Title
Head Start Birth to Five Monthly Report - March 2020
Description
This report provides the Land Use and Livability Subcommittee, which serves as the City of Phoenix Head Start Birth to Five Governing Board, an updated summary of the financial and programmatic status of the Head Start Birth to Five program.
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 information with the Governing Board and Policy Council on the status of the program planning, policies and operations on a monthly basis. To comply with the Act, the Head Start program provides a monthly report on the following areas:
- Fiscal Expenditures.
- Enrollment Reports.
- School Attendance.
- Medical/Dental Exams.
- Monitoring.
- Program Information Summaries.
Fiscal Expenditures
Attachment A shows year-to-date expenditures for Fiscal Year 2019-2020. The report includes a break down for each delegate agency, the Policy Council, and administrative support. Current year expenditures are in-line with the approved budget.
Enrollment Reports
The Office of Head Start requires programs to submit the total number of children enrolled on the last day of each month. At the end of March, enrollment was 3,416 out of 3,451 available slots.
For Preschool, spring break started the week of March 11 for seven of the nine Educational Service Providers (ESP), the remaining two ESPs started Spring Break the week of March 18. Due to COVID-19, none of the ESPs were able to resume class after their break. Currently, teachers and caseworkers are engaging families through various media platforms, phone calls, text messages, and emails. Families who do not have internet access are receiving activity packets from their teacher to complete at home with their children.
For Early Head Start, home visiting was suspended as of March 13. Home visitors have been engaging families during their regularly scheduled visitation time by calling them on the phone, text messages, emails, and using various media platforms. The curriculum used in the Home-Based program, A Partnership for Healthy Babies, has offered free online classes for families to access which has allowed home visitors the opportunity to continue to provide learning experiences for each child and their family.
Due to COVID-19, two of the four Child Care Partners have closed their centers. Kidz Kampus was the first to close on March 19, and Cactus Kids closed on March 24, neither center has reopened as of April 17. The other two centers, Out Of This World Christian Child Care and Robin's Nest, have remained open, but attendance is low as parents are keeping their children home if they are able.
School Attendance
The annual target for attendance set by the Office of Head Start is 85 percent. Attachment B indicates year-to-date attendance through the month of March. The preschool attendance was 87 percent, and the child care component was 80 percent. For preschool, the attendance percentage reflects the children who were enrolled a portion of March due to school closures. The child care component percentage is below average due to two of the four child care centers closing during March. Teachers and caseworkers continue to engage families through various media platforms.
Medical/Dental Exams
Head Start regulations require all children to have medical and dental exams each year. Through the end of March, a total of 3,715 medical and 3,604 dental exams were completed for a total of 7,319 exams, as illustrated in Attachment C.
Monitoring
Per the Head Start Program Performance Standards, each child must have a screening completed within 45 days of enrollment to identify any concerns in the area of behavior or social and emotional skills. The Head Start Birth to Five program identified Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) as the screening tool to meet the standard. This tool detects if a child has concerns in the following areas: initiative, attachment/relationships, self-regulation, and behavior. In March, the Quality Assurance team conducted desktop monitoring of teacher implementation of the DECA tool. The monitoring focused on how teachers individualized each student's lesson plan based upon DECA results to increase positive learning outcomes for children with behavior or social concerns.
Program Information Summaries
Please see Attachment D.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Deanna Jonovich and the Human Services Department.