Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007

Bill: 110-hr-1429
Sponsor: Rep. Kildee, Dale E. [D-MI-5]
Introduced: 2007-03-09 in the House
Policy area: Education
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Summary:
action_date: 2007-03-09
text: 
Improving Head Start Act of 2007 - Amends the Head Start Act to revise and reauthorize Head Start programs.
 
Authorizes appropriations for Head Start programs for FY2008-FY2012.
 
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) (who is currently authorized) to award collaboration grants for Head Start and other related agencies within states.
 
Increases the percentage of funds reserved for Early Head Start programs from 12% in FY2008 to 20% in FY2012.
 
Provides for the development of a new system for designating Head Start agencies and the consideration of additional criteria in evaluating applicants. Allows community-based and faith-based organizations to be designated as Head Start agencies.
 
Requires the Secretary to modify program performance standards, as necessary, so they are scientifically-based, developmentally appropriate, and based on the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework. Directs each Head Start and delegate agency to conduct a comprehensive self-assessment at least once a year.
 
Terminates the National Reporting System.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to establish a structure of shared governance through a governing body of experts and a policy council composed primarily of parents of current and former program participants.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to enroll 100% of its funded enrollment, maintain an active waiting list, and conduct community outreach.
 
Requires Head Start alignment with K-12 education.
 
Provides for local and state integration of early childhood education.
 
Requires Head Start agencies to receive the Secretary's approval before using federal funds to purchase facilities.
 
Includes children referred by child welfare services and homeless children as program participants, regardless of family income. Excludes the basic military housing allowance from program eligibility calculations.
 
Allows certain Head Start agencies to provide Early Head Start services.
 
Adds to Early Head Start program service, coordination, and training requirements.
 
Requires Head Start agencies to get parental consent before administering any nonemergency health care service to a child.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to ensure that all of its teachers receive ongoing training in language and emergent literacy.
 
Requires that within specified periods of time: (1) at least 50% of all Head Start classroom teachers nationwide have at least a baccalaureate in early childhood education or a related field; and (2) all newly hired teachers have at least an associate's degree in such a field or are enrolled in a program leading to such a degree.
 
Directs each Head Start agency and program to create and regularly evaluate a professional development plan for all their employees providing direct services to children.
 
Includes homeless children, abused and neglected children, foster care children, and limited English proficient children in Head Start research, demonstration, and evaluation requirements.

action_date: 2007-03-23
text: 
Improving Head Start Act of 2007 - Amends the Head Start Act (the Act) to revise and reauthorize Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 2) Includes children's growth in language, literacy, mathematics, science, social and emotional functioning, physical skills, and approaches to learning among the aims of Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 3) Adds definitions of Head Start agency deficiencies, homeless children, homeless families, limited English proficient, limited English proficiency, professional development for teachers and staff, and scientifically based research relevant to education activities.
 
 Removes Micronesia and the Marshall Islands as listed program participants.
 
(Sec. 4) Authorizes appropriations for Head Start programs for FY2008-FY2012, with specified amounts for research, demonstration, and evaluation activities, including longitudinal and impact studies.
 
(Sec. 5) Sets forth allotment requirements, as well as limitations on and authorized uses of Head Start funds.
 
Reserves from such funds at least: (1) 5% for migrant and seasonal Head Start programs; (2) 3.5% for Indian Head Start programs; and (3) 2% for training and technical assistance, 50% of which is to be provided to local Head Start agencies for program improvements and 30% for early childhood education training and technical assistance.
 
Provides funding for the Republic of Palau through FY2009.
 
Reserves, for each of FY2008-FY2012, a minimum of 60% of the appropriations in excess of the inflation adjusted prior year appropriation, to be used for quality improvement activities, which include: (1) improving the compensation and benefits of Head Start providers; (2) improving teacher knowledge and skills so as to improve instruction in early language and literacy, early mathematics, cognitive skills, approaches to learning, creative arts, science, physical health and development, and social and emotional development; (3) ensuring that the physical environments of Head Start programs are conducive to the provision of effective services and accessible to the disabled; (4) increasing hours of program operation; and (5) providing safe child transportation services.
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) to award, upon written request, collaboration grants to states and each national administrative office serving Indian Head Start programs and migrant and seasonal Head Start programs to: (1) facilitate collaboration between Head Start agencies and entities that carry out other activities benefiting poor families and children from birth to school entry; and (2) promote alignment of Head Start curricula and continuity of services with the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework and state early learning standards, as appropriate. Requires state grantees to appoint or designate a State Director of Head Start Collaboration to improve the coordination and delivery of early education services. 
 
Increases the percentage of funds reserved for Early Head Start programs from 12% in FY2008 to 20% in FY2012.
 
Requires the Secretary to establish requirements for the safety features, and the safe operation, of vehicles used by Head Start agencies to transport children.
 
Requires the Secretary to: (1) appoint a national migrant and seasonal Head Start collaboration director and a national Indian Head Start collaboration director; (2) conduct annual consultations in each affected Head Start region with tribal governments operating Head Start or Early Head Start programs to better gauge their needs; and (3) establish policies and procedures to remove barriers to the enrollment and participation of homeless children in Head Start programs. 
 
(Sec. 6) Provides for the development of a new system for designating Head Start agencies and the consideration of additional criteria in evaluating applicants.
 
 Includes community-based and faith-based organizations among the entities that may be designated Head Start agencies.
 
Maintains the current process of designating a Head Start agency until the Secretary develops and implements a transparent, reliable, and valid system for evaluating grant renewal applications that integrates the recommendations of an expert panel. Designates those grantees that the system finds to be successfully delivering a high quality comprehensive early education program as Head Start agencies for five years, but requires underperforming grantees to enter into open competition with other applicants.
 
 Sets forth criteria to be considered in choosing between competing applicants, including each applicant's ability to: (1) attract and retain qualified staff; (2) maintain child-teacher ratios and family service caseloads; (3) use scientifically-based curriculum and teaching practices that are developmentally appropriate and promote school readiness; (4) coordinate their programs with other early learning programs, local educational agencies (LEAs), and public and private entities willing to commit resources to such programs; (5) provide family health, literacy, and parenting services; (6) extend outreach to fathers; and (7) meet the needs of limited English proficient, homeless, and foster care children and families and children experiencing toxic stress. Removes the priority currently given nonprofit applicants.
 
Prohibits a non-Indian Head Start agency from operating an Indian Head Start program, unless there is no Indian Head Start agency available in the community.
 
(Sec. 7) Revises Head Start quality standards and monitoring requirements.
 
Requires the Secretary to modify program performance standards, as necessary, so they are scientifically-based, developmentally appropriate, and based on the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework to ensure that children, at a minimum, progress in language, prereading, mathematics, science, cognitive abilities, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, creative arts, and the acquisition of the English language. Adds to the factors the Secretary must consider in developing such standards: (1) the recommendations of the report on Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), when it becomes available; and (2) the unique challenges faced by individual programs, including seasonal, short term, and rural programs.
 
Requires scientifically based measures of program performance to be reviewed at least every four years so they reflect advances in the science of early childhood development.
 
Terminates further development and use of the National Reporting System.
 
Requires the Secretary's reviews of Head Start agencies and programs to use a risk-based assessment system and include unannounced site inspections, as appropriate. Requires such reviews to include: (1) an assessment of whether programs adequately address community needs; (2) an observational instrument that addresses classroom quality; and (3) an assessment of the use of federal funds.
 
Requires that Early Head Start program reviews be conducted by individuals knowledgeable about infant and toddler development.
 
Directs Head Start agencies to evaluate their delegate agencies and inform them of deficiencies which must be corrected.
 
Requires summaries of program reviews and the outcomes of quality improvement plans to be made available to all parents with children receiving Head Start assistance, in addition to the public.
 
Directs each Head Start and delegate agency to conduct a comprehensive self-assessment at least once a year.
 
Directs Head Start agencies to report their actual enrollment regularly to the Secretary and, if such enrollment is less than the funded enrollment, any apparent reason for the shortfall. Requires the Secretary to provide appropriate and timely training and technical assistance to agencies experiencing such shortfalls.
 
Sets forth rules for the redistribution of base grants recaptured, withheld, or reduced.
 
(Sec. 8) Revises the power and functions of Head Start agencies.
 
Adds to the minimum services Head Start agencies provide by requiring them to: (1) seek the involvement of local business, in addition to parents and area residents, in the design and implementation of programs; (2) offer parents of participating children mental and behavioral health services; (3) provide parents of limited English proficient children outreach and services in an understandable and uniform format, and to the extent practicable, in a language such parents can understand; (4) promote, as appropriate, the continued involvement of grandparents and kinship caregivers in the education of participating children upon their transition to school; and (5) provide parents of children suspected of having a disability with information and referral services.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to establish and maintain a formal structure of shared governance through which an independent governing body with legal and fiscal responsibility for administering and overseeing its programs and parent policy councils ensures that such agency operates high quality programs.
 
 Requires that such governing bodies include at least one member with significant financial management or accounting experience, at least one with expertise in early childhood development, at least one attorney, and additional members selected for expertise in education, business administration, and community affairs. Allows exceptions to such requirements when the governing body oversees a public entity and its members are selected by public election or political appointment. Prohibits certain conflict of interests. Includes among governing body responsibilities: (1) approving all major policies, all major expenditures, applications to receive federal funds, and the selection or dismissal of the director of the Head Start agency; (2) overseeing program planning of the agency; and (3) approving or disapproving all policies, applications, and decisions of the policy council.
 
Requires that the majority of a policy council consist of parents or former parents of Head Start enrollees elected by parents of current enrollees, with the remaining members chosen from the community the agency serves. Requires policy councils to approve and submit to the governing body decisions concerning the strategic direction of the program, selection of delegate agencies, recruiting and enrollment, funding applications and budget planning, personnel policies, and parent and community outreach.
 
Directs the Secretary to issue guidance on the implementation of shared decision-making, including a process for resolving impasses between governing bodies and policy councils. 
 
Requires Head Start agencies to conduct outreach to schools, LEAs, local businesses, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, museums, and libraries to generate support and leverage community resources to improve school readiness. Requires Head Start agencies, in communities where both public prekindergarten programs and Head Start programs operate, to collaborate and coordinate activities with the public agency and providers responsible for operating prekindergarten programs, including outreach activities to identify eligible children. Directs Head Start staff, with parental consent, to communicate regularly with the elementary and secondary schools children will be attending to share information about them and ensure their smooth transition to such schools.
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of Head Start agencies to coordinate activities with LEAs and schools in which participating children will enroll. Includes in such collaboration, enhancing the efficiency of services while increasing the participation of underserved eligible children.
 
Establishes curricular requirements that are research-based, comprehensive, and aligned with the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework and state early learning standards, as appropriate. Requires the use of ongoing research-based assessment methods and high-quality research-based developmental screening tools. Directs programs to develop training and technical assistance plans and professional development plans focused on teacher effectiveness.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to enroll 100% of its funded enrollment, maintain an active waiting list, and conduct community outreach.
 
Requires such agencies to use strong fiscal controls.
 
(Sec. 9) Adds to provisions requiring Head Start program coordination with LEAs and schools to ensure the continuity of children's K-12 education by requiring: (1) the needs of homeless and limited-English proficient children, and those currently underserved by Head Start programs, to be addressed; (2) the continuity of developmentally appropriate curricula between Head Start agencies and LEAs; and (3) an emphasis on the role of parental involvement in a child's academic success.
 
(Sec. 10) Provides for local and state integration of early childhood education.
 
Requires Head Start agencies to enter into, submit to the Secretary, and annually review and revise, memoranda of understanding to coordinate activities with providers of publicly-funded prekindergarten programs in their service areas.
 
Directs the Secretary to award an early learning matching grant to each state that requests one to support a State Early Learning Council composed of representatives from Head Start, preschool, child care, local and state education, special education, and child health programs. Makes such Council responsible for improving the coordination and quality of early childhood services within the state.
 
(Sec. 11) Adds to Head Start administrative requirements.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to make a report available to the public at least once each fiscal year disclosing: (1) its finances and budget; (2) its enrollment, including the percentage of its enrollees receiving medical and dental exams; (3) the results of the Secretary's most recent review and the financial audit; (4) parental involvement activities; and (5) the agency's efforts to prepare children for kindergarten.
 
 Prohibits an agency from using federal funds to purchase a facility unless the agency receives the Secretary's approval and describes the facility's cost effectiveness and utility in providing services on a collaborative basis with other community providers.
 
(Sec.12) Alters rules regarding eligible Head Start program participants.
 
Includes children referred by child welfare services and homeless children as program participants, even if their families do not meet low-income eligibility criteria. 
 
Excludes the basic military housing allowance from the income eligibility calculation.
 
Allows a Head Start agency to use program funds to serve infants and toddlers if it provides certain information to the Secretary proving its capacity and capability to carry out an effective Early Head Start program. Subjects such agency to the same rules applicable to Early Head Start programs.
 
Allows a Head Start agency to increase income eligibility to 130% of the poverty level if it provides certain information to the Secretary proving that services and outreach to currently eligible children are adequate, and explaining why it is not feasible to simply increase the number of poor infants and toddlers served.
 
Allows Indian Head Start agencies that also operate a Early Head Start program to reallocate funds between both programs at any time.
 
(Sec. 13) Adds to Early Head Start program service, coordination, and training requirements. 
 
Includes parenting skills training and training in basic child development to services Early Head Start programs must provide to parents.
 
Adds state home service providers, community programs for homeless infants and toddlers, and child protective service agencies to the entities and programs with which Early Head Start programs must coordinate.
 
Requires programs to establish channels of communication with, and implement a systematic procedure for transitioning children and parents to, Head Start programs and other local early childhood education programs.
 
