Order Code RL30952
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Head Start Issues in the 108th Congress

Updated February 26, 2004
Melinda Gish
Domestic Social Policy Division
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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Head Start Issues in the 108th Congress
Summary
Head Start is a federal program that has provided comprehensive early
childhood development services to low-income children since 1965. Services
provided to preschool-aged children include child development, educational, health,
nutritional, social and other activities, intended to prepare low-income children for
entering kindergarten. The program is administered by the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS). Federal Head Start funds are provided directly to local
grantees, rather than through states. Programs are locally designed, and are
administered by a network of over 1,500 public and private nonprofit agencies. In
FY2003, Head Start funded enrollment for 909,603 children.
Head Start was last reauthorized in 1998 for FY1999-FY2003, and is due to be
reauthorized this fiscal year. The House has passed a reauthorization bill (H.R.
2210), while in the Senate, a bill (S. 1940) has been reported out of committee only.
The bills differ markedly from one another, and neither fully adopts proposals first
introduced in the President’s FY2004 budget. For example, in that budget, President
Bush proposed to give states the option to administer the program, whereas the
House bill would restrict the state-option feature to a maximum of eight states, while
the Senate bill includes no option for state administration of Head Start. The
Administration’s FY2004 budget also conveyed its intent to transfer federal
responsibility for the Head Start program from HHS to the Department of Education.
Neither the House nor the Senate bill adopts that controversial proposal, and the
President’s FY2005 budget does not revisit the issue.
The Head Start program has received increases of varying levels over the past
two decades (see Table 1). The FY2004 appropriations law provides $6.775 billion
for Head Start. The Administration’s FY2005 budget request includes $6.944 billion
for Head Start, an increase of $169 million above the FY2004 level.
Program performance and the long-term impact on children, particularly with
respect to educational attainment, continue to be areas of focus and concern. The
1998 revisions to the Head Start Act increased the amount of new appropriations that
must be used for quality improvement activities, at least through FY2003. In part,
the law requires HHS to develop specific education performance standards, and
establishes teacher and staff training related to these standards as a priority use of
quality improvement funds. In addition, the 1998 amendments mandate and reserve
funds for additional studies on the program’s impact.
Development of a national reporting system that can be used to assess the
effectiveness of Head Start programs in achieving successful outcomes for children
in terms of school readiness — particularly the areas of literacy and number
knowledge — is currently underway. This national reporting system was
implemented in fall 2003, and is designed to assess Head Start 4- and 5-year olds
twice a year on educational performance measures — using indicators that were
included in legislation as part of the 1998 reauthorization of Head Start. Teachers
are also being trained in a Strategic Teacher Education Program (STEP), to use
research-based strategies to implement early and emergent literacy.

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Contents
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Head Start Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Eligibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Early Head Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
President’s Head Start Proposals and Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Reauthorization Bills in 108th Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Other Head Start Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1998 Reauthorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Long-Term Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
FACES and Head Start Impact Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Coordination with Child Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
List of Tables
Table 1. Head Start Funding: FY1990-FY2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Table 2. Estimates of Head Start Populations and Percent Served, FY2002 . . . . 7
Table 3. Head Start FY2004 State Allocations (Estimates) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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Head Start Issues in the 108th Congress
Overview
Head Start is a federal program that has provided comprehensive early
childhood development services to low-income children since 1965. The program
is administered by the Administration for Children and Families of the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS). Head Start, last reauthorized in 1998 (P.L.
105-285) for fiscal years 1999-2003, is up for reauthorization this fiscal year. The
introduction of reauthorization bills in both the House and the Senate was preceded
by the President’s FY2004 budget request, which included two controversial
proposals: 1) to give states the option to administer the Head Start program, provided
they supply HHS and the Department of Education with a plan that sufficiently
explains how Head Start would be coordinated with other preschool programs to
foster comprehensive, high quality preschool programs; and 2) to transfer federal
responsibility for the Head Start program from HHS to the Department of Education.
The proposal to transfer Head Start to the Department of Education has not been
adopted in either the House or Senate legislation, and the lack of any mention in the
FY2005 budget may serve to reinforce that the Administration no longer champions
that plan.
The Head Start reauthorization bill introduced in the House (H.R. 2210) on May
22, 2003, featured the state option provision (as Title II of the bill, entitled “State
Demonstration Program”), but did not propose to move the Head Start program from
HHS to the Department of Education. On June 12, 2003, the Subcommittee on
Education Reform forwarded an amended version of H.R. 2210 to the full Committee
on Education and the Workforce, restricting the state demonstration program to a
maximum of eight states. The full committee further amended H.R. 2210 on June
19, 2003, but the eight-state demonstration program was retained from the
subcommittee’s bill. The House passed H.R. 2210 by a one vote margin (217-216)
on July 25, 2003. In the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Committee reported a reauthorization bill (S. 1940) on November 24, 2003, which
is markedly different from the House-passed bill. (For more information see
Reauthorization Bills in 2003, later in this report.)
The Head Start program has received increases of varying levels over the past
two decades (see Table 1). The most recent appropriations measure signed into law
(P.L. 108-199, January 23, 2004) is the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004 (H.R.
2673), which provides the Head Start program with $6.775 billion (of which $1.4
billion becomes available in FY2005). The program was funded at $6.668 billion for
FY2003, up from $6.538 billion in FY2002, $6.200 billion in FY2001, and $5.267
billion in FY2000.

