Title
Head Start Birth to Five Monthly Report - July 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; and
- 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 July, total program enrollment was 166 out of 3,451 available slots due to the preschool programs not being in session.
Head Start Preschool follows the local elementary school district calendars, so there is no programming in July. Preschool resumed for all Education Service Providers in August.
Early Head Start, which includes the Home Based and Center-Based programs, ended the month with a total of 166 slots filled out of 488. The Home-Based program, provides year-round, in-person home visitation, filled 90 slots out of 300. The Child Care Partnership program, provides full-day, year-round services and had 76 slots filled out of 188. While infant rooms are available, vacancies remain due to a need for more classroom space for two-year-olds on the wait list. To address this, the City has added two new Early Head Start Education Service Providers: the Deer Valley Unified School District with 64 slots and the Fowler Elementary School District with 40 slots. Both Education Service Providers currently offer early childhood education for preschool but will start offering a continuum of services for children from eight weeks old to age five.
Full Enrollment Initiative
Enrollment for the months of June and July will not be considered for the Full Enrollment Initiative since Preschool is not in session. The Office of Head Start will begin to calculate enrollment in September.
Staff are currently interviewing potentially eligible families to achieve full enrollment for the upcoming school year, which began in August.
Risk Assessment Notification Review
The Head Start Birth to Five program received a Risk Assessment Notification in April due to three Child Care Partner staff 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 has begun with Education Service Provider staff and is scheduled to conclude the middle of September.
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 July. Head Start Preschool was zeo percent due to preschool not being in session. The Early Head Start Center-Based program was 71 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 July, 147 medical and 141 dental exams were completed, totaling 288 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. As of this month, there are no incidents to report.
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. As of this month, there have not been any 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. IMs provide up to date information but do not establish requirements or supersede existing laws of official guidance. These documents will be shared with governing board as they are released by the Office of Head Start.
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.