Includes Indian Head Start agencies as eligible Early Head Start providers.
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that, by September 30, 2009, all teachers providing direct services to children and families in Early Head Start centers have a minimum of a child development associate credential and training in early childhood development.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish standards for training, qualifications, and the conduct of home visits for home visitor staff in Early Head Start programs. Requires that such standards include content related to the role of parents in child development and in working with other health and developmental services providers to eliminate gaps in service. 
 
(Sec. 14) Requires Head Start agencies to get parental consent before administering any nonemergency health care service to a child.
 
(Sec.15) Clarifies the Secretary's authority to terminate, reduce, or suspend Head Start assistance before the conclusion of an appeals process. Prohibits the use of Head Start assistance to reimburse legal fees and other costs incurred in pursuing such appeals.
 
(Sec. 16) Requires Head Start agencies to submit to the Secretary complete annual accountings of their administrative expenses, and audit management letters and findings.
 
(Sec. 17) Revises training and technical assistance requirements.
 
Adds as targets of such assistance: (1) services and outreach to homeless children and their families, limited English proficient children and their families, children and families experiencing toxic stress, and additional disabled children; (2) removal of barriers to the recruitment and retention of rural Head Start teachers and outreach to eligible rural families; (3) training for personnel serving abused or neglected children and those referred by or receiving child welfare services; (4) training for personnel to recognize common child health problems for appropriate referral; and (5) training for personnel that addresses the unique needs of migrant and seasonal working families, families with disabled children, families with limited English proficiency, homeless families, and children and families experiencing toxic stress.
 
Requires more than one-half of training and technical assistance funding to be used for classroom-focused assistance and training.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish an outreach program to recruit and train minority men to become Head Start teachers.
 
Prohibits the use of training funds for long-distance travel to training that is available locally or regionally.
 
Lists activities for which program improvement funds may be used by Head Start agencies, including activities to improve parenting skills, job skills, and adult and family literacy.
 
Directs the Secretary to conduct studies and report on Head Start program participation by eligible Indian, Alaskan Native, and migrant and seasonal children.
 
Directs the Secretary to enter into contracts in each state with institutions of higher education or other experienced training entities to support state-based systems of delivering training and technical assistance.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to ensure that all of its teachers receive ongoing training in language and emergent literacy.
 
Encourages the Secretary to contract with an institution of higher education to develop an on-line graduate-level professional development program.
 
Requires the Secretary to consult with experts regarding indoor air quality and children's health and inform Head Start agencies of programs that improve indoor air.
 
Permits the Secretary to award demonstration grants to tribal colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions to establish career ladder programs for Head Start agency staff serving Indian children or limited English proficient children and parents.
 
(Sec. 18) Amends staff qualification and development requirements.
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that by September 30, 2013, at least 50% of all Head Start classroom teachers nationwide have at least: (1) a baccalaureate in early childhood education; or (2) a related field, with experience in teaching preschool children. Requires teachers in migrant and seasonal Head Start classrooms that serve children under age three to meet Early Head Start teacher qualifications. Requires Head Start agencies to issue progress reports regarding their teachers' attainment of credentials and degrees.
 
Requires that, within two years of this Act's enactment, all newly hired Head Start classroom teachers have at least an associate's degree in early childhood education or a related field or be currently enrolled in a program leading to such a degree within three years of their being hired.
 
Requires that individuals who receive educational assistance under the Act to meet teacher qualifications subsequently teach in a Head Start center for the same period of time for which such assistance was received, or else repay such amount.
 
Allows Teach for America program participants that have baccalaureates and meet certain testing and training requirements to serve in Head Start classrooms that lack a teacher who has a baccalaureate in early childhood education or a related field.
 
Directs the Secretary to review and, as necessary, revise or develop maximum caseload requirements for staff providing in-home and other services to Head Start families.
 
Requires each Head Start agency and program to create a professional development plan for all their employees who provide direct services to children and regularly evaluate the plan's effectiveness.
 
(Sec. 19) Alters Head Start research, demonstration, and evaluation requirements.
 
Includes homeless children, abused and neglected children, and foster care children in the continuing program of Head Start research, demonstration, and evaluation activities, which are now to be scientifically-based.
 
Repeals the mandate for the required use and linkage of specified surveys in evaluating Head Start program participants.
 
Directs the Secretary to study and report to Congress on the status of limited English proficient children and their families in participating Head Start and Early Head Start programs, and the extent to which quality improvement funds improve program services for such children and their families.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) study and report to Congress on the status of children and families participating in Head Start and Early Head Start programs in areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, including information on coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in such areas; and (2) prepare and submit Head Start disaster plan recommendations based upon such report to Congress.
 
(Sec. 20) Includes homeless children, foster care children, and limited English proficient children in the biennial reports on the status of children in Head Start programs. 
 
Directs the Secretary to report to Congress: (1) annually on the use of the 13% of Head Start funding set aside for special populations, territories and freely associated states, training and technical assistance, monitoring and terminations, and research; (2) annually on whether triennial reviews of Head Start agencies provide reasonable assurance that such agencies are complying with applicable fiscal laws and regulations; and (3) within one year of this Act's enactment on Head Start agency use of Individualized Education Plans. 
 
Requires the Secretary also to evaluate, publish regulations for, and report to Congress concerning the issue of preventing and reducing obesity in Head Start children.
 
(Sec. 21) Prohibits any Head Start employee from being compensated at a rate greater then the level II Executive Schedule pay rate.
 
(Sec. 22) Prohibits the use of Head Start funds for: (1) publicity or propaganda purposes; or (2) any prepackaged news story, unless the text or audio states that it was prepared or funded by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

action_date: 2007-05-02
text: 
Improving Head Start Act of 2007 - (Sec. 1) Expresses the support of Congress for the continued role of community and faith-based organizations in Head Start programs as providers of comprehensive services to children, families, and communities. Thanks such organizations and their employees and volunteers for their commitment to the education, health, and economic well-being of low-income children and families. 
 
Amends the Head Start Act (the Act) to revise and reauthorize Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 2) Includes among the aims of Head Start programs children's growth in language, literacy, mathematics, science, social and emotional functioning, physical skills, and approaches to learning.
 
(Sec. 3) Adds definitions of Head Start agency deficiencies, homeless children, homeless families, inclusive classrooms, limited English proficient (LEP), professional development for teachers and staff, and scientifically based research relevant to education activities.
 
 Removes Micronesia and the Marshall Islands from the list of program participants.
 
(Sec. 4) Authorizes appropriations for Head Start programs for FY2008-FY2012, with specified amounts for research, demonstration, and evaluation activities, including longitudinal and impact studies.
 
(Sec. 5) Sets forth allotment requirements, as well as limitations on and authorized uses of Head Start funds.
 
Reserves from such funds at least: (1) 5% for migrant and seasonal Head Start programs; (2) 3.5% for Indian Head Start programs; and (3) 2% for training and technical assistance, 50% of which is to be provided to local Head Start agencies for program improvements and 30% for early childhood education training and technical assistance.
 
Provides funding for the Republic of Palau through FY2009.
 
Reserves, for each of FY2008-FY2012, a minimum of 60% of the appropriations in excess of the inflation adjusted prior year appropriation, to be used for quality improvement activities, which include: (1) improving the compensation and benefits of Head Start providers; (2) improving teacher knowledge and skills so as to improve instruction in early language and literacy, early mathematics, cognitive skills, approaches to learning, creative arts, science, physical health and development, and social and emotional development; (3) ensuring that the physical environments of Head Start programs are conducive to the provision of effective services and accessible to the disabled; (4) increasing hours of program operation; and (5) providing safe child transportation services.
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) to award, upon written request, collaboration grants to states and each national administrative office serving Indian Head Start programs and migrant and seasonal Head Start programs to: (1) facilitate collaboration between Head Start agencies and entities that carry out other activities benefiting poor families and children from birth to school entry; and (2) promote alignment of Head Start curricula and continuity of services with the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework and state early learning standards, as appropriate. Requires state grantees to appoint or designate a State Director of Head Start Collaboration to improve the coordination and delivery of early education services. 
 
Increases the percentage of funds reserved for Early Head Start programs from 12% in FY2008 to 20% in FY2012.
 
Provides that, when Head Start appropriations are less than the prior fiscal year's inflation-adjusted appropriations, Head Start grantees may negotiate a reduced funded enrollment level with the Secretary without a reduction in their grant level, if they can show that a reduced enrollment level is necessary to maintain the quality of services.
 
Requires the Secretary to establish requirements for the safety features, and the safe operation, of vehicles used by Head Start agencies to transport children.
 
Requires the Secretary to: (1) appoint a national migrant and seasonal Head Start collaboration director and a national Indian Head Start collaboration director; (2) conduct annual consultations in each affected Head Start region with tribal governments operating Head Start or Early Head Start programs to better gauge their needs; and (3) establish policies and procedures to remove barriers to the enrollment and participation of homeless children in Head Start programs. 
 
(Sec. 6) Provides for the development of a new system for designating Head Start agencies and the consideration of additional criteria in evaluating applicants.
 
 Includes community-based and faith-based organizations among the entities that may be designated Head Start agencies.
 
Maintains the current process of designating a Head Start agency until the Secretary develops and implements a transparent, reliable, and valid system for evaluating grant renewal applications that integrates the recommendations of an expert panel. Designates those grantees that the system finds to be successfully delivering a high quality comprehensive early education program as Head Start agencies for five years, but requires underperforming grantees to enter into open competition with other applicants.
 
 Sets forth criteria to be considered in choosing between competing applicants, including each applicant's ability to: (1) attract and retain qualified staff; (2) maintain child-teacher ratios and family service caseloads; (3) use scientifically-based curriculum and teaching practices that are developmentally appropriate and promote school readiness; (4) coordinate their programs with other early learning programs, local educational agencies (LEAs), and public and private entities willing to commit resources to such programs; (5) provide family health, literacy, and parenting services; (6) extend outreach to fathers; and (7) meet the needs of limited English proficient, homeless, and foster care children and families and children experiencing toxic stress. Removes the priority currently given nonprofit applicants.
 
Prohibits a non-Indian Head Start agency from operating an Indian Head Start program, unless there is no Indian Head Start agency available in the community.
 
(Sec. 7) Revises Head Start quality standards and monitoring requirements.
 
Requires the Secretary to modify program performance standards, as necessary, so they are scientifically-based, developmentally appropriate, and based on the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework to ensure that children, at a minimum, progress in language, prereading, mathematics, science, cognitive abilities, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, creative arts, and the acquisition of the English language. Adds to the factors the Secretary must consider in developing such standards: (1) the recommendations of the report on Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), when it becomes available; and (2) the unique challenges faced by individual programs, including seasonal, short term, and rural programs.
 
Requires scientifically based measures of program performance to be reviewed at least every four years so they reflect advances in the science of early childhood development.
 
Terminates further development and use of the National Reporting System.
 
Requires the Secretary's reviews of Head Start agencies and programs to use a risk-based assessment system and include unannounced site inspections, as appropriate. Requires such reviews to include: (1) an assessment of whether programs adequately address community needs; (2) an observational instrument that addresses classroom quality; and (3) an assessment of the use of federal funds.
 
Requires that Early Head Start program reviews be conducted by individuals knowledgeable about infant and toddler development.
 
Directs Head Start agencies to evaluate their delegate agencies and inform them of deficiencies which must be corrected.
 
Requires summaries of program reviews and the outcomes of quality improvement plans to be made available to all parents with children receiving Head Start assistance, in addition to the public.
 
Directs each Head Start and delegate agency to conduct a comprehensive self-assessment at least once a year.
 
Directs Head Start agencies to report their actual enrollment regularly to the Secretary and, if such enrollment is less than the funded enrollment, any apparent reason for the shortfall. Requires the Secretary to provide appropriate and timely training and technical assistance to agencies experiencing such shortfalls.
 
Sets forth rules for the redistribution of base grants recaptured, withheld, or reduced.
 
(Sec. 8) Revises the power and functions of Head Start agencies.
 
Adds to the minimum services Head Start agencies provide by requiring them to: (1) seek the involvement of local business, in addition to parents and area residents, in the design and implementation of programs; (2) offer parents of participating children mental and behavioral health services; (3) provide parents of limited English proficient children outreach and services in an understandable and uniform format, and to the extent practicable, in a language such parents can understand; (4) promote, as appropriate, the continued involvement of grandparents and kinship caregivers in the education of participating children upon their transition to school; and (5) provide parents of children suspected of having a disability with information and referral services.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to establish and maintain a formal structure of shared governance through which an independent governing body with legal and fiscal responsibility for administering and overseeing its programs and parent policy councils ensures that such agency operates high quality programs.
 
 Requires that such governing bodies include at least one member with significant financial management or accounting experience, at least one with expertise in early childhood development, at least one attorney, and additional members selected for expertise in education, business administration, and community affairs. Allows exceptions to such requirements when the governing body oversees a public entity and its members are selected by public election or political appointment. Prohibits certain conflict of interests. Includes among governing body responsibilities: (1) approving all major policies, all major expenditures, applications to receive federal funds, and the selection or dismissal of the director of the Head Start agency; (2) overseeing program planning of the agency; and (3) approving or disapproving all policies, applications, and decisions of the policy council.
 
Requires that the majority of a policy council consist of parents or former parents of Head Start enrollees elected by parents of current enrollees, with the remaining members chosen from the community the agency serves. Requires policy councils to approve and submit to the governing body decisions concerning the strategic direction of the program, selection of delegate agencies, recruiting and enrollment, funding applications and budget planning, personnel policies, and parent and community outreach.
 
Directs the Secretary to issue guidance on the implementation of shared decision-making, including a process for resolving impasses between governing bodies and policy councils. 
 
