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Summary
Head Start, a federal program that has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1965, was last reauthorized in 1998 for fiscal years 1999-2003. The program has remained funded in subsequent years through the annual appropriations process. After unsuccessful efforts by the past two Congresses to complete the reauthorization process, the 110th Congress has begun its efforts in the House and Senate. A reauthorization bill was recently passed by the House, while a bill reported out of committee in the Senate awaits action on the floor.
The Improving Head Start Act of 2007 (H.R. 1429) was introduced by Representative Kildee on March 9, 2007. The following week, the House Committee on Education and Labor debated, amended, and approved the bill (42-1), and the committee’s written report accompanying the legislation (H.Rept. 110-67) was filed on March 23, 2007. That bill was taken to the House floor on May 2, and was approved (with nine amendments) by a vote of 365-48.
The Head Start for School Readiness Act (S. 556) was introduced by Senator Kennedy on February 12, 2007, and approved via voice vote by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) on February 14. The Chairman’s amended version of the bill was subsequently reported on March 29, 2007, with a written report (S.Rept. 110-49) filed April 10, 2007. It awaits action by the full Senate.
Both reauthorization bills propose to amend Head Start with the purpose of improving the program’s ability to promote low-income children’s school readiness by supporting their cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. The means for doing so encompass a wide range of provisions, covering issues of program funding, administration, eligibility, accountability, quality, governance, and coordination.
Authorization levels for funding would be increased above current funding amounts by both bills, and eligibility would be expanded to allow for serving children up to 130% of the poverty line. Both bills include provisions that would increase competition for Head Start grants, by limiting the period for which a grantee may receive grant funds to five years, before recompetition may be required.
Other similarities include increasing the percentage of the appropriation to be reserved for Early Head Start; emphasizing coordination and collaboration with other state and local early childhood programs; increasing staff qualifications; specifying requirements of shared governance principles in statute; and suspending use of the National Reporting System.
Although the overall areas addressed by the two reauthorization bills are similar, a side-by-side comparison of provisions, alongside current law, reveals notable differences in detail.
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