Getting the Ball Rolling on Head Start Stimulus $$

Yesterday the Department of Health and Human Services released additional information on new Head Start and Early Head Start funds appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the fiscal year 2009 omnibus appropriations legislation. The ARRA provides $2.1 billion over two years for Head Start and Early Head Start, $1.1 billion of which is allocated to Early Head Start and $1 billion for Head Start. The fiscal year 2009 appropriation provides $7.1 billion in funding for both Head Start and Early Head Start programs, a $234 million increase over the fiscal year 2008 appropriation.

But it’s more complicated than that. Head Start funds are allocated to a variety of purposes and activities—including cost of living allowances for Head Start staff, quality improvement activities, and expansion to serve additional children—according to various provisions set out in the 2007 Head Start reauthorization legislation, the ARRA legislation, and the fiscal year 2009 appropriations legislation. Untangling the amount of money that goes to different purposes can be confusing. The Department’s release yesterday helps make this clearer.

The chart below shows the amount of new Head Start funds under the ARRA and fiscal year 2009 appropriation that will be allocated to different uses. (In includes only the increase in Head Start funds for fiscal year 2009, not the entire appropriation.)

Expansion

The largest portion of new funding—nearly $1.2 billion—will be used to expand Early Head Start programs. These funds will serve some 55,000 additional pregnant women, infants, and toddlers, nearly doubling the number served by Early Head Start. A smaller amount of funding—$219 million—will fund expansion of existing Head Start programs to serve some 16,000 additional children nationally. HHS will hold a grant competition for new Early Head Start funds, and expects to make grant applications available within a few weeks. Head Start expansion funding will be allocated to existing grantees.

Quality and Coordination

$354 million in ARRA funds will go to support quality improvement activities in Head Start centers, including increasing staff compensation (necessary to raise staff education levels to comply with the reauthorization’s requirements), providing staff training, and improving Head Start facilities and transportation. $2 million in funding is also available for the Head Start Centers of Excellence program, authorized in the 2007 reauthorization, which identifies outstanding Head Start centers across the country to serve as models of quality.

$100 million in funding will be available to support the creation of State Advisory Councils, to improve coordination at the state level among Head Start, state pre-k, child care, and other early education programs. The 2007 Head Start reauthorization authorized funding for these councils, but because Head Start funding was stagnant in fiscal year 2008, they were never funded. The increased Head Start funding in the ARRA provided the resources needed to get the councils started. That’s important because state early learning councils have the potential to play an important role in laying the state-level groundwork for President Obama’s proposed investments in state Early Learning Challenge Grants to be effective. Keep an eye on what states do with these funds.

Cost of Living Allowances and Other Funding

Between ARRA and FY 2009 appropriation funds, nearly $326 million will be available to provide nearly five percent cost of living increase for Head Start programs and staff—substantially larger than the increases in recent years. Funding will also be available to support training and technical assistance, program monitoring, and program support.

When Funds Will Be Available

Funding for quality improvements and cost of living allowances will be available immediately to Head Start grantees. Funding for advisory councils and for expansion will not be available until the Department issues guidance on these programs, which it expects to do in the coming weeks.

An initial estimate of the amount of new Head Start funding that will go to different states appears below. This is only an estimate, because the Department will not know the exact amount each state will receive until grantees submit their requests and funds are allocated.