Requires Head Start agencies to conduct outreach to schools, LEAs, local businesses, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, museums, and libraries to generate support and leverage community resources to improve school readiness. Requires Head Start agencies, in communities where both public prekindergarten programs and Head Start programs operate, to collaborate and coordinate activities with the public agency and providers responsible for operating prekindergarten programs, including outreach activities to identify eligible children. Directs Head Start staff, with parental consent, to communicate regularly with the elementary and secondary schools children will be attending to share information about them and ensure their smooth transition to such schools.
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of Head Start agencies to coordinate activities with LEAs and schools in which participating children will enroll. Includes in such collaboration, enhancing the efficiency of services while increasing the participation of underserved eligible children.
 
Establishes curricular requirements that are research-based, comprehensive, and aligned with the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework and state early learning standards, as appropriate. Requires the use of ongoing research-based assessment methods and high-quality research-based developmental screening tools. Directs programs to develop training and technical assistance plans and professional development plans focused on teacher effectiveness.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to enroll 100% of its funded enrollment, maintain an active waiting list, and conduct community outreach.
 
Requires such agencies to use strong fiscal controls.
 
(Sec. 9) Adds to provisions requiring Head Start program coordination with LEAs and schools to ensure the continuity of children's K-12 education by requiring: (1) the needs of homeless and limited-English proficient children, and those currently underserved by Head Start programs, to be addressed; (2) the continuity of developmentally appropriate curricula between Head Start agencies and LEAs; and (3) an emphasis on the role of parental involvement in a child's academic success.
 
(Sec. 10) Provides for local and state integration of early childhood education.
 
Requires Head Start agencies to enter into, submit to the Secretary, and annually review and revise, memoranda of understanding to coordinate activities with providers of publicly-funded prekindergarten programs in their service areas.
 
Directs the Secretary to award an early learning matching grant to each state that requests one to support a State Early Learning Council composed of representatives from Head Start, preschool, child care, local and state education, special education, and child health programs. Makes such Council responsible for improving the coordination and quality of early childhood services within the state.
 
(Sec. 11) Adds to Head Start administrative requirements.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to make a report available to the public at least once each fiscal year disclosing: (1) its finances and budget; (2) its enrollment, including the percentage of its enrollees receiving medical and dental exams; (3) the results of the Secretary's most recent review and the financial audit; (4) parental involvement activities; and (5) the agency's efforts to prepare children for kindergarten.
 
 Prohibits an agency from using federal funds to purchase a facility unless the agency receives the Secretary's approval and describes the facility's cost effectiveness and utility in providing services on a collaborative basis with other community providers.
 
(Sec. 12) Alters rules regarding eligible Head Start program participants.
 
Includes children referred by child welfare services and homeless children as program participants, even if their families do not meet low-income eligibility criteria. 
 
Excludes the basic military housing allowance from the income eligibility calculation.
 
Allows a Head Start agency to use program funds to serve infants and toddlers if it provides certain information to the Secretary proving its capacity and capability to carry out an effective Early Head Start program. Subjects such agency to the same rules applicable to Early Head Start programs.
 
Allows a Head Start agency to increase income eligibility to 130% of the poverty level if it provides certain information to the Secretary proving that services and outreach to currently eligible children are adequate, and explaining why it is not feasible to simply increase the number of poor infants and toddlers served.
 
Allows Indian Head Start agencies that also operate a Early Head Start program to reallocate funds between both programs at any time.
 
(Sec. 13) Adds to Early Head Start program service, coordination, and training requirements. 
 
Includes parenting skills training and training in basic child development to services Early Head Start programs must provide to parents.
 
Adds state home service providers, community programs for homeless infants and toddlers, and child protective service agencies to the entities and programs with which Early Head Start programs must coordinate.
 
Requires programs to establish channels of communication with, and implement a systematic procedure for transitioning children and parents to, Head Start programs and other local early childhood education programs.
 
Includes Indian Head Start agencies as eligible Early Head Start providers.
 
Directs the Secretary, in determining the percentage (between 5 and 10%) of Early Head Start funds to be reserved for training and technical assistance, to consider the number of new programs serving pregnant women, infants, toddlers, and their families and the greater need those programs have for such assistance. Requires that from such reserved funds: (1) at least 50% be available for the training and technical assistance activities of local entities; (2) at least 30% be used by the Secretary to support a state-based system of early childhood education training and technical assistance to local Early Head Start entities that includes a national network of state-based infant-toddler specialists; and (3) the remainder be available to the Secretary to assist local Early Head Start entities meet and exceed program performance standards. 
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that, by September 30, 2009, all teachers providing direct services to children and families in Early Head Start centers have a minimum of a child development associate credential and training in early childhood development.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish standards for training, qualifications, and the conduct of home visits for home visitor staff in Early Head Start programs. Requires that such standards include content related to the role of parents in child development and in working with other health and developmental services providers to eliminate gaps in service. 
 
(Sec. 14) Requires Head Start agencies to get parental consent before administering any nonemergency health care service to a child.
 
(Sec. 15) Clarifies the Secretary's authority to terminate, reduce, or suspend Head Start assistance before the conclusion of an appeals process. Prohibits the use of Head Start assistance to reimburse legal fees and other costs incurred in pursuing such appeals.
 
(Sec. 16) Requires Head Start agencies to submit to the Secretary complete annual accountings of their administrative expenses, and audit management letters and findings.
 
(Sec. 17) Revises training and technical assistance requirements.
 
Adds as targets of such assistance: (1) services and outreach to homeless children and their families, limited English proficient children and their families, children and families experiencing toxic stress, and additional disabled children; (2) the unique needs of programs located in rural communities; (3) training for personnel serving abused or neglected children and those referred by or receiving child welfare services; (4) training for personnel to recognize common child health problems for appropriate referral; and (5) training for personnel that addresses the unique needs of migrant and seasonal working families, families with disabled children, families with limited English proficiency, homeless families, and children and families experiencing toxic stress.
 
Requires more than one-half of training and technical assistance funding to be used for classroom-focused assistance and training.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish an outreach program to recruit and train minority men to become Head Start teachers.
 
Prohibits the use of training funds for long-distance travel to training that is available locally or regionally.
 
Lists activities for which program improvement funds may be used by Head Start agencies, including activities to improve parenting skills, job skills, and adult and family literacy.
 
Directs the Secretary to conduct studies and report on Head Start program participation by eligible Indian, Alaskan Native, and migrant and seasonal children.
 
Directs the Secretary to enter into contracts in each state with institutions of higher education or other experienced training entities to support state-based systems of delivering training and technical assistance.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to ensure that all of its teachers receive ongoing training in language and emergent literacy.
 
Encourages the Secretary to contract with an institution of higher education to develop an on-line graduate-level professional development program.
 
Requires the Secretary to consult with experts regarding indoor air quality and children's health and inform Head Start agencies of programs that improve indoor air.
 
Permits the Secretary to award demonstration grants to tribal colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions to establish career ladder programs for Head Start agency staff serving Indian children or limited English proficient children and parents.
 
Directs the Secretary to collaborate with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to: (1) increase the number of associate, baccalaureate, and advanced degrees in early childhood education and related fields earned by the staff of, and parents served by, Head Start agencies; and (2) upgrade the skills and qualifications of noncertified Head Start educational personnel. Requires individuals that receive collaboration assistance to teach afterwards in a center-based Head Start program for a period equivalent to the period for which they received assistance, or repay such assistance.
 
(Sec. 18) Amends staff qualification and development requirements.
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that by September 30, 2013, at least 50% of all Head Start classroom teachers nationwide have at least: (1) a baccalaureate in early childhood education; or (2) a related field, with experience in teaching preschool children. Requires teachers in migrant and seasonal Head Start classrooms that serve children under age three to meet Early Head Start teacher qualifications. Requires Head Start agencies to issue progress reports regarding their teachers' attainment of credentials and degrees.
 
Requires that, within two years of this Act's enactment, all newly hired Head Start classroom teachers have at least an associate's degree in early childhood education or a related field or be currently enrolled in a program leading to such a degree within three years of their being hired.
 
Requires that individuals who receive educational assistance under the Act to meet teacher qualifications subsequently teach in a Head Start center for the same period of time for which such assistance was received, or else repay such amount.
 
Allows Teach for America program participants that have baccalaureates and meet certain testing and training requirements to serve in Head Start classrooms that lack a teacher who has a baccalaureate in early childhood education or a related field.
 
Directs the Secretary to review and, as necessary, revise or develop maximum caseload requirements for staff providing in-home and other services to Head Start families.
 
Requires each Head Start agency and program to create a professional development plan for all their employees who provide direct services to children and regularly evaluate the plan's effectiveness.
 
Prohibits Head Start agencies from employing individuals before interviewing them, verifying their personal and employment references, and obtaining criminal record background checks.
 
 Authorizes the Secretary of Education to assume or cancel loans made under the Federal Family Education Loan or the Direct Loan programs of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to individuals who: (1) have a bachelor's degree related to early childhood education; and (2) commit to serve as Head Start or Early Head Start teachers for three consecutive complete program years. 
 
(Sec. 19) Alters Head Start research, demonstration, and evaluation requirements.
 
Includes homeless children, abused and neglected children, and foster care children in the continuing program of Head Start research, demonstration, and evaluation activities, which are now to be scientifically-based.
 
Repeals the mandate for the required use and linkage of specified surveys in evaluating Head Start program participants.
 
Requires that research, demonstration, and evaluation activities: (1) contribute to understanding the impact Head Start services delivered in inclusive classrooms (defined as containing both disabled and nondisabled children) have on both disabled and nondisabled children; and (2) result in practices that increase the availability and quality of such classrooms.
 
Directs the Secretary to study and report to Congress on the status of limited English proficient children and their families in participating Head Start and Early Head Start programs, and the extent to which quality improvement funds improve program services for such children and their families.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) study and report to Congress on the status of children and families participating in Head Start and Early Head Start programs in areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, including information on coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in such areas; and (2) prepare and submit Head Start disaster plan recommendations based upon such report to Congress.
 
(Sec. 20) Includes homeless children, foster care children, and limited English proficient children in the biennial reports on the status of children in Head Start programs. 
 
Directs the Secretary to report to Congress: (1) annually on the use of the 13% of Head Start funding set aside for special populations, territories and freely associated states, training and technical assistance, monitoring and terminations, and research; (2) annually on whether triennial reviews of Head Start agencies provide reasonable assurance that such agencies are complying with applicable fiscal laws and regulations; and (3) within one year of this Act's enactment on Head Start agency use of Individualized Education Plans. 
 
Requires the Secretary also to evaluate, publish regulations for, and report to Congress concerning the issue of preventing and reducing obesity in Head Start children.
 
(Sec. 21) Prohibits any Head Start employee from being compensated at a rate greater then the level II Executive Schedule pay rate.
 
(Sec. 22) Prohibits the use of Head Start funds for: (1) publicity or propaganda purposes; or (2) any prepackaged news story, unless the text or audio states that it was prepared or funded by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

action_date: 2007-06-19
text: 
Head Start for School Readiness Act - Amends the Head Start Act (the Act) to revise and reauthorize Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 2) Includes children's growth in language, preliteracy, premathematics, emotional, and physical skills among the aims of Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 3) Includes community-based organizations and financial literacy training within the definitions of Head Start delegate agencies and family literacy services, respectively. Adds definitions of Head Start deficiencies, homeless children, institutions of higher education, interrater reliability, limited English proficient (LEP) children, and unresolved areas of noncompliance.
 
Removes Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau from the list of program participants.
 
(Sec. 4) Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) to provide financial assistance to Head Start agencies for five-year periods.
 
(Sec. 5) Authorizes appropriations for Head Start programs for FY2008-FY2012, with specified amounts for research, demonstration, and evaluation activities, including longitudinal studies and impact studies.
 
(Sec. 6) Revises requirements for allotment, and limitations on use, of Head Start funds, including training and technical activities as well as quality improvement activities.
 
Includes among quality improvement goals providing: (1) adequate numbers of qualified staff, with adequate training in developing language skills, premathematics skills, and preliteracy, and in working with LEP children, children referred by child welfare services, and children with disabilities; (2) salary scales and benefits adequate to attract and retain qualified staff; (3) salary increases for specified purposes; (4) collaboration to increase program participation by underserved populations of eligible children; (5) assistance to complete postsecondary coursework to enable Head Start teachers to improve competencies; and (6) promotion of regular attendance and stability of all Head Start children, especially highly mobile children, including children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers, homeless children, and children in foster care.
 
Includes among quality improvement activities: (1) preliteracy development; (2) help for LEP children in attaining certain knowledge, skills, and development, and promotion of English language acquisition by them and their families; (3) education and training to improve staff qualifications, particularly assistance to instructors to reach full competency and meet degree requirements under this Act; (4) outreach to homeless families to increase their program participation; (5) outreach to migrant and seasonal farmworker families and families with LEP children; and (6) upgrading of qualifications and skills of educational personnel, including bilingual education teachers and others serving LEP students.
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of the Secretary to award collaboration grants to states and each national administrative office serving Indian Head Start and migrant and seasonal Head Start programs to facilitate coordination between Head Start agencies and entities that carry out other activities designed to benefit low-income families and children from birth to school entry.
 
Requires the use of collaboration grants to: (1) assist Head Start agencies to collaborate with entities involved in state and local planning processes to better meet the needs of low-income families and children; (2) assist Head Start agencies to coordinate activities with the state agency responsible for the state program under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990, and other specified entities; (3) promote alignment of Head Start services with state early learning standards, as appropriate, and the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework; (4) promote better linkages between Head Start agencies and other child and family agencies; and (5) carry out the activities of the state Director of Head Start Collaboration.
 
