HR 1429 PCS
‘‘(4)(A) For the purposes of paragraph (3), the Sec-
retary shall conduct an annual consultation in each af-
fected Head Start region, with tribal governments oper-
ating Head Start programs and Early Head Start pro-
grams. 
‘‘(B) The consultations shall be for the purpose of 
better meeting the needs of Indian children and children 
of Alaskan Natives, and their families, in accordance with 
subsections (a), (b), and (c) of section 641, taking into 
consideration funding allocations, distribution formulas, 
and other issues affecting the delivery of Head Start serv-
ices in their geographic locations. 
‘‘(C) The Secretary shall publish a notification of the 
consultations in the Federal Register before conducting 
the consultations. 
‘‘(D) A detailed report of each consultation shall be 
prepared and made available within 90 days of the annual 
consultation to all Indian tribes that receive assistance 
under this subchapter.’’. 
(g) ENROLLMENT OF HOMELESS CHILDREN; RULE 
OF CONSTRUCTION; MATERIALS.—Section 640 of the 
Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9835) is amended by adding 
at the end the following: 
‘‘(m) ENROLLMENT OF HOMELESS CHILDREN.—The 
Secretary shall issue rules to establish policies and proce-
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dures to remove barriers to the enrollment and participa-
tion of homeless children in Head Start programs. Such 
rules shall require Head Start agencies— 
‘‘(1) to implement policies and procedures to 
ensure that homeless children are identified and 
prioritized for enrollment; 
‘‘(2) to allow homeless families to apply to, en-
roll in and attend Head Start programs while re-
quired documents, such as proof of residency, immu-
nization and other medical records, birth certificates 
and other documents, are obtained within a reason-
able time frame; and 
‘‘(3) coordinate individual Head Start programs 
with efforts to implement subtitle B of title VII of 
the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 
U.S.C. 11431–11435). 
‘‘(n) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sub-
chapter shall be construed to require a State to establish 
a program of early education for children in the State, 
to require any child to participate in a program of early 
education, to attend school, or to participate in any initial 
screening before participating in such program, except as 
provided under sections 612(a)(3) and 635(a)(5) of the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 
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‘‘(o) MATERIALS.—All curricula and instructional 
materials funded under this subchapter shall be based on 
scientifically based research, age and developmentally ap-
propriate, and focused on all areas of development (cog-
nitive, social, emotional, and physical), learning (language 
and literacy, mathematics, science, and creative arts) and 
approaches to learning. Parents shall be permitted to in-
spect, upon request, any curricula or instructional mate-
rials used to carry out this subchapter.’’. 
SEC. 6. DESIGNATION OF HEAD START AGENCIES. 
Section 641 of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9836) 
is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘SEC. 641. DESIGNATION OF HEAD START AGENCIES. 
‘‘(a) AUTHORITY TO DESIGNATE.—The Secretary is 
authorized to designate as a Head Start agency any local 
public or private nonprofit agency, including community- 
based and faith-based organizations, or for-profit agency, 
within a community, pursuant to the requirements of this 
section, except that until such time that the Secretary de-
velops and implements the system of application review 
under this section, the Secretary is authorized to designate 
as a Head Start agency, any local public or private non-
profit agency, including community-based and faith-based 
organizations, or for-profit agency, within a community, 
in the manner and process utilized by the Secretary prior 
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to the enactment of the Improving Head Start Act of 
2007. 
‘‘(b) APPLICATION FOR GRANTS.—Each entity shall 
submit a plan to the Secretary, at such time and in such 
manner as the Secretary may require. 
‘‘(c) DEVELOPMENT OF APPLICATION REVIEW SYS-
TEM.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall develop 
a system that integrates the recommendations of the 
expert panel convened under paragraph (3) to deter-
mine if a Head Start agency is providing a quality 
comprehensive early learning program that meets 
the educational, health, and nutritional needs of the 
children and families it serves, and meets program 
and financial management requirements and per-
formance standards described in section 641A(a)(1), 
based on— 
‘‘(A) annual budget data; 
‘‘(B) program reviews conducted under 
section 641A(c); 
‘‘(C) annual audits required under section 
647; 
‘‘(D) classroom quality as measured under 
section 641A(c)(2)(H); and 
‘‘(E) Program Information Report. 
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‘‘(2) EXPERT
PANEL.—No later than six 
months after the enactment of the Improving Head 
Start Act of 2007, the Secretary shall convene an 
expert panel of 7 members to make recommenda-
tions to the Secretary on the development of a trans-
parent, reliable, and valid system for evaluating 
grant renewal applications. 
‘‘(3) COMPOSITION
OF
EXPERT
PANEL.—The 
Secretary, in convening such panel, shall appoint the 
following: 
‘‘(A) Five members, who are competent, by 
virtue of their training, expertise, and experi-
ence, in each of at least one of the following 
areas: 
‘‘(i) Early childhood program accredi-
tation or quality assessment. 
‘‘(ii) Research on early childhood de-
velopment. 
‘‘(iii) Governance and finance of non- 
profit organizations. 
‘‘(iv) Delivery of services to children 
and families with limited English pro-
ficiency. 
‘‘(v) Delivery of services to children 
with disabilities. 
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‘‘(B) An employee from the Office of Head 
Start. 
‘‘(C) An executive director of a Head Start 
agency. 
