Head Start Issues in the 108th Congress

Publication Date: February 2004

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Social conditions

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Abstract:

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 1,500 public and private nonprofit agencies. In FY2003, Head Start funded enrollment for 909,603 children.

Head Start was last reauthorized in 1998 for FY1999-FY2003, and is due to be reauthorized this fiscal year. The House has passed a reauthorization bill (H.R. 2210), while in the Senate, a bill (S. 1940) has been reported out of committee only. The bills differ markedly from one another, and neither fully adopts proposals first introduced in the President's FY2004 budget. For example, in that budget, President Bush proposed to give states the option to administer the program, whereas the House bill would restrict the state-option feature to a maximum of eight states, while the Senate bill includes no option for state administration of Head Start. The Administration's FY2004 budget also conveyed its intent to transfer federal responsibility for the Head Start program from HHS to the Department of Education. Neither the House nor the Senate bill adopts that controversial proposal, and the President's FY2005 budget does not revisit the issue.

The Head Start program has received increases of varying levels over the past two decades (see Table 1). The FY2004 appropriations law provides $6.775 billion for Head Start. The Administration's FY2005 budget request includes $6.944 billion for Head Start, an increase of $169 million above the FY2004 level.

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 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 was implemented in fall 2003, and is designed to 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.