Requires the state to appoint or designate a state Director of Head Start Collaboration (currently state liaison), and establish an Office of such Director. Requires the state Director to: (1) make specified assessments and strategic plans; (2) promote certain partnerships; (3) enable state agencies to better coordinate professional development opportunities for Head Start staff; and (4) help Head Start agencies develop plans to provide full-working-day, full calendar year services, and align them with state early learning standards, as appropriate, and the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework. 
 
Directs the Governor of the state to designate or establish a state advisory council on early childhood education and care for children from birth to school entry.
 
Increases the percentage of funds reserved for Early Head Start programs from at least 12% in FY2008 to at least 20% in FY2012.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish policies and procedures assuring that: (1) by FY2008 at least 10% of the children enrolled by each Head Start and delegate agency will be disabled children eligible for special education or early intervention services; and (2) such agencies will collaborate with state and local agencies providing such services.
 
Applies service delivery guidelines to: (1) models that leverage the capacity and capabilities of the delivery system of early childhood education and child care; and (2) procedures to provide for the conversion of part-day programs to full-day programs or part-day slots to full-day slots and serve additional infants and toddlers.
 
Requires the Secretary, in allotting funds for expansion of Head Start programs, to consider the extent that an applicant: (1) has involved providers of family support services and protective services for children and families in community-wide strategic planning and needs assessments; and (2) plans to coordinate its services with a community liaison designated under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001 (homeless education liaison), as well as (under current law) with the education services of the local educational agency (LEA). 
 
Requires regulations to ensure appropriate supervision and background checks of individuals with whom Head Start agencies contract to transport children. Directs the Secretary to review and, as necessary, revise certain school vehicle safety standards within 60 days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the Department of Transportation (DOT) submits its study on the protection of occupants in such vehicles, in order to make such standards consistent with the study's findings. Makes current seat spacing and compartmentalization requirements inapplicable until the Secretary completes such review and revisions.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) appoint a national migrant and seasonal Head Start program collaboration director and a national Indian Head Start collaboration director; (2) conduct annual consultations with tribal governments operating Head Start and Early Head Start programs in each affected Head Start region; and (3) collaborate with providers of migrant and seasonal Head Start programs, and the Secretaries of Agriculture, of Labor, and of Education to increase access for children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers to Head Start services.
 
Directs the Secretary to issue regulations to require Head Start agencies to remove barriers to the enrollment and participation of homeless children in Head Start programs. 
 
Declares that nothing in the Act shall be construed to require a state to: (1) establish a program of early education and care for children; (2) require any child to participate in a program of early education and care in order to attend school; or (3) participate in any initial screening prior to participation in such program, except under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
 
Requires all curricula funded under the Act to be scientifically, developmentally, and linguistically based, and age appropriate.
 
(Sec. 7) Revises requirements for the Secretary's designation of Head Start agencies.
 
 Requires eligible entities to establish and meet or make progress toward: (1) program goals for improving participating children's school readiness, including meeting educational performance standards; and (2) results-based school readiness goals aligned with the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, state early learning standards (as appropriate), and requirements and expectations for local public schools.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to establish a governing body and a policy council. 
 
Gives priority in redesignation to high-performing grantee agencies that meet or exceed quality standards and program, financial management, and other requirements. Requires the Secretary, if no entity in a community is entitled to such priority, to designate an agency from among qualified community applicants after conducting an open competition. Specifies effectiveness factors to consider in designating a Head Start agency.
 
Directs the Secretary to continue to involve parents and affected area residents in selection of qualified applicants for such designation.
 
Prohibits any non-Indian Head Start agency from receiving a grant to carry out an Indian Head Start program, except where there are no Indian Head Start agencies in a community.
 
(Sec. 8) Revises requirements for quality standards and for monitoring of Head Start agencies and programs.
 
Requires additional educational standards to be based on the recommendations of a National Academy of Sciences panel and other experts in the field.
 
Requires facilities used by Head Start, Early Head Start, and delegate agencies for regularly scheduled center-based and combination program option classroom activities to comply with state and local licensing requirements, and be accessible by state and local authorities to monitor and ensure compliance.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to establish procedures for: (1) evaluating delegate agencies; (2) defunding delegate agencies; and (3) appealing such defunding decisions.
 
Requires performance measures to: (1) measure characteristics strongly predictive of a child's school readiness and later performance; (2) be appropriate for the population served; and (3) be reviewed at least every four years, based on advances in early childhood development science. Directs the Secretary to use performance measures to enable Head Start agencies to individualize programs of instruction to better meet the needs of the child involved.
 
Prohibits the Act from being construed to authorize the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to control the selection of a curriculum, instructional program, or instructional materials for a Head Start program.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to: (1) conduct a comprehensive self-assessment at least once each program year; (2) develop an improvement plan; and (3) implement ongoing monitoring of its programs.
 
Directs the Secretary to develop plans to reduce or eliminate underenrollment in programs with less than 95% of their funded enrollment.
 
Sets forth requirements and procedures for reduction of grants and redistribution of funds in cases of underenrollment.
 
(Sec. 9) Directs the Secretary to: (1) designate up to 200 exemplary Head Start agencies as Centers of Excellence in Early Childhood; and (2) make them bonus grants.
 
Specifies authorized uses of such grants, including modeling and dissemination of best practices.
 
Requires Centers to: (1) encourage their delegate agencies, several additional Head Start agencies, and other providers of early childhood education and care in the community involved to carry out model programs; and (2) establish a local council.
 
Directs the Secretary to award a grant or contract to an independent organization to research and report on the Centers' ability to: (1) improve the school readiness of children receiving Head Start services; and (2) impact school results positively in the earliest grades.
 
Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2012.
 
(Sec. 10) Revises powers and functions of Head Start agencies.
 
Requires Head Start agencies, in communities where both public prekindergarten programs and Head Start programs operate, to collaborate and coordinate activities with the LEA or other public agency responsible for operating prekindergarten programs and providers of prekindergarten, including outreach activities to identify eligible children. 
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of Head Start agencies to coordinate activities with LEAs and schools in which participating children will enroll following the Head Start program.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to: (1) enroll 100% of its funded enrollment; and (2) maintain an active waiting list at all times, with ongoing outreach to the community and activities to identify underserved populations. 
 
(Sec. 11) Specifies Head Start transition requirements for alignment with K-12 education.
 
(Sec. 12) Reduces from 45 to 30 days the deadline for any state disapproval of a plan submitted by Head Start agency, with certain exceptions.
 
(Sec. 13) Directs the Secretary to allow up to 10 Head Start agencies to exceed by up to 5% of total program costs the limit on developing and administering a program if they will serve a greater percentage of children in the community than was previously served, without diminishing services provided to currently enrolled children.
 
(Sec. 14) Raises from below the poverty line to 130% of the poverty line the family income threshold for a child's eligibility to participate in Head Start programs. Requires priority to be given, however, to serving those below the poverty level.
 
Requires that homeless children be deemed eligible for Head Start services.

Exempts certain amounts of military pay and allowances from family income consideration for purposes of determining Head Start eligibility, including: (1) special pay for duty subject to hostile fire or imminent danger; and (2) a specified basic allowance, especially for housing.
 
Authorizes a Head Start agency, after it demonstrates a need through a communitywide needs assessment, to apply to the Secretary to: (1) convert part-day sessions, particularly consecutive part-day sessions, into full-day sessions; and (2) serve additional infants and toddlers if it meets certain requirements.
 
Allows Indian Head Start agencies that also operate a Early Head Start program to reallocate funds between both programs at any time.
 
(Sec. 15) Requires Early Head Start programs to include: (1) parental training in parenting skills and in basic child development; (2) coordination with home-based services and family support services; (3) appropriate screening and referral for children with documented behavioral problems; (4) procedures for transitioning children and parents from an Early Head Start program into a Head Start program or another local early childhood education and care program; (5) communication channels to help coordination between program and provider staff; and (6) formal linkages with agencies responsible for administering the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.
 
Includes as eligible Early Head Start service providers: (1) tribal governments and entities operating migrant and seasonal Head Start programs; and (2) community-based organizations capable of providing child and family services that meet Head Start standards and other appropriate requirements.
 
Allows funds in a training and technical assistance account to be used for: (1) effective methods of conducting parent education, home visiting, and promoting quality early childhood development; (2) recruiting and retaining qualified staff; and (3) increasing program participation for underserved populations of eligible children.
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that, by September 30, 2012, all teachers providing direct services to Early Head Start children and families in Early Head Start centers: (1) have a minimum of a child development associate credential or an associate degree; and (2) have been trained, or have equivalent course work, in early childhood development with a focus on infant and toddler development.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish standards for training, qualifications, and the conduct of home visits for home visitor staff in Early Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 16) Revises provisions for appeals, notice, and hearings. 
 
Requires each Head Start and Early Head Start center receiving financial assistance to make a complete annual accounting to the Secretary of its administrative expenses.
 
(Sec. 17) Revise technical assistance and training requirements.
 
Directs the Secretary to make specified funds available to support a regional or state system of training and technical assistance in early childhood education and care that improves the capacity of Head Start programs to deliver services in accordance with specified quality standards.
 
Provides for services to abused or neglected children, and training for personnel providing them.
 
Directs the Secretary to provide funds for training of Head Start personnel in addressing the unique needs of disabled children and their families, migrant and seasonal farmworker families, LEP families, and homeless families. 
 
Requires the use of technical assistance and training funds to carry out activities related to one or more of the following: (1) education and early childhood development; (2) child health, nutrition, and safety; (3) family and community partnerships; or (4) other areas that impact the quality or overall effectiveness of Head Start programs. 
 
Requires each Head Start agency to ensure that all of its teachers receive ongoing training in language and emergent literacy (literacy training), including training in methods to promote phonologic and phonemic awareness and vocabulary development in an age-appropriate and culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.
 
(Sec. 18) Revises requirements for Head Start staff qualifications and development. 
 
Requires, by September 30, 2012, all Head Start teachers, curriculum specialists, education coordinators, and teaching assistants in center-based programs to meet specified associate degree or equivalent coursework requirements.
 
Requires, by September 30, 2013, 50% of all Head Start teachers in center-based programs in each state (or geographic region for Indian and migrant and seasonal Head Start programs) to have: (1) a baccalaureate degree relating to early childhood or a related educational area; and (2) demonstrated teaching competencies, including, at a minimum, an appropriate level of literacy, a demonstrated capacity to be highly engaged with children, and a demonstrated ability to implement an early childhood curriculum effectively. 
 
Requires each Head Start teacher to attend not less than 15 clock hours of professional development per year. 
 
Prescribes progress reporting requirements.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish service requirements to ensure that individuals who receive financial assistance under the Act to pursue a degree or credential to qualify as Head Start staff shall: (1) teach or work in a Head Start program for a minimum of three years after receiving the degree; or (2) repay the total or a prorated amount of the financial assistance received based on the length of service completed after receiving the degree.
 
Revises requirements for family service workers to direct the Secretary to promote the use of appropriate strategies to meet the needs of special populations, including LEP children. 
 
Requires every Head Start agency and center to create a professional development plan for employees who provide direct services to children.
 
(Sec. 19) Establishes a Tribal Colleges and Universities Head Start Partnership program.
 
Authorizes the Secretary to award minimum five-year program grants to Tribal Colleges and Universities to: (1) implement education programs that include tribal culture and language and increase the number of associate, baccalaureate, and advanced degrees in early childhood education and related fields earned by Indian Head Start agency staff members, parents of children served by such an agency, and members of the tribal community; (2) develop and implement such programs in technology-mediated formats; and (3) provide technology literacy programs for Indian Head Start agency staff members and for children and families the agency serves.
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that the American Indian Programs Branch of the Head Start Bureau of HHS has sufficient staffing to administer such programs and provide appropriate technical assistance to grantees.

Requires grant applications to certify that the Tribal College or University has established a partnership with one or more Indian Head Start agencies to conduct program activities.
 
Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2012.
 
(Sec. 20) Revises requirements for research, demonstrations, and evaluation to include addressing the needs of abused or neglected children, homeless children, and children in foster care.
 
Requires research, demonstration, and evaluation activities to: (1) identify successful strategies that promote good oral and vision health and referrals for follow-up care for Early Head Start and Head Start participants; (2) assess the impact of services to disabled children in Head Start classrooms; and (3) increase the availability and quality of promising services.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) incorporate the results of the National Academy of Sciences study on Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children, when they become available, into each Head Start program assessment; and (2) use them to develop, inform, and revise Head Start quality standards and measures.
 
Terminates further development and use of the National Reporting System. 
 
Prohibits federal use of any assessment to rank, compare, reward, or sanction, individual Head Start children or teachers. Prohibits the Secretary from using any single assessment as the sole method for assessing program effectiveness or making grantee funding determinations. 
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) study and report to Congress on the status of LEP children and their families in Head Start and Early Head Start programs; and (2) award competitive research and evaluation grants to organizations with a demonstrated capacity to serve and study such children and their families, migrant and seasonal farmworker families, and other families of diverse populations served by Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 21) Requires the Secretary's reports to Congress to include information on the homelessness of children, and on children in foster care, participating in Head Start funded programs.
 
(Sec. 22) Prohibits the compensation of any Head Start employee at a rate greater than the level II Executive Schedule pay rate.
 
(Sec. 23) Extends the ban against aid to or assistance in any unlawful demonstration, rioting, or civil disturbance to any individual in any Head Start Agency or other agency assisted under the Head Start Act.
 
(Sec. 24) Extends certain political activity restrictions to any individual employed by or assigned to a program receiving assistance under the Head Start Act during the hours in which he or she is working on its behalf.
 
