I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2217 
To amend the Head Start Act to promote trauma-informed practices, age- 
appropriate positive behavioral intervention and support, services for 
young children who have experienced trauma or toxic stress, and im-
proved coordination between Head Start agencies and other programs 
that serve very young children. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 1, 2015 
Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Head Start Act to promote trauma-informed 
practices, age-appropriate positive behavioral intervention 
and support, services for young children who have experi-
enced trauma or toxic stress, and improved coordination 
between Head Start agencies and other programs that 
serve very young children. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Caring Start Act of 
2015’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) Neglect, hunger, abuse, and other forms of 
trauma present significant challenges to young chil-
dren’s learning and social-emotional development. 
(2) 
Trauma-informed 
and 
trauma-sensitive 
caregiving is an ideal targeted intervention for vul-
nerable children who experience trauma. 
(3) A child’s development relies significantly on 
the development of executive function skills, includ-
ing cognitive flexibility, self-regulation, and effortful 
control and attention. 
(4) Focusing on these skills, even though they 
are not obviously academic, is critical in order to im-
prove children’s long-term outcomes. 
(5) Providing high-quality early childhood edu-
cation can protect young children from some of the 
most adverse effects of poverty, enable their healthy 
development, strengthen their health, and reduce or 
mediate toxic stress responses to adverse experi-
ences. 
(6) Robust support, professional development, 
and specialized training for the early education and 
care workforce is essential to providing a high-qual-
ity early education to every child. 
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SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS. 
Section 648 of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9843) 
is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)(3)— 
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 
(i) in clause (ii) by striking ‘‘and’’ at 
the end, 
(ii) in clause (iii) by striking ‘‘and’’ at 
the end, and 
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(iv) activities that support the imple-
mentation of evidence-based trauma-in-
formed practices, age-appropriate positive 
behavioral 
interventions 
and 
supports, 
early childhood mental health consultation, 
and prevention of suspension and expul-
sion; and 
‘‘(v) activities that appropriately in-
crease the level of coordination between 
Head Start agencies and other programs 
that serve very young children, in order to 
increase the general quality, availability, 
and reliability of services provided; and’’, 
(B) in subparagraph (B)— 
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(i) in clause (xv) by striking ‘‘and’’ at 
the end, 
(ii) in clause (xvi) by striking the pe-
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’, and 
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(xvii) assist Head Start agencies in 
adopting evidence-based approaches to best 
identify and serve children whose experi-
ences have elicited a toxic stress re-
sponse.’’, 
(2) in subsection (b)(2)— 
(A) in subparagraph (F) by striking ‘‘and’’ 
at the end, 
(B) in subparagraph (G) by striking the 
period at the end and inserting a semicolon, 
and 
(C) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(H) in evidence-based trauma-informed 
practices, as well as early childhood mental 
health consultation and age-appropriate positive 
behavioral interventions and supports; and 
‘‘(I) in helping children who have experi-
enced, or are experiencing, trauma or toxic 
stress.’’, and 
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(3) in subsection (d)(1)— 
(A) in subparagraph (G) by striking ‘‘and 
children under 3 years of age, where applica-
ble’’ and inserting ‘‘children who experience 
trauma, and children under 3 years of age, es-
pecially for whom such experiences have caused 
a toxic stress response, including appropriate 
training and professional development on evi-
dence-based trauma-informed practices and 
early childhood mental health consultation’’, 
(B) by redesignating subparagraph (I) as 
subparagraph (J), and 
(C) by inserting after subparagraph (H) 
the following: 
‘‘(I) Activities designed to prevent suspen-
sion and expulsion and to increase utilization of 
age-appropriate positive behavioral interven-
tions and supports.’’. 
Æ 
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