Title
Head Start Birth to Five Monthly Report - January 2024
Description
This report provides the Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee, which serves as the City of Phoenix Head Start Birth to Five Governing Board, with an updated summary of the Head Start Birth to Five Program's financial and programmatic status.
THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
Report
Summary
The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 requires each Head Start Grantee to share monthly information with the Governing Board and Policy Council on program planning, policies and operations. In compliance with the Act, the Head Start program provides a monthly report on the following areas:
- Fiscal expenditures;
- Enrollment reports;
- School attendance;
- Medical/dental exams; and
- Program information summaries.
Fiscal Expenditures
Attachment A shows year-to-date expenditures for the Fiscal Year 2023-24. The report includes a breakdown of each Education Service Provider, Child Care Partnership, Policy Council and the administrative support budget.
Enrollment Reports
The Office of Head Start requires programs to report the total number of children enrolled on the last day of each month. At the end of January, overall enrollment was 2,113 out of 3,451 available slots.
At the end of January, the Education Service Providers enrollment was 1,905 slots filled out of 2,963. The program can serve approximately 50 more children based on the current number of teachers. Staff is actively working with the providers to address this gap through the Full Enrollment Initiative.
Early Head Start ended the month of January with 208 slots filled out of 488. The Home-Based program, which provides year-round, in-person home visitation, filled 63 slots out of 300, which is at capacity based on the current number of home visitors. The Child Care Partnership program provides full-day, year-round services and has 145 slots filled out of 188. The Child Care Partners can serve up to 43 more children. However, Cactus Kids Preschool has yet to be able to fill teacher vacancies, leaving eight classrooms without children. While infant rooms are available, vacancies remain due to a lack of available classroom space for two-year-olds who remain on the wait list.
Education Service Providers and Child Care Partners continue to recruit classroom staff through social media, job search websites, and collaboration with colleges. The Early Head Start Home-Based program has completed a hiring process to bring on additional home visitor Caseworkers. Staff will need to complete the training before they can be assigned families.
School Attendance
The annual target for attendance set by the Office of Head Start is 85 percent. Attachment B indicates the year-to-date average attendance through the end of January. Head Start Preschool was 54 percent, and the Child Care Partnership program was 63 percent. Under-enrollment impacts attendance, as it is calculated on funded enrollment, not actual enrollment.
Chronic Absenteeism
Chronic absenteeism is defined as a child absent from school more than 10 percent of the school's calendar year; this equates to two days per month. To address this issue, the Head Start Birth to Five Program has partnered with Read On Phoenix to educate parents on the importance of regular attendance and the negative impact chronic absenteeism has on a child's educational experience. The Head Start Birth to Five Program has taken a proactive approach by promoting the return to school after long breaks, such as Winter Break in December. All enrolled families received a "we miss you" letter between the holidays that included the date to return to school in January 2024. Each child who returned on the first day of school received a book. This approach was successful, as only 14 did not return to school, compared to more than 25 who did not return in January 2023. This approach will be used in March 2024 for Spring Break.
Medical/Dental Exams
Head Start regulations require all children to have medical and dental exams annually. At the end of January, 2,131 medical and 2,028 dental exams were completed, totaling 4,159 exams, as illustrated in Attachment C.
Program Information Summaries
Please see Attachment D.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Gina Montes and the Human Services Department.