(Sec. 25) Requires Head Start agencies to obtain written parental consent before administering to a child, or referring the child for, a nonemergency intrusive physical examination, including one in connection with the program. Declares that such requirement shall not be construed to prohibit agencies from using established methods for handling cases of suspected or known child abuse and neglect in compliance with applicable federal, state, or tribal law.
 
(Sec. 27) Directs the Secretary to report to Congress: (1) certifying that HHS has, for each program and activity of the Administration for Children and Families, determined which bears a significant risk of making improper payments; and (2) describing the actions to be taken to reduce improper payments to such programs and activities.

action_date: 2007-11-09
text: 
Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 - Amends the Head Start Act (the Act) to revise and reauthorize Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 2) Includes among the aims of Head Start programs children's growth in language, literacy, mathematics, science, social and emotional functioning, creative arts, physical skills, and approaches to learning.
 
(Sec. 3) Includes community-based organizations and financial literacy training within the definitions of Head Start delegate agencies and family literacy services, respectively. Adds definitions of Head Start deficiencies, homeless children, institutions of higher education, interrater reliability, limited English proficient (LEP) children, principles of scientific research, professional development for teachers and staff, scientifically valid research, and unresolved areas of noncompliance.
 
Removes Micronesia and the Marshall Islands from the list of program participants.
 
(Sec. 4) Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) to provide financial assistance to Head Start agencies for five-year periods.
 
(Sec. 5) Authorizes appropriations for Head Start programs for FY2008-FY2012.
 
(Sec. 6) Sets forth allotment requirements, as well as limitations on and authorized uses of Head Start funds.
 
Reserves from such funds: (1) amounts for state, Indian, migrant and seasonal, and territorial Head Start programs that are equal to the base amounts such programs received for the prior fiscal year; (2) amounts for collaborative grants at the FY2007 level; (3) at least 2.5% and no more than 3% for training and technical assistance, at least 20% of which is to be used to provide such assistance to Early Head Start programs; and (4) specified monetary amounts for research, demonstration, and evaluation activities and for discretionary payments. Requires the use of remaining funds for cost of living increases for each Head Start agency and the provision of specified amounts to Indian and migrant and seasonal Head Start programs to increase enrollment.
 
Requires that after at least 20% of of the training and technical assistance funds are reserved for Early Head Start programs: (1) at least 50% of such remaining funds be available for the direct use of Head Start agencies; (2) at least 25% be available to the Secretary for state-based or national training and technical assistance systems; and (3) the remainder be available to the Secretary to assist local Early Head Start entities meet and exceed program performance standards.
 
 Requires any additional remaining funds to be used for specified Head Start quality improvement and expansion activities.
 
Provides funding for the Republic of Palau through FY2009 and, if legislation approving a new agreement regarding assistance to Palau is not enacted by the end of FY2009, through FY2012.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish policies and procedures assuring that: (1) by FY2009 at least 10% of the children enrolled by each Head Start and delegate agency will be disabled children eligible for special education or early intervention services; and (2) such agencies will collaborate with state and local agencies providing such services.
 
Applies service delivery guidelines to: (1) models that leverage the capacity and capabilities of the delivery system of early childhood education and development services or programs; and (2) procedures to provide for the conversion of part-day programs to full-day programs or part-day slots to full-day slots and serve additional infants and toddlers.
 
Provides that, when Head Start appropriations are less than the prior fiscal year's appropriations or not sufficient to maintain services comparable to that prior year's services, Head Start grantees may negotiate a reduced funded enrollment level with the Secretary without a reduction in their grant level, if they can show that a reduced enrollment level is necessary to maintain the quality of services.
 
Requires regulations to ensure appropriate supervision and background checks of individuals with whom Head Start agencies contract to transport children.
 
Requires the Secretary to: (1) appoint a national migrant and seasonal Head Start collaboration director and a national Indian Head Start collaboration director; (2) conduct annual consultations in each affected Head Start region with tribal governments operating Head Start or Early Head Start programs to better gauge their needs; and (3) establish policies and procedures to remove barriers to the enrollment and participation of homeless children in Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 7) Provides for the development of a new system for designating Head Start agencies and the consideration of additional criteria in evaluating applicants.
 
 Includes community-based and faith-based organizations among the entities that may be designated Head Start agencies.
 
Maintains the current process of designating a Head Start agency until the Secretary develops and implements a transparent, reliable, and valid designation renewal system that integrates the recommendations of an expert panel. Designates those grantees that the system finds to be successfully delivering a high quality and comprehensive Head Start program as Head Start agencies for five years, but requires underperforming grantees to enter into open competition with other applicants.
 
 Sets forth criteria to be considered in choosing between competing applicants, including each applicant's ability to: (1) attract and retain qualified staff; (2) maintain child-to-teacher ratios and family service worker caseloads; (3) use scientifically-based curriculum and teaching practices that are developmentally appropriate and promote school readiness; (4) coordinate with other public or private entities providing early childhood education and development programs and services for young children or willing to commit resources to Head Start programs; (5) provide family health, literacy, and parenting services; (6) extend outreach to fathers; and (7) meet the needs of LEP, disabled, homeless, and foster care children. Removes the priority currently given nonprofit applicants.
 
Directs the Secretary to continue to involve parents and affected area residents in selection of qualified applicants for such designation.
 
Prohibits a non-Indian Head Start agency from operating an Indian Head Start program, unless there is no Indian Head Start agency available in the community.
 
(Sec. 8) Revises Head Start quality standards and monitoring requirements.
 
Requires the Secretary to modify program performance standards, as necessary, so they are scientifically-based, developmentally appropriate, and based on the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework to ensure that children, at a minimum, progress in language, literacy, mathematics, science, cognitive abilities, approaches to learning, social and emotional development, creative arts, physical development and the acquisition of the English language. Adds as new factors the Secretary must consider in modifying such standards: (1) the recommendations of the study on Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); (2) the need for Head Start agencies to communicate regularly with parents; and (3) the unique challenges faced by individual programs, including seasonal, short term, and rural programs.
 
Requires facilities used by Head Start, Early Head Start, and delegate agencies for regularly scheduled center-based and combination program option classroom activities to meet or exceed state and local licensing requirements, and be accessible by state and local authorities to monitor and ensure compliance, unless state or local law prohibits such access.
 
Requires scientifically-based measures of program performance to be reviewed periodically so they reflect advances in the science of early childhood development.
 
Prohibits federal use of any assessment to: (1) rank, compare, or otherwise evaluate individual Head Start children for purposes other than research, training, or technical assistance; and (2) reward or sanction individual Head Start children or teachers. Prohibits the Secretary from using any single assessment as the sole method for assessing program effectiveness or making agency funding determinations. 
 
Requires the Secretary's reviews of Head Start agencies and programs to include unannounced site inspections, as appropriate. Requires the full reviews, conducted at least once every three years for each agency, to include a risk-based assessment approach. Requires review teams to receive periodic training to ensure quality and consistency across reviews. Includes in such reviews: (1) an assessment of whether programs adequately address community needs; (2) an observational instrument that addresses classroom quality; and (3) an assessment of whether programs use federal funds appropriately and conform to Head Start eligibility and enrollment requirements.
 
Requires that Early Head Start program reviews be conducted by individuals knowledgeable about infant and toddler development.
 
Directs Head Start agencies to evaluate their delegate agencies and inform them of deficiencies which must be corrected. Prohibits Head Start agencies from terminating a delegate agency's contract or reducing its service area without showing cause or demonstrating the decision's cost-effectiveness.
 
Requires summaries of program reviews and the outcomes of quality improvement plans to be made available to all parents with children receiving Head Start assistance, in addition to the public.
 
Requires each Head Start and delegate agency to: (1) conduct a comprehensive self-assessment at least once each program year; (2) develop goals and a plan for improving childrens' school readiness; and (3) implement ongoing monitoring of its programs.
 
Directs Head Start agencies to report their actual enrollment monthly to the Secretary and, if it is less than the funded enrollment, any apparent reason for the shortfall. Directs the Secretary to develop plans for programs to reduce or eliminate underenrollment, and provide such programs with technical assistance in implementing such plans.
 
Sets forth rules for the redistribution of base grants recaptured, withheld, or reduced.
 
(Sec. 9) Revises the power and functions of Head Start agencies.
 
Adds to the minimum services Head Start agencies provide by requiring them to: (1) seek the involvement of local business, in addition to parents and community residents, in the design and implementation of programs; (2) offer health services to parents of participating children, including information on maternal depression; (3) provide parents of LEP children with outreach and information in an understandable and uniform format, and to the extent practicable, in a language such parents can understand; (4) promote the continued involvement of parents and, as appropriate, foster parents, grandparents, and kinship caregivers in the education of participating children upon their transition to school; and (5) provide disabled children with intervention and referral services.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to establish and maintain a formal structure for program governance, for the oversight of quality services for Head Start children and families, and for making decisions related to program design and implementation. Requires such structure to include a governing body with legal and fiscal responsibility for the Head Start agency and a policy council, elected by Head Start parents, which is responsible for the direction of the Head Start program.
 
Directs the Secretary to develop policies, procedures, and guidance on the resolution of internal disputes and the implementation of collaborative decision-making in program governance.
 
Requires Head Start agencies to conduct outreach to schools, local educational agencies (LEAs), local businesses, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, museums, and libraries to generate support and leverage community resources to improve school readiness. Requires Head Start agencies, in communities where both public prekindergarten programs and Head Start programs operate, to collaborate and coordinate activities with the public agency and providers responsible for operating prekindergarten programs, including outreach activities to identify eligible children. Directs Head Start agencies, with parental consent, to communicate regularly with schools children will be attending to share information about them, collaborate with such schools' teachers, and ensure children's smooth transition to such schools.
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of Head Start agencies to coordinate activities with LEAs and schools in which participating children will enroll. Includes in such collaboration, enhancing the efficiency of services while increasing the participation of underserved eligible children.
 
Requires each Head Start agency, within one year of this Act's enactment, to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the local entity responsible for managing publicly funded preschool programs in its service area for the coordination and review of program services.
 
Establishes curricular requirements that are research-based, comprehensive, and aligned with the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework and state early learning standards, as appropriate. Requires the use of ongoing research-based assessment methods and developmental screening tools. Directs programs to develop training and technical assistance plans and professional development plans focused on teacher effectiveness.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to enroll 100% of its funded enrollment, maintain an active waiting list, and conduct community outreach.
 
Requires such agencies to use strong fiscal controls.
 
(Sec. 10) Adds to requirements for Head Start program coordination with LEAs and schools to ensure the continuity of childrens' K-12 education by requiring: (1) the needs of homeless and LEP children, and those currently underserved by Head Start programs, to be addressed; (2) the continuity of developmentally appropriate curricula between Head Start agencies and LEAs; and (3) an emphasis on the role of parental involvement in a child's academic success.
 
Directs the Secretary to provide Head Start agencies with information on, and technical assistance in establishing, policies and activities that support childrens' successful transition to public schools.
 
(Sec. 11) Provides for local and state integration of early childhood education.
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of the Secretary to award, upon written request, collaboration grants to states and each national administrative office serving Indian Head Start and migrant and seasonal Head Start programs to facilitate coordination among Head Start agencies and entities that carry out other activities designed to benefit low-income families and children from birth to school entry.
 
Requires the use of collaboration grants to: (1) assist Head Start agencies to collaborate with entities involved in state and local planning processes to better meet the needs of low-income families and children; (2) assist Head Start agencies to coordinate activities with the responsible state agency under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990, and other specified entities; (3) promote alignment of Head Start curricula and services with state early learning standards, as appropriate, and the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework; (4) promote better linkages between Head Start agencies and other child and family agencies; and (5) carry out the activities of the state Director of Head Start Collaboration.
 
Requires the state to appoint or designate a state Director of Head Start Collaboration (currently state liaison), and establish an Office of such Director. Requires the state Director to: (1) make specified assessments and strategic plans; (2) promote certain partnerships; (3) enable state agencies to better coordinate professional development opportunities for Head Start staff; and (4) help Head Start agencies develop plans to provide full-working-day, full calendar year services, and align them with state early learning standards, as appropriate, and the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework. 
 
Directs the Governor of the state to designate or establish a state advisory council on early childhood education and care for children from birth to school entry, on which the state's Director of Head Start Collaboration shall serve.
 
(Sec. 12) Exempts from the requirement for prior submission of explanatory plans to the chief executive officer of a state any contracts, agreements, grants, loans, or other assistance for Indian Head Start programs or migrant or seasonal Head Start programs.
 
 
(Sec. 13) Adds to Head Start administrative requirements.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to make a report available to the public at least once each fiscal year disclosing: (1) its finances and budget; (2) its enrollment, including the percentage of its enrollees receiving medical and dental exams; (3) the results of the Secretary's most recent review and the financial audit; (4) parental involvement activities; and (5) the agency's efforts to prepare children for kindergarten.
 
 Prohibits an agency from using federal funds to purchase a facility unless the agency receives the Secretary's approval and informs the Secretary of its efforts to collaborate with other community providers in seeking assistance to purchase such facility.
 
(Sec. 14) Alters rules regarding eligible Head Start program participants.
 
Requires that homeless children be deemed eligible for Head Start services
 
Allows Head Start agencies to provide services to limited percentages of participants who: (1) are not impoverished but whose family income is below 130% of the poverty level; or (2) who do not meet poverty criteria but would benefit from such services, such as disabled children. Requires priority to be given to children who are homeless or whose family income is below the poverty level.
 
Exempts certain amounts of military pay and allowances from family income consideration for purposes of determining Head Start eligibility, including: (1) special pay for duty subject to hostile fire or imminent danger; and (2) a specified basic allowance, especially for housing.
 
Authorizes a Head Start agency, after it demonstrates a need through a communitywide strategic planning and needs assessment, to apply to the Secretary to convert part-day sessions, particularly consecutive part-day sessions, into full-day sessions.
 
