepare for school, which is why Horney is concerned about the new federal proposal to de-regulate the program.
“These standards have been a foundation for 61 years, and to have less of them, it could cause health and safety risk. It could cause equity issues, make it harder for families to get into the program,” she said.
“Head Start works because of its high standards. Six decades of evidence show that Head Start improves school readiness, increases high school graduation and college enrollment, reduces the need for costly special education services in K-12 school years, connects children to health and dental care, and produces lasting gains in adult earnings and family stability,” Melanee Cottrill, the executive director of Head Start California, said. “Head Start’s results are possible because the standards ensure that all programs offer high-quality and comprehensive services. We believe eliminating the quality standards will negatively impact the children and families that Head Start is designed to serve.”
“I wouldn’t want them to make any drastic changes where we couldn’t follow our Head Start standards and to impact any remote department in a Head Start program,” Ravelle Taylor, center manager for Wu Yee Children’s Services Kirkwood Center, told CBS News Bay Area. “Even education, mental health, enrollment, enrollment’s huge. Families who need to work and go to school, they need the longer care. I just don’t feel like we should have any disruptions in making change.”
“We wouldn’t have our enrollment, as it is, and to have less students or even less staffing would be huge,” Taylor said. “It would hurt the agency across all the states. We all need to be supportive of our community for parents able to go to work, parents able to go to school.”
“Head Start is unique in that it’s run and governed by families,” Horney added. “And so, the policy council is one of the governing supports of Head Start. And so, with the deregulation, with the proposed standards, that would take away the role that the family plays in oversight and support of Head Start.”
California receives about $1.6 billion of the total $12.5 billion federal grant to Head Start providers nationwide. Leaders agree that funding is critical to keep their doors open and mission going.
“The standards are something that helps to create uniformity and guidance for everyone. It creates exactly that, a foundation, a standard of quality,” Horney said.
The public comment timeline for the proposal will be open through October 6.
