In the Senate of the United States,
June 19, 2007.
Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representa-
tives (H.R. 1429) entitled ‘‘An Act to reauthorize the Head
Start Act, to improve program quality, to expand access, and
for other purposes.’’, do pass with the following
AMENDMENT:
Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Head Start for School
Readiness Act’’.
SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.
Section 636 of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831)
is amended to read as follows:
‘‘SEC. 636. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.
‘‘It is the purpose of this subchapter to promote the
school readiness of low-income children by enhancing their
cognitive and social development—
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‘‘(1) with a learning environment that supports
cognitive development (including the growth of lan-
guage, pre-literacy, and premathematics skills) and
the growth of social, emotional, and physical skills;
and
‘‘(2) through the provision to low-income chil-
dren and their families of health, educational, nutri-
tional, social, and other services that are determined,
based on family needs assessments, to be necessary.’’.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
Section 637 of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9832)
is amended—
(1) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘(including a
community-based organization, as defined in section
9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801))’’ after ‘‘nonprofit’’;
(2) in paragraph (3)(C), by inserting ‘‘, includ-
ing financial literacy,’’ after ‘‘Parent literacy’’;
(3) in paragraph (17), by striking ‘‘Mariana Is-
lands,’’ and all that follows and inserting ‘‘Mariana
Islands.’’; and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(18) The term ‘deficiency’ means—
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‘‘(A) a systemic or substantial material fail-
ure of an agency in an area of performance that
the Secretary determines involves—
‘‘(i) a threat to the health, safety, or
civil rights of children or staff;
‘‘(ii) a denial to parents of the exercise
of their full roles and responsibilities related
to program operations;
‘‘(iii) a failure to comply with stand-
ards related to early childhood development
and health services, family and community
partnerships, or program design and man-
agement;
‘‘(iv) the misuse of funds under this
subchapter;
‘‘(v) loss of legal status or financial vi-
ability, loss of permits, debarment from re-
ceiving Federal grants or contracts, or the
improper use of Federal funds; or
‘‘(vi) failure to meet any other Federal
or State requirement that the agency has
shown an unwillingness or inability to cor-
rect, after notice from the Secretary, within
the period specified;
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‘‘(B) systemic failure of the board of direc-
tors of an agency to fully exercise its legal and
fiduciary responsibilities;
‘‘(C) substantial failure of an agency to
meet the administrative requirements of section
644(b);
‘‘(D) failure of an agency to demonstrate
that the agency attempted to meet the coordina-
tion and collaboration requirements with entities
described in section 640(a)(5)(D)(ii)(I); or
‘‘(E) having an unresolved area of non-
compliance.
‘‘(19) The term ‘homeless child’ means a child
described in section 725(2) of the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11434a(2)).
‘‘(20) The term ‘institution of higher education’
has the meaning given the term in section 101(a) of
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
1001(a)).
‘‘(21) The term ‘interrater reliability’ means the
extent to which 2 or more independent raters or ob-
servers consistently obtain the same result when using
the same assessment tool.
‘‘(22) The term ‘limited English proficient’, used
with respect to a child, means a child—