Allows a Head Start agency to use program funds to serve infants and toddlers if it provides certain information to the Secretary proving its capacity and capability to carry out an effective Early Head Start program. Subjects such agency to the same rules applicable to Early Head Start programs.
 
Allows Indian Head Start agencies that also operate a Early Head Start program to reallocate funds between both programs at any time.
 
(Sec. 15) Adds to Early Head Start program service, coordination, and training requirements. 
 
Requires Early Head Start programs to include: (1) parental training in parenting skills and in basic child development; (2) coordination with home-based services, programs for homeless infants and toddlers, and family support services; (3) appropriate screening and referral for children with documented behavioral problems; (4) procedures for transitioning children and parents from an Early Head Start program into a Head Start program or another local early childhood education and development program; (5) communication channels to help coordinate such Early Head Start programs with other early childhood education and development programs; and (6) formal linkages with agencies responsible for administering the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.
 
Includes as eligible Early Head Start service providers: (1) entities operating Indian or migrant or seasonal Head Start programs; and (2) community-based and faith-based organizations capable of providing child and family services that meet Head Start standards and other appropriate requirements.
 
Makes homeless children eligible for Early Head Start services. Applies the changes made to Head Start income eligiblity requirements to Early Head Start programs.
 
 Makes available from Early Head Start training and technical assistance funds: (1) at least 50% for the direct use of Early Head Start agencies; (2) at least 25% for state-based or national training and technical assistance systems, including supportive infant and toddler specialists; and (3) the remainder to assist local Early Head Start entities meet and exceed program performance standards. 
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that all teachers providing direct services to children and families in Early Head Start centers have a minimum of a child development associate credential and training in early childhood development by September 30, 2010, and training in early childhood development with a focus on infant and toddler development by September 30, 2012.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish standards for training, qualifications, and the conduct of home visits for home visitor staff in Early Head Start programs. Requires that such standards include content related to the role of parents in child development and in working with other health and developmental service providers to eliminate gaps in service. 
 
(Sec. 16) Revises requirements for appeals, notice, and hearings.
 
Prohibits Head Start agencies from using federal Head Start assistance for legal fees and other costs incurred in pursuing appeals; but permits the Secretary to reimburse Head Start agencies for fees deemed reasonable and customary.
 
(Sec. 17) Requires Head Start agencies to submit to the Secretary complete annual accountings of their administrative expenses as well as, within 30 days after completion of an audit, a copy of the audit management letters and audit findings.
 
(Sec. 18) Revises training and technical assistance requirements.
 
Adds as targets of such assistance: (1) services and outreach to homeless children, LEP children and their families, and disabled children; (2) the unique needs of rural Head Start programs; (3) members of governing bodies and policy councils or committees; (4) ensuring that staff are qualified to promote child obesity prevention; (5) training for Indian Head Start agency staff; and (6) Head Start agency selection and use of performance measures.
 
Requires the Secretary to provide additional support for: (1) an organization to administer a centralized child development and national assessment program leading to recognized credentials for early childhood education and development personnel; and (2) training personnel to better serve LEP children and their families, abused or neglected children, children coping with community violence, children with health problems, disabled children and their families, migrant and seasonal farmworker families, and homeless families.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish an outreach program to recruit and train professionals from diverse backgrounds to become Head Start teachers 
 
Requires each Head Start agency to ensure that all of its teachers receive ongoing training in language and emergent literacy.
 
Prohibits the use of training funds for long-distance travel to training that is available locally or regionally.
 
Directs the Secretary to enter into contracts in each state with one or more entities that have expertise in supporting the delivery of high-quality early childhood education and development programs for the development of state-based or national (for migrant, seasonal, or Indian programs) training and technical assistance systems that improve the capacity of Head Start programs to meet or exceed Head Start performance standards.
 
Requires the Secretary to consult appropriate federal agencies and other experts, as appropriate, regarding indoor air quality and children's health and inform Head Start agencies of programs that improve indoor air.
 
Establishes the Career Advancement Partnership program that allows the Secretary to award demonstration grants to historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities to increase the number and expertise of teachers in early childhood education or related fields. Requires individuals that receive program assistance to teach in a center-based Head Start program for a period equivalent to the period for which they received assistance, or repay such assistance.
 
(Sec. 19) Amends staff qualification and development requirements.
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that by September 30, 2013, at least 50% of Head Start teachers and all Head Start education coordinators nationwide in center-based programs have: (1) a baccalaureate or advanced degree in early childhood education; or (2) a baccalaureate or advanced degree and coursework equivalent to a major relating to early childhood education, with experience in teaching preschool children. Requires all Head Start teaching assistants nationwide in center-based programs to have a child development associate credential or be working toward an associate or baccalaureate degree by such date. Requires Head Start agencies to issue progress reports regarding their teachers' attainment of credentials and degrees.
 
Requires each Head Start classroom that does not have a teacher that meets such qualifications to be assigned at least one teacher that meets certain alternative credentialing and degree requirements.
 
Requires each Head Start teacher to attend at least 15 clock hours of professional development per year. 
 
Requires individuals who receive educational assistance for teacher training under the Act to teach or work in a Head Start center for a minimum of three years thereafter, or repay the total or an amount prorated on the basis of service completed.
 
Directs the Secretary to review and, as necessary, revise or develop maximum caseload requirements for Head Start family service workers and promote strategies that ensure their ability to meet the needs of special populations, including LEP children. 
 
Requires each Head Start agency and program to create a professional development plan for all their employees who provide direct services to children, and regularly evaluate the plan's effectiveness.
 
Prohibits Head Start agencies from employing individuals before interviewing them, verifying their personal and employment references, and obtaining criminal record background checks.
 
 (Sec. 20) Alters Head Start research, demonstration, and evaluation requirements.
 
Includes homeless children, abused and neglected children, and foster care children in the continuing program of Head Start research, demonstration, and evaluation activities, which are now to be scientifically-based.
 
Repeals the mandate for the required use and linkage of specified surveys in evaluating Head Start program participants.
 
Requires that research, demonstration, and evaluation activities: (1) contribute to increasing the effective delivery of Head Start services to disabled and nondisabled children in classrooms containing a mixture of such children; and (2) identify successful strategies that promote good oral and vision health for Early Head Start and Head Start participants.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) study and report to Congress on the status of LEP children and their families in Head Start and Early Head Start programs; and (2) award competitive research and evaluation grants to organizations with a demonstrated capacity to serve and study such children and their families, migrant and seasonal farmworker families, and other families of diverse populations served by Head Start programs.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) integrate into each Head Start program assessment the results of the National Academy of Sciences study on Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children, when they become available; and (2) use them to develop, inform, and revise Head Start quality standards and measures.
 
Terminates further development and use of the National Reporting System.
 
Directs the Secretary to conduct studies and report on Head Start program participation by eligible Indian, Alaskan Native, and migrant and seasonal children. 
 
Directs the Secretary to study and make recommendations for improving federal, state, and local emergency preparedness and response capabilities as they relate to Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 21) Includes homeless children, foster care children, and children participating Indian Head Start or migrant or seasonal Head Start programs in the biennial reports on the status of children in Head Start programs. Requires such reports to include information on the number of children served, disaggregated by eligibility type.
 
Directs the Secretary to report to Congress annually on whether triennial reviews of Head Start agencies provide reasonable assurances that such agencies are complying with applicable fiscal laws and regulations. 
 
Directs the Secretary to report to Congress on; (1) the provision of services to disabled Head Start children under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; and (2) efforts to prevent and reduce obesity in Head Start children.
 
(Sec. 22) Prohibits any Head Start employee from being compensated at a rate greater than the level II Executive Schedule pay rate.
 
(Sec. 23) Extends the ban against aid to or assistance in any unlawful demonstration, rioting, or civil disturbance to any individual in any Head Start Agency or other agency assisted under the Head Start Act.
 
(Sec. 24) Extends certain political activity restrictions to any individual employed by or assigned to a program receiving assistance under the Head Start Act during the hours in which he or she is working on its behalf. 
 
Prohibits the use of Head Start appropriations for voter registration activities.
 
(Sec. 25) Requires Head Start agencies to obtain written parental consent before administering to a child, or referring the child for, a nonemergency intrusive physical examination, including one in connection with the program. Declares that such requirement shall not be construed to prohibit agencies from using established methods for handling cases of suspected or known child abuse and neglect in compliance with applicable federal, state, or tribal law.
 
(Sec. 26) Directs the Secretary to: (1) designate up to 200 exemplary Head Start agencies as Centers of Excellence in Early Childhood; and (2) make them bonus grants.
 
Requires the Centers to use at least 15% of their grants to disseminate best practices for achieving early academic success to other Head Start agencies in their states. Authorizes the use of remaining grant funds on Head Start access and quality improvement efforts, and coordinating Head Start services with other educational and social services for children and their families.
 
Directs the Secretary to award a grant or contract to an independent organization to research and report on the Centers' ability to: (1) improve Head Start childrens' school readiness and performance in the earliest grades; and (2) encourage delegate agencies, additional Head Start agencies, and other early childhood education and development providers to meet measurable improvement goals, particularly in school readiness.
 
Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2012.
 
(Sec. 28) Directs the Secretary to report to Congress: (1) certifying that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has, for each program and activity of the Administration for Children and Families, determined which bears a significant risk of making improper payments; and (2) describing the actions to be taken to reduce improper payments to such programs and activities.

action_date: 2007-12-12
text: 

(This measure has not been amended since the Conference Report was filed in the House on November 14, 2007. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

 
Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 - Amends the Head Start Act (the Act) to revise and reauthorize Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 2) Includes among the aims of Head Start programs children's growth in language, literacy, mathematics, science, social and emotional functioning, creative arts, physical skills, and approaches to learning.
 
(Sec. 3) Includes community-based organizations and financial literacy training within the definitions of Head Start delegate agencies and family literacy services, respectively. Adds definitions of Head Start deficiencies, homeless children, institutions of higher education, interrater reliability, limited English proficient (LEP) children, principles of scientific research, professional development for teachers and staff, scientifically valid research, and unresolved areas of noncompliance.
 
Removes Micronesia and the Marshall Islands from the list of program participants.
 
(Sec. 4) Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) to provide financial assistance to Head Start agencies for five-year periods.
 
(Sec. 5) Authorizes appropriations for Head Start programs for FY2008-FY2012.
 
(Sec. 6) Sets forth allotment requirements, as well as limitations on and authorized uses of Head Start funds.
 
Reserves from such funds: (1) amounts for state, Indian, migrant and seasonal, and territorial Head Start programs that are equal to the base amounts such programs received for the prior fiscal year; (2) amounts for collaborative grants at the FY2007 level; (3) at least 2.5% and no more than 3% for training and technical assistance, at least 20% of which is to be used to provide such assistance to Early Head Start programs; and (4) specified monetary amounts for research, demonstration, and evaluation activities and for discretionary payments. Requires the use of remaining funds for cost of living increases for each Head Start agency and the provision of specified amounts to Indian and migrant and seasonal Head Start programs to increase enrollment.
 
Requires that after at least 20% of of the training and technical assistance funds are reserved for Early Head Start programs: (1) at least 50% of such remaining funds be available for the direct use of Head Start agencies; (2) at least 25% be available to the Secretary for state-based or national training and technical assistance systems; and (3) the remainder be available to the Secretary to assist local Early Head Start entities meet and exceed program performance standards.
 
 Requires any additional remaining funds to be used for specified Head Start quality improvement and expansion activities.
 
Provides funding for the Republic of Palau through FY2009 and, if legislation approving a new agreement regarding assistance to Palau is not enacted by the end of FY2009, through FY2012.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish policies and procedures assuring that: (1) by FY2009 at least 10% of the children enrolled by each Head Start and delegate agency will be disabled children eligible for special education or early intervention services; and (2) such agencies will collaborate with state and local agencies providing such services.
 
Applies service delivery guidelines to: (1) models that leverage the capacity and capabilities of the delivery system of early childhood education and development services or programs; and (2) procedures to provide for the conversion of part-day programs to full-day programs or part-day slots to full-day slots and serve additional infants and toddlers.
 
Provides that, when Head Start appropriations are less than the prior fiscal year's appropriations or not sufficient to maintain services comparable to that prior year's services, Head Start grantees may negotiate a reduced funded enrollment level with the Secretary without a reduction in their grant level, if they can show that a reduced enrollment level is necessary to maintain the quality of services.
 
Requires regulations to ensure appropriate supervision and background checks of individuals with whom Head Start agencies contract to transport children.
 
Requires the Secretary to: (1) appoint a national migrant and seasonal Head Start collaboration director and a national Indian Head Start collaboration director; (2) conduct annual consultations in each affected Head Start region with tribal governments operating Head Start or Early Head Start programs to better gauge their needs; and (3) establish policies and procedures to remove barriers to the enrollment and participation of homeless children in Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 7) Provides for the development of a new system for designating Head Start agencies and the consideration of additional criteria in evaluating applicants.
 
 Includes community-based and faith-based organizations among the entities that may be designated Head Start agencies.
 
Maintains the current process of designating a Head Start agency until the Secretary develops and implements a transparent, reliable, and valid designation renewal system that integrates the recommendations of an expert panel. Designates those grantees that the system finds to be successfully delivering a high quality and comprehensive Head Start program as Head Start agencies for five years, but requires underperforming grantees to enter into open competition with other applicants.
 
 Sets forth criteria to be considered in choosing between competing applicants, including each applicant's ability to: (1) attract and retain qualified staff; (2) maintain child-to-teacher ratios and family service worker caseloads; (3) use scientifically-based curriculum and teaching practices that are developmentally appropriate and promote school readiness; (4) coordinate with other public or private entities providing early childhood education and development programs and services for young children or willing to commit resources to Head Start programs; (5) provide family health, literacy, and parenting services; (6) extend outreach to fathers; and (7) meet the needs of LEP, disabled, homeless, and foster care children. Removes the priority currently given nonprofit applicants.
 
