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Date: Tuesday, November 5, 1996
FACT SHEET
Contact:  ACF Press Office(202) 401-9215

            

Overview: The Clinton Administration is committed to both expanding and improving the Head Start program. In May 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Head Start Act Amendments of 1994. This landmark legislation paved the way for Head Start to meet the current and future needs of America's children and families.

A cornerstone of the bipartisan 1994 legislation was the requirement to develop a new major revision of the Head Start Program Performance Standards -- the key regulations that set the guidelines and standards for quality in Head Start programs nationwide.

In the spirit of the Administration's reinvention goals, the revised Head Start Program Performance Standards were developed based on communication with Head Start and early childhood program practitioners. This new version focuses on quality services for children, including infants and toddlers, and their families. It was published as a final rule in the Federal Register on November 5, l996.

Head Start Program Performance Standards, first published in the l970's, have historically set the standards for excellence in the early childhood field, encouraging new developments in professional education, voluntary accreditation, and state guidelines for early childhood programs.

The new Head Start Program Performance Standards, the most thorough revision of the standards since their original publication, reaffirm the core elements of the Head Start vision. In addition, the new guidelines integrate new standards for infants and toddlers, reform the structure of the standards for increased ease of use, incorporate emerging research knowledge and expertise of health professionals, and highlight the importance of collaboration between Head Start programs and the broader community.

• For the first time, the Head Start Program Performance Standards cover services for children from birth to five years and their families.
• The new standards have been organized in a way which will support inter-disciplinary collaboration and make them easier to use for staff training and program management. The new standards outline Head Start functions in child development and health, family and community partnerships, and program design and management to improve overall accountability at the local level.
• The new standards eliminate unnecessarily prescriptive rules that were not essential to program quality. For example, use of child-sized utensils is no longer required, and, rather than establishing Head Start standards for immunization, grantees are referred to recognized national standards.
• The new standards reflect a combination of sound practice, research and a focus on quality in working to enhance young children's development. For example, standards have been developed for involving parents in their children's health care and for working with pregnant women to help link them to appropriate prenatal and postpartum care. Also, agencies must implement a curriculum that is consistent with the Performance Standards, includes goals and experiences for children, and is based on sound child developmental principles about how children grow and learn.
• The new standards contain a new section on community partnerships, reflecting the goal of having Head Start agencies work collaboratively with other community services. This section includes specific expectations regarding the transition of children into and from Head Start.
• The new standards place a greater emphasis on the correction of deficiencies in Head Start programs. The new standards require Head Start agencies to develop Quality Improvement Plans, and, if applicable, to specify time periods within which corrective actions are to be taken.

Over 2,000 people around the country were consulted in the process of developing the standards, including: parents, national experts in child development, national children/family organizations, local community educators and Head Start staff. In particular, parents played a key role in the consultation process -- they viewed the process as a way to give back to the community in return for the services their families receive.

Over 1,100 letters containing nearly 15,000 comments were received in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in the Federal Register on April 22, 1996 for a 60-day comment period. The letters came mostly from the Head Start community. Overall, there was overwhelming support for the standards. The comments confirmed the validity of the broad principles and structure of the proposed standards as well as the consultation process used in their development.