‘‘(4) EXPERT
PANEL
REPORT.—Within 12 
months of being convened by the Secretary, the ex-
pert panel shall issue a report to the Secretary that 
provides recommendations on a proposed system of 
application review that takes into account the cri-
teria in paragraph (1) to evaluate whether a Head 
Start grantee is meeting its mission to provide a 
high quality comprehensive early education program, 
including adequately meeting its governance and fi-
nancial management requirements. 
‘‘(5) PUBLIC
COMMENT; 
REPORT
TO
CON-
GRESS.—No later than 6 months after receiving the 
report described in paragraph (4), the Secretary 
shall publish a proposed system of application review 
in the Federal Register, providing at least 90 days 
for public comment and shall provide a report to the 
Committee on Education and Labor of the House of 
Representatives and the Committee on Health, Edu-
cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate that pro-
vides a detailed description of such proposed system, 
including clear rationale for any differences between 
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the proposed system and the recommendations of 
the expert panel, if any such differences exist. 
‘‘(6) IMPLEMENTATION
OF
APPLICATION
RE-
VIEW SYSTEM.—After the Secretary has reviewed all 
public comments and finalized the system of applica-
tion review, the Secretary will use this system to de-
termine which grantees are successfully delivering a 
high quality comprehensive early education program. 
Grantees who are determined under such system to 
be— 
‘‘(A) successfully delivering a high quality 
comprehensive early education program shall be 
designated a Head Start agency for a period of 
5 years; 
‘‘(B) under-performing and may enter into 
an open competition as described in subsection 
(e); and 
‘‘(C) notwithstanding paragraph (B), if an 
Indian Head Start agency is determined to be 
underperforming, the Secretary shall engage in 
government-to-government consultation with the 
appropriate tribal government or governments 
for the purpose of establishing a performance 
enhancement plan for that agency. Such plan is 
to be developed and implemented within 6 
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months of the Secretary’s determination. Not 
more than 6 months after implementation of 
that plan, the Secretary shall reevaluate the 
performance of the Indian Head Start agency. 
If the Indian Head Start agency remains 
underperforming, the Secretary shall conduct 
an open competition as described in subsection 
(e), subject to the following limitations: 
‘‘(i) Except as provided in paragraph 
(ii), a non-Indian Head Start agency may 
not receive a grant to carry out an Indian 
Head Start program. 
‘‘(ii) In a community in which there is 
no Indian Head Start agency available for 
designation to carry out an Indian Head 
Start program, a non-Indian Head Start 
agency, on an interim basis, may receive a 
grant to carry out an Indian Head Start 
program, but only until such time as an 
Indian Head Start agency in such commu-
nity becomes available. 
‘‘(d) TRANSPARENCY, RELIABILITY, AND VALID-
ITY.—The Secretary shall ensure the system of application 
evaluation is fair, consistent, and transparent and is ap-
plied in a manner that designates, in a timely manner 
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grantees as Head Start agencies for a period of 5 years 
if such grantees are providing a high quality comprehen-
sive early education program. The Secretary shall periodi-
cally evaluate whether the criteria are being applied in a 
manner that is transparent, reliable, and valid. 
‘‘(e) DESIGNATION WHEN NO ENTITY HAS PRI-
ORITY.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—If no entity in a commu-
nity is determined to be successfully delivering a 
high quality comprehensive early education program, 
as specified in subsection (c), the Secretary shall, 
after conducting an open competition, designate for 
a 5-year period a Head Start agency from among 
qualified applicants in such community. 
‘‘(2) CONSIDERATIONS
IN
DESIGNATION.—In 
selecting from among qualified applicants for des-
ignation as a Head Start agency, the Secretary shall 
consider the effectiveness of each such applicant to 
provide Head Start services, based on— 
‘‘(A) any past performance of such appli-
cant in providing services comparable to Head 
Start services, including how effectively such 
applicant provided such comparable services; 
‘‘(B) the plan of such applicant to provide 
comprehensive health (including mental and be-
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havioral health), educational, nutritional, social, 
and other services needed to prepare children to 
succeed in school and in life; 
‘‘(C) the plan of such applicant to attract 
and retain qualified staff capable of delivering 
a high quality comprehensive early education 
program, including demonstrating the ability to 
provide adequate salary and benefits to main-
tain a high quality staff; 
‘‘(D) the ability of such applicant to main-
tain child-teacher ratios and family service 
worker caseloads that reflect best practices and 
are tied to high quality service delivery; 
‘‘(E) the capacity of such applicant to 
serve eligible children with curriculum and 
teaching practices that are based on scientif-
ically based research, are developmentally ap-
propriate, and that promote the school readi-
ness of children participating in the program; 
‘‘(F) the plan of such applicant to meet 
standards set forth in section 641A(a)(1), with 
particular attention to the standards set forth 
in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of such section; 
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‘‘(G) the proposed budget and plan of such 
applicant to maintain strong fiscal controls and 
cost effective fiscal management; 
‘‘(H) the plan of such applicant to coordi-
nate the Head Start program the applicant pro-
poses to carry out, with other local early learn-
ing programs for young children, including— 
‘‘(i) programs implementing grants 
under the Early Reading First and Even 
Start programs under subparts 2 and 3 of 
part B of title I of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 6371 et seq., 6381 et seq.); 
‘‘(ii) and programs under section 619 
and part C of the Individuals with Disabil-
ities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1419, 1431 
et seq.); 
‘‘(iii) State prekindergarten programs; 
‘‘(iv) child care programs; and 
‘‘(v) the educational programs that 
the children participating in the Head 
Start program will enter at the age of com-
pulsory school attendance; 
‘‘(I) the plan of such applicant to coordi-
nate the Head Start program that the applicant 
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