Directs the Secretary to continue to involve parents and affected area residents in selection of qualified applicants for such designation.
 
Prohibits a non-Indian Head Start agency from operating an Indian Head Start program, unless there is no Indian Head Start agency available in the community.
 
(Sec. 8) Revises Head Start quality standards and monitoring requirements.
 
Requires the Secretary to modify program performance standards, as necessary, so they are scientifically-based, developmentally appropriate, and based on the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework to ensure that children, at a minimum, progress in language, literacy, mathematics, science, cognitive abilities, approaches to learning, social and emotional development, creative arts, physical development and the acquisition of the English language. Adds as new factors the Secretary must consider in modifying such standards: (1) the recommendations of the study on Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); (2) the need for Head Start agencies to communicate regularly with parents; and (3) the unique challenges faced by individual programs, including seasonal, short term, and rural programs.
 
Requires facilities used by Head Start, Early Head Start, and delegate agencies for regularly scheduled center-based and combination program option classroom activities to meet or exceed state and local licensing requirements, and be accessible by state and local authorities to monitor and ensure compliance, unless state or local law prohibits such access.
 
Requires scientifically-based measures of program performance to be reviewed periodically so they reflect advances in the science of early childhood development.
 
Prohibits federal use of any assessment to: (1) rank, compare, or otherwise evaluate individual Head Start children for purposes other than research, training, or technical assistance; and (2) reward or sanction individual Head Start children or teachers. Prohibits the Secretary from using any single assessment as the sole method for assessing program effectiveness or making agency funding determinations. 
 
Requires the Secretary's reviews of Head Start agencies and programs to include unannounced site inspections, as appropriate. Requires the full reviews, conducted at least once every three years for each agency, to include a risk-based assessment approach. Requires review teams to receive periodic training to ensure quality and consistency across reviews. Includes in such reviews: (1) an assessment of whether programs adequately address community needs; (2) an observational instrument that addresses classroom quality; and (3) an assessment of whether programs use federal funds appropriately and conform to Head Start eligibility and enrollment requirements.
 
Requires that Early Head Start program reviews be conducted by individuals knowledgeable about infant and toddler development.
 
Directs Head Start agencies to evaluate their delegate agencies and inform them of deficiencies which must be corrected. Prohibits Head Start agencies from terminating a delegate agency's contract or reducing its service area without showing cause or demonstrating the decision's cost-effectiveness.
 
Requires summaries of program reviews and the outcomes of quality improvement plans to be made available to all parents with children receiving Head Start assistance, in addition to the public.
 
Requires each Head Start and delegate agency to: (1) conduct a comprehensive self-assessment at least once each program year; (2) develop goals and a plan for improving childrens' school readiness; and (3) implement ongoing monitoring of its programs.
 
Directs Head Start agencies to report their actual enrollment monthly to the Secretary and, if it is less than the funded enrollment, any apparent reason for the shortfall. Directs the Secretary to develop plans for programs to reduce or eliminate underenrollment, and provide such programs with technical assistance in implementing such plans.
 
Sets forth rules for the redistribution of base grants recaptured, withheld, or reduced.
 
(Sec. 9) Revises the power and functions of Head Start agencies.
 
Adds to the minimum services Head Start agencies provide by requiring them to: (1) seek the involvement of local business, in addition to parents and community residents, in the design and implementation of programs; (2) offer health services to parents of participating children, including information on maternal depression; (3) provide parents of LEP children with outreach and information in an understandable and uniform format, and to the extent practicable, in a language such parents can understand; (4) promote the continued involvement of parents and, as appropriate, foster parents, grandparents, and kinship caregivers in the education of participating children upon their transition to school; and (5) provide disabled children with intervention and referral services.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to establish and maintain a formal structure for program governance, for the oversight of quality services for Head Start children and families, and for making decisions related to program design and implementation. Requires such structure to include a governing body with legal and fiscal responsibility for the Head Start agency and a policy council, elected by Head Start parents, which is responsible for the direction of the Head Start program.
 
Directs the Secretary to develop policies, procedures, and guidance on the resolution of internal disputes and the implementation of collaborative decision-making in program governance.
 
Requires Head Start agencies to conduct outreach to schools, local educational agencies (LEAs), local businesses, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, museums, and libraries to generate support and leverage community resources to improve school readiness. Requires Head Start agencies, in communities where both public prekindergarten programs and Head Start programs operate, to collaborate and coordinate activities with the public agency and providers responsible for operating prekindergarten programs, including outreach activities to identify eligible children. Directs Head Start agencies, with parental consent, to communicate regularly with schools children will be attending to share information about them, collaborate with such schools' teachers, and ensure children's smooth transition to such schools.
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of Head Start agencies to coordinate activities with LEAs and schools in which participating children will enroll. Includes in such collaboration, enhancing the efficiency of services while increasing the participation of underserved eligible children.
 
Requires each Head Start agency, within one year of this Act's enactment, to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the local entity responsible for managing publicly funded preschool programs in its service area for the coordination and review of program services.
 
Establishes curricular requirements that are research-based, comprehensive, and aligned with the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework and state early learning standards, as appropriate. Requires the use of ongoing research-based assessment methods and developmental screening tools. Directs programs to develop training and technical assistance plans and professional development plans focused on teacher effectiveness.
 
Requires each Head Start agency to enroll 100% of its funded enrollment, maintain an active waiting list, and conduct community outreach.
 
Requires such agencies to use strong fiscal controls.
 
(Sec. 10) Adds to requirements for Head Start program coordination with LEAs and schools to ensure the continuity of childrens' K-12 education by requiring: (1) the needs of homeless and LEP children, and those currently underserved by Head Start programs, to be addressed; (2) the continuity of developmentally appropriate curricula between Head Start agencies and LEAs; and (3) an emphasis on the role of parental involvement in a child's academic success.
 
Directs the Secretary to provide Head Start agencies with information on, and technical assistance in establishing, policies and activities that support childrens' successful transition to public schools.
 
(Sec. 11) Provides for local and state integration of early childhood education.
 
Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of the Secretary to award, upon written request, collaboration grants to states and each national administrative office serving Indian Head Start and migrant and seasonal Head Start programs to facilitate coordination among Head Start agencies and entities that carry out other activities designed to benefit low-income families and children from birth to school entry.
 
Requires the use of collaboration grants to: (1) assist Head Start agencies to collaborate with entities involved in state and local planning processes to better meet the needs of low-income families and children; (2) assist Head Start agencies to coordinate activities with the responsible state agency under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990, and other specified entities; (3) promote alignment of Head Start curricula and services with state early learning standards, as appropriate, and the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework; (4) promote better linkages between Head Start agencies and other child and family agencies; and (5) carry out the activities of the state Director of Head Start Collaboration.
 
Requires the state to appoint or designate a state Director of Head Start Collaboration (currently state liaison), and establish an Office of such Director. Requires the state Director to: (1) make specified assessments and strategic plans; (2) promote certain partnerships; (3) enable state agencies to better coordinate professional development opportunities for Head Start staff; and (4) help Head Start agencies develop plans to provide full-working-day, full calendar year services, and align them with state early learning standards, as appropriate, and the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework. 
 
Directs the Governor of the state to designate or establish a state advisory council on early childhood education and care for children from birth to school entry, on which the state's Director of Head Start Collaboration shall serve.
 
(Sec. 12) Exempts from the requirement for prior submission of explanatory plans to the chief executive officer of a state any contracts, agreements, grants, loans, or other assistance for Indian Head Start programs or migrant or seasonal Head Start programs.
 
 
(Sec. 13) Adds to Head Start administrative requirements.
 
Directs each Head Start agency to make a report available to the public at least once each fiscal year disclosing: (1) its finances and budget; (2) its enrollment, including the percentage of its enrollees receiving medical and dental exams; (3) the results of the Secretary's most recent review and the financial audit; (4) parental involvement activities; and (5) the agency's efforts to prepare children for kindergarten.
 
 Prohibits an agency from using federal funds to purchase a facility unless the agency receives the Secretary's approval and informs the Secretary of its efforts to collaborate with other community providers in seeking assistance to purchase such facility.
 
(Sec. 14) Alters rules regarding eligible Head Start program participants.
 
Requires that homeless children be deemed eligible for Head Start services
 
Allows Head Start agencies to provide services to limited percentages of participants who: (1) are not impoverished but whose family income is below 130% of the poverty level; or (2) who do not meet poverty criteria but would benefit from such services, such as disabled children. Requires priority to be given to children who are homeless or whose family income is below the poverty level.
 
Exempts certain amounts of military pay and allowances from family income consideration for purposes of determining Head Start eligibility, including: (1) special pay for duty subject to hostile fire or imminent danger; and (2) a specified basic allowance, especially for housing.
 
Authorizes a Head Start agency, after it demonstrates a need through a communitywide strategic planning and needs assessment, to apply to the Secretary to convert part-day sessions, particularly consecutive part-day sessions, into full-day sessions.
 
Allows a Head Start agency to use program funds to serve infants and toddlers if it provides certain information to the Secretary proving its capacity and capability to carry out an effective Early Head Start program. Subjects such agency to the same rules applicable to Early Head Start programs.
 
Allows Indian Head Start agencies that also operate a Early Head Start program to reallocate funds between both programs at any time.
 
(Sec. 15) Adds to Early Head Start program service, coordination, and training requirements. 
 
Requires Early Head Start programs to include: (1) parental training in parenting skills and in basic child development; (2) coordination with home-based services, programs for homeless infants and toddlers, and family support services; (3) appropriate screening and referral for children with documented behavioral problems; (4) procedures for transitioning children and parents from an Early Head Start program into a Head Start program or another local early childhood education and development program; (5) communication channels to help coordinate such Early Head Start programs with other early childhood education and development programs; and (6) formal linkages with agencies responsible for administering the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.
 
Includes as eligible Early Head Start service providers: (1) entities operating Indian or migrant or seasonal Head Start programs; and (2) community-based and faith-based organizations capable of providing child and family services that meet Head Start standards and other appropriate requirements.
 
Makes homeless children eligible for Early Head Start services. Applies the changes made to Head Start income eligiblity requirements to Early Head Start programs.
 
 Makes available from Early Head Start training and technical assistance funds: (1) at least 50% for the direct use of Early Head Start agencies; (2) at least 25% for state-based or national training and technical assistance systems, including supportive infant and toddler specialists; and (3) the remainder to assist local Early Head Start entities meet and exceed program performance standards. 
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that all teachers providing direct services to children and families in Early Head Start centers have a minimum of a child development associate credential and training in early childhood development by September 30, 2010, and training in early childhood development with a focus on infant and toddler development by September 30, 2012.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish standards for training, qualifications, and the conduct of home visits for home visitor staff in Early Head Start programs. Requires that such standards include content related to the role of parents in child development and in working with other health and developmental service providers to eliminate gaps in service. 
 
(Sec. 16) Revises requirements for appeals, notice, and hearings.
 
Prohibits Head Start agencies from using federal Head Start assistance for legal fees and other costs incurred in pursuing appeals; but permits the Secretary to reimburse Head Start agencies for fees deemed reasonable and customary.
 
(Sec. 17) Requires Head Start agencies to submit to the Secretary complete annual accountings of their administrative expenses as well as, within 30 days after completion of an audit, a copy of the audit management letters and audit findings.
 
(Sec. 18) Revises training and technical assistance requirements.
 
Adds as targets of such assistance: (1) services and outreach to homeless children, LEP children and their families, and disabled children; (2) the unique needs of rural Head Start programs; (3) members of governing bodies and policy councils or committees; (4) ensuring that staff are qualified to promote child obesity prevention; (5) training for Indian Head Start agency staff; and (6) Head Start agency selection and use of performance measures.
 
Requires the Secretary to provide additional support for: (1) an organization to administer a centralized child development and national assessment program leading to recognized credentials for early childhood education and development personnel; and (2) training personnel to better serve LEP children and their families, abused or neglected children, children coping with community violence, children with health problems, disabled children and their families, migrant and seasonal farmworker families, and homeless families.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish an outreach program to recruit and train professionals from diverse backgrounds to become Head Start teachers 
 
Requires each Head Start agency to ensure that all of its teachers receive ongoing training in language and emergent literacy.
 
Prohibits the use of training funds for long-distance travel to training that is available locally or regionally.
 
Directs the Secretary to enter into contracts in each state with one or more entities that have expertise in supporting the delivery of high-quality early childhood education and development programs for the development of state-based or national (for migrant, seasonal, or Indian programs) training and technical assistance systems that improve the capacity of Head Start programs to meet or exceed Head Start performance standards.
 
Requires the Secretary to consult appropriate federal agencies and other experts, as appropriate, regarding indoor air quality and children's health and inform Head Start agencies of programs that improve indoor air.
 
Establishes the Career Advancement Partnership program that allows the Secretary to award demonstration grants to historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities to increase the number and expertise of teachers in early childhood education or related fields. Requires individuals that receive program assistance to teach in a center-based Head Start program for a period equivalent to the period for which they received assistance, or repay such assistance.
 
(Sec. 19) Amends staff qualification and development requirements.
 
Directs the Secretary to ensure that by September 30, 2013, at least 50% of Head Start teachers and all Head Start education coordinators nationwide in center-based programs have: (1) a baccalaureate or advanced degree in early childhood education; or (2) a baccalaureate or advanced degree and coursework equivalent to a major relating to early childhood education, with experience in teaching preschool children. Requires all Head Start teaching assistants nationwide in center-based programs to have a child development associate credential or be working toward an associate or baccalaureate degree by such date. Requires Head Start agencies to issue progress reports regarding their teachers' attainment of credentials and degrees.
 
