Title
Head Start Birth to Five Monthly Report - August 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.
- Program information summaries.
- Nutrition.
- Child Incident Reports.
- Program Instructions or Information Memorandums.
Fiscal Expenditures
Attachment A shows year-to-date expenditures for the Fiscal Year 2024-25. 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 August, the total program enrollment was 2,070 out of 3,451 available slots.
Enrollment at the end of August for the Preschool Education Service Providers was 1,866 slots filled out of 2,963.
Early Head Start, which includes home-based and center-based year-round programming, ended the month with 204 slots filled out of 488. The home-based program filled 90 out of 300 slots, and the center-based program filled 114 out of 188 slots.
Staff continue interviewing potentially eligible families to achieve full enrollment, which is 97 percent or higher of the funded enrollment. Information on the interviews and enrollment will be provided in the September 2024 Report.
Enrollment Reduction Request
On April 1, 2024, the Head Start Birth to Five Program submitted a request to reduce its enrollment by 1,242 slots. Specifically,1,957 Head Start preschool slots and 252 Early Head Start slots (64 home-based and 188 center-based), for a total of 2,209 slots, were requested. This request aims to maintain current funding levels while enhancing service delivery by offering full-day preschool classes, which was requested by families, and by increasing salaries for teachers and staff. However, the current enrollment must not exceed 2,209 slots. As of the date of this report, no response has been received regarding the request from the Office of Head Start.
Full Enrollment Initiative
The Head Start Birth to Five's 12 months of the Full Enrollment Initiative ended on April 4, 2024, and is waiting for the Office of Head Start to render a final letter to either close out the Full Enrollment Initiative or to start a six month monitoring period. Due to the large number of grantees in the Initiative, the Office of Head Start is experiencing a backlog of files to review.
Risk Assessment Notification Review
The Head Start Birth to Five program received a Risk Assessment Notification in April 2024 due to a Child Care Partner violating the Head Start Program Performance Standards, specifically the Standards of Conduct. Training and technical assistance to enhance the Birth to Five's current policies and procedures for ensuring the safety of children has been provided through Region 9 Head Start. To date, the Birth to Five staff are on track to complete the items on the Quality Improvement Plan as scheduled. Standards of Conduct training was completed with Education Service Provider staff in September. Additional information about the training will be provided in the September 2024 Report.
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 August. Head Start Preschool was 44 percent. The Early Head Start Center-Based program was also 44 percent. Under-enrollment impacts attendance, as it is calculated on funded enrollment, not actual enrollment. Under-enrollment will be addressed with the approval of the proposed slot conversion by the Office of Head Start.
Medical/Dental Exams
Head Start regulations require all children to have medical and dental exams annually. At the end of August, 1,419 medical and 1,165 dental exams were completed, totaling 2,584 exams, as illustrated in Attachment C.
Program Information Summaries
Please see Attachment D.
Nutrition
Each program must design and carry out nutrition services that are culturally and developmentally appropriate and provide children with up to two-thirds of their daily nutritional requirements. Nutrition services must meet the nutritional needs and feeding requirements of each child, including children with identified food allergies, children with disabilities, and children who have special diets due to religion and family preference. In addition, a program must serve meals and snacks that meet U.S. Department of Agriculture dietary patterns and are high in nutrients and low in fat, sugar, and salt. Children in the Early Head Start Center-Based classrooms receive protein, fruits, vegetables, and low carbohydrates during breakfast and lunch with milk or water. Snacks include protein and low carbohydrates with milk or water.
Child Incident Reports
The Head Start Program Performance Standards require programs to submit reports, as appropriate, to the responsible Office of Head Start official immediately, or as soon as practicable, related to any significant incidents affecting the health and safety of the program participations. This includes injuries requiring hospitalization, emergency room treatment, or doctor's visit, as well as inappropriate discipline, potential child abuse or maltreatment, lack of supervision, or unauthorized release of a child. During the month of August, two Child Incident Reports were submitted to the Office of Head Start.
Department of Child Safety Reports
All Head Start and Early Head Start staff are required to report suspected child abuse and neglect to protect children and help children and families connect to services. During the month of August, there were two reports made to the Department of Child Safety.
Program Instructions or Information Memorandums
Periodically, the Office of Head Start needs to provide information or programmatic updates to all Head Start Grantees. This is done through Program Instructions (PIs) and Information Memorandums (IMs). PIs provide information or recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families to States, Tribes, grantees, and others on various issues of child welfare that usually result in guidance or policy changes. IMs provide up-to-date information but do not establish requirements or supersede existing laws of official guidance.
On August 21, 2024, the Office of Head Start released the Final Rule on Supporting the Head Start Workforce and Consistent Quality Programming, ACF-OHS-PI-24-05. This Program Information report covers updates to the Head Start Program Performance Standards. The updates include wages and benefits to support the Head Start workforce, better integration of mental health across all aspects of Head Start programming, and quality improvement and clarity of requirements in child safety, caseloads, preventing and addressing lead exposure in water, updates to the community assessment process, enhanced services for expectant families, and requirements for programs to identify barriers to program enrollment and attendance. Please see Attachment E for more details.
Locations
Alhambra Elementary School District, 4510 N. 37th Avenue
Cartwright Elementary School District, 5220 W. Indian School Road
Deer Valley Unified School District, 20402 N. 15th Avenue
Fowler Elementary School District, 1617 S. 67th Avenue
Isaac School District, 3348 W. McDowell Road
Laveen Elementary School District, 5601 W. Dobbins Road
Murphy Elementary School District, 3140 W. Buckeye Road
Pendergast Elementary School District, 3802 N. 91st Avenue
Phoenix Elementary School District, 1817 N. 7th Street
Riverside Elementary School District, 1414 S. 51st Avenue
Roosevelt Elementary School District, 6000 S. 7th Street
Washington Elementary School District, 4650 W. Sweetwater Avenue
Wilson Elementary School District, 3025 E. Fillmore Street
Council Districts: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Gina Montes and the Human Services Department.