Requires each Head Start classroom that does not have a teacher that meets such qualifications to be assigned at least one teacher that meets certain alternative credentialing and degree requirements.
 
Requires each Head Start teacher to attend at least 15 clock hours of professional development per year. 
 
Requires individuals who receive educational assistance for teacher training under the Act to teach or work in a Head Start center for a minimum of three years thereafter, or repay the total or an amount prorated on the basis of service completed.
 
Directs the Secretary to review and, as necessary, revise or develop maximum caseload requirements for Head Start family service workers and promote strategies that ensure their ability to meet the needs of special populations, including LEP children. 
 
Requires each Head Start agency and program to create a professional development plan for all their employees who provide direct services to children, and regularly evaluate the plan's effectiveness.
 
Prohibits Head Start agencies from employing individuals before interviewing them, verifying their personal and employment references, and obtaining criminal record background checks.
 
 (Sec. 20) Alters Head Start research, demonstration, and evaluation requirements.
 
Includes homeless children, abused and neglected children, and foster care children in the continuing program of Head Start research, demonstration, and evaluation activities, which are now to be scientifically-based.
 
Repeals the mandate for the required use and linkage of specified surveys in evaluating Head Start program participants.
 
Requires that research, demonstration, and evaluation activities: (1) contribute to increasing the effective delivery of Head Start services to disabled and nondisabled children in classrooms containing a mixture of such children; and (2) identify successful strategies that promote good oral and vision health for Early Head Start and Head Start participants.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) study and report to Congress on the status of LEP children and their families in Head Start and Early Head Start programs; and (2) award competitive research and evaluation grants to organizations with a demonstrated capacity to serve and study such children and their families, migrant and seasonal farmworker families, and other families of diverse populations served by Head Start programs.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) integrate into each Head Start program assessment the results of the National Academy of Sciences study on Developmental Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children, when they become available; and (2) use them to develop, inform, and revise Head Start quality standards and measures.
 
Terminates further development and use of the National Reporting System.
 
Directs the Secretary to conduct studies and report on Head Start program participation by eligible Indian, Alaskan Native, and migrant and seasonal children. 
 
Directs the Secretary to study and make recommendations for improving federal, state, and local emergency preparedness and response capabilities as they relate to Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
 
(Sec. 21) Includes homeless children, foster care children, and children participating Indian Head Start or migrant or seasonal Head Start programs in the biennial reports on the status of children in Head Start programs. Requires such reports to include information on the number of children served, disaggregated by eligibility type.
 
Directs the Secretary to report to Congress annually on whether triennial reviews of Head Start agencies provide reasonable assurances that such agencies are complying with applicable fiscal laws and regulations. 
 
Directs the Secretary to report to Congress on; (1) the provision of services to disabled Head Start children under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; and (2) efforts to prevent and reduce obesity in Head Start children.
 
(Sec. 22) Prohibits any Head Start employee from being compensated at a rate greater than the level II Executive Schedule pay rate.
 
(Sec. 23) Extends the ban against aid to or assistance in any unlawful demonstration, rioting, or civil disturbance to any individual in any Head Start Agency or other agency assisted under the Head Start Act.
 
(Sec. 24) Extends certain political activity restrictions to any individual employed by or assigned to a program receiving assistance under the Head Start Act during the hours in which he or she is working on its behalf. 
 
Prohibits the use of Head Start appropriations for voter registration activities.
 
(Sec. 25) Requires Head Start agencies to obtain written parental consent before administering to a child, or referring the child for, a nonemergency intrusive physical examination, including one in connection with the program. Declares that such requirement shall not be construed to prohibit agencies from using established methods for handling cases of suspected or known child abuse and neglect in compliance with applicable federal, state, or tribal law.
 
(Sec. 26) Directs the Secretary to: (1) designate up to 200 exemplary Head Start agencies as Centers of Excellence in Early Childhood; and (2) make them bonus grants.
 
Requires the Centers to use at least 15% of their grants to disseminate best practices for achieving early academic success to other Head Start agencies in their states. Authorizes the use of remaining grant funds on Head Start access and quality improvement efforts, and coordinating Head Start services with other educational and social services for children and their families.
 
Directs the Secretary to award a grant or contract to an independent organization to research and report on the Centers' ability to: (1) improve Head Start childrens' school readiness and performance in the earliest grades; and (2) encourage delegate agencies, additional Head Start agencies, and other early childhood education and development providers to meet measurable improvement goals, particularly in school readiness.
 
Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2012.
 
(Sec. 28) Directs the Secretary to report to Congress: (1) certifying that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has, for each program and activity of the Administration for Children and Families, determined which bears a significant risk of making improper payments; and (2) describing the actions to be taken to reduce improper payments to such programs and activities.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-12
text: Became Public Law No: 110-134.
action_date: 2007-12-12
text: Became Public Law No: 110-134.
action_date: 2007-12-12
text: Signed by President.
action_date: 2007-12-12
text: Signed by President.
action_date: 2007-12-05
text: Presented to President.
action_date: 2007-12-05
text: Presented to President.
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Cleared for White House.
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Message on Senate action sent to the House.
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Pursuant to the provisions of H. Con. Res. 258, enrollment corrections on H.R. 1429 have been made.
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Senate agreed to conference report by Yea-Nay Vote. 95 - 0. Record Vote Number: 409.
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Conference report agreed to in Senate: Senate agreed to conference report by Yea-Nay Vote. 95 - 0. Record Vote Number: 409.
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Conference report considered in Senate. (consideration: CR S14375-14385, S14385-14387)
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Conference papers: Senate report and manager's statement message on House action held at the desk in Senate.
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: On agreeing to the conference report Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 381 - 36 (Roll no. 1090).
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Motions to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Conference report agreed to in House: On agreeing to the conference report Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 381 - 36 (Roll no. 1090).
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: The previous question was ordered without objection. (consideration: CR H13883)
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: The House proceeded with one hour of debate on the conference report to accompany H.R. 1429.
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Mr. Kildee brought up conference report H. Rept. 110-439 for consideration under the provisions of H. Res. 813. (consideration: CR H13876-13884)
action_date: 2007-11-14
text: Rule H. Res. 813 passed House.
action_date: 2007-11-09
text: Rules Committee Resolution H. Res. 813 Reported to House. Rule provides for consideration of the conference report to H.R. 1429. All points of order against the conference report and against its consideration are waived. The conference report shall be considered as read.
action_date: 2007-11-09
text: Conference report H. Rept. 110-439 filed. (text of conference report: CR H13462-13509)
action_date: 2007-11-09
text: Conference report filed: Conference report H. Rept. 110-439 filed.(text of conference report: CR H13462-13509)
action_date: 2007-11-08
text: Conferees agreed to file conference report.
action_date: 2007-11-08
text: Conference committee actions: Conferees agreed to file conference report.
action_date: 2007-11-06
text: The Speaker appointed conferees: Miller, George, Kildee, Woolsey, Davis (IL), Grijalva, Sanchez, Linda T., Sarbanes, Sestak, Loebsack, Hirono, Shea-Porter, McKeon, Castle, Fortuno, Bishop (UT), Keller, Wilson (SC), Boustany, and Heller.
action_date: 2007-11-06
text: On motion that the House instruct conferees Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 400 - 0 (Roll no. 1045).
action_date: 2007-11-06
text: POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - The Chair put the question on adoption of the motion to instruct conferees and by voice vote announced that the noes had prevailed. Mr. Bishop of Utah demanded the yeas and nays which were ordered. Further proceedings on the question of adoption of the motion were postponed until later in the legislative day.
action_date: 2007-11-06
text: The previous question was ordered without objection. (consideration: CR H12802)
action_date: 2007-11-06
text: DEBATE - The House proceeded with one hour of debate on the Castle motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 1429. The instructions contained in the motion seek to require the managers on the part of the House to (1) insist on the provisions restricting the use of Federal funds to pay the salary of any head Start employee at a rate in excess of level II of the Executive Schedule; (2) disagree to the provisions relating to wages and compensation for individuals employed by a Head Start agency compensated at a rate in excess of level II of the Executive Schedule; and (3) insist that the differences between the two Houses on wages and compensation of Head Start employees be open to discussion at any meeting of the conference and, that all meetings thereon be conducted under circumstances in which every manager on the part of the House has notice of the meeting and a reasonable opportunity to attend, pursuant to House
action_date: 2007-11-06
text: Mr. Castle moved that the House instruct conferees. (consideration: CR H12800)
action_date: 2007-11-06
text: On motion that the House disagree to the Senate amendment, and agree to a conference Agreed to without objection. (consideration: CR H12800-12802, H12805)
action_date: 2007-11-06
text: Mr. Miller, George asked unanimous consent that the House disagree to the Senate amendment, and agree to a conference.
action_date: 2007-06-20
text: Message on Senate action sent to the House.
action_date: 2007-06-19
text: Senate insists on its amendment, asks for a conference, appoints conferees Kennedy; Dodd; Harkin; Mikulski; Bingaman; Murray; Reed; Clinton; Obama; Sanders; Brown; Enzi; Gregg; Alexander; Burr; Isakson; Murkowski; Hatch; Roberts; Allard; Coburn. (consideration: CR S7998)
action_date: 2007-06-19
text: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.
action_date: 2007-06-19
text: Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.
action_date: 2007-06-19
text: Measure laid before Senate by unanimous consent. (consideration: CR S7996-7998)
action_date: 2007-05-07
text: Received in the Senate. Read twice. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 137.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: On passage Passed by recorded vote: 365 - 48 (Roll no. 285).
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed by recorded vote: 365 - 48 (Roll no. 285).
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: On motion to recommit with instructions Failed by recorded vote: 195 - 222 (Roll no. 284).
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: The previous question on the motion to recommit with instructions was ordered without objection. (consideration: CR H4377-4378)
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - The House proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the McKeon motion to recommit with instructions. The instructions contained in the motion seek to require the bill to be reported back to the House with an amendment inserting a new section providing that religious organizations are included as non-governmental providers.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: Mr. McKeon moved to recommit with instructions to Education and Labor. (consideration: CR H4376-4378; text: CR H4376)
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: The House adopted the amendment in the nature of a substitute as agreed to by the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union. (text: CR H4336-4353)
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: The previous question was ordered pursuant to the rule. (consideration: CR H4375-4379)
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: The House rose from the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union to report H.R. 1429.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Space amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Shuler amendment, the Chair put the question on adoption of the amendment and by voice vote, announced that the ayes had prevailed. Mr. McKeon demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of adoption of the amendment until later in the legislative day.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Shuler amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Cuellar amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Carnahan amendment, the Chair put the question on adoption of the amendment and by voice vote, announced that the ayes had prevailed. Mr. McKeon demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of adoption of the amendment until later in the legislative day.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Carnahan amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Porter amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Putnam amendment, the Chair put the question on adoption of the amendment and by voice vote, announced that the noes had prevailed. Mr. Putnam demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of adoption of the amendment until later in the legislative day.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Putnam amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Kennedy amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Mica amendment, the Chair put the question on adoption of the amendment and by voice vote, announced that the noes had prevailed. Mr. Mica demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of adoption of the amendment until later in the legislative day.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Mica amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Hirono amendment, the Chair put the question on adoption of the amendment and by voice vote, announced that the ayes had prevailed. Mr. Garrett demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of adoption of the amendment until later in the legislative day.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Hirono amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Sestak amendment, the Chair put the question on adoption of the amendment and by voice vote, announced that the ayes had prevailed. Mr. Garrett demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of adoption of the amendment until later in the legislative day.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Sestak amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS - At the conclusion of debate on the Price (GA) amendment, the Chair put the question on adoption of the amendment and by voice vote, announced that the noes had prevailed. Mr. Price (GA) demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of adoption of the amendment until later in the legislative day.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Price (GA) amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 348, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the E.B. Johnson amendment.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: GENERAL DEBATE - The Committee of the Whole proceeded with one hour of general debate on H.R. 1429.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: The Speaker designated the Honorable Adam B. Schiff to act as Chairman of the Committee.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: House resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union pursuant to H. Res. 348 and Rule XVIII.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: Rule provides for consideration of H.R. 1429 with 1 hour of general debate. Previous question shall be considered as ordered without intervening motions except motion to recommit with or without instructions. Measure will be considered read. Specified amendments are in order. All points of order against the bill are waived except those arising under clause 9 or 10 of rule XXI. It shall be in order to consider as an original bill for the purpose of amendment under the five-minute rule the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Education and Labor now printed in the bill.
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: Considered under the provisions of rule H. Res. 348. (consideration: CR H4326-4379)
action_date: 2007-05-02
text: Rule H. Res. 348 passed House.
action_date: 2007-05-01
text: Rules Committee Resolution H. Res. 348 Reported to House. Rule provides for consideration of H.R. 1429 with 1 hour of general debate. Previous question shall be considered as ordered without intervening motions except motion to recommit with or without instructions. Measure will be considered read. Specified amendments are in order. All points of order against the bill are waived except those arising under clause 9 or 10 of rule XXI. It shall be in order to consider as an original bill for the purpose of amendment under the five-minute rule the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Education and Labor now printed in the bill.
action_date: 2007-03-23
text: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 38.
action_date: 2007-03-23
text: Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Education and Labor. H. Rept. 110-67.
action_date: 2007-03-23
text: Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Education and Labor. H. Rept. 110-67.
action_date: 2007-03-14
text: Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 42 - 1.
action_date: 2007-03-14
text: Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
action_date: 2007-03-09
text: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
action_date: 2007-03-09
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2007-03-09
text: Introduced in House

Enacted as: number: 110-134