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Head Start Program
Services. Head Start provides comprehensive early childhood development,
educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to low-income preschool
children and their families. These services are intended to prepare children to enter
kindergarten and to improve the conditions necessary for their success in later school
and life. Head Start strongly emphasizes the involvement of families and the local
community to assure that programs are responsive to the unique needs of each
community. Since flexibility in local program design and operation is encouraged,
there is wide variation across the country in how Head Start services are delivered
(e.g., center-based, home-based, or some combination), as well as in local program
costs, sponsoring agencies, and coordination arrangements with other social service
programs. Head Start operates both full- and part-day programs — most only during
the school year. Some local Head Start programs do coordinate with other programs
to lengthen the time of care, both in terms of hours, and the year. Full-day
enrollment in Head Start is defined as 6 or more hours per day. Part-day sessions
must comply with a minimum class time requirement of 3.5 hours.
Funding. Federal appropriations for Head Start substantially increased during
the 1990s, tripling from the FY1990 level of $1.552 billion to the FY1999 level of
$4.658 billion, and more than quadrupling from FY1990 to the FY2004 level of
$6.775 billion. These increased appropriations have been used both to expand the
number of children served and for quality improvement activities.
Table 1. Head Start Funding: FY1990-FY2004
($ in billions)
Year
Authorization
Appropriation
Year
Authorization
Appropriation
1990
1.552
1.552
1998
ssan
4.347
1991
2.386
1.952
1999
ssan
4.658
1992
4.273
2.202
2000
ssan
5.267a
1993
5.924
2.776
2001
ssan
6.200a
1994
7.660
3.326
2002
ssan
6.538a
1995
ssan
3.534
2003
ssan
6.668a
1996
ssan
3.569
2004
expired/tbd
6.775a,b
1997
ssan
3.981
2005
tbd
tbd
Source: Table prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) based on data from the Head
Start Bureau.
ssan=such sums as necessary.
tbd=to be determined
a This amount includes an advance appropriation of $1.4 billion for the following fiscal year.
b This amount reflects the across-the-board 0.59% rescission applied to discretionary programs under
the FY2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 108-199).

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Unlike some other federal social service programs that are funded through the
states, HHS awards Head Start funds directly to local public and private nonprofit
and for-profit grantees. Grantees must contribute a 20% nonfederal match, which
may be in cash or in-kind, unless they are granted a waiver. No more than 15% of
a grantee’s total program costs may be for administration. Funds are awarded to
about 1,500 grantees at the discretion of HHS from state allocations determined by
a formula in law. However, before these state allocations are made, the law contains
a series of set-aside provisions that reserve funds for specified activities.
Under the 1998 Head Start amendments (P.L. 105-285), up to $35 million of
total Head Start appropriations is reserved annually for transition-to-school grants;
up to $5 million is reserved annually for national research on the impact of Head
Start; and $12 million in FY1999 and such sums as necessary thereafter is reserved
for other research, demonstration and evaluation activities, including longitudinal
studies.
Also of total Head Start appropriations, the Secretary must reserve 13% for use
in the following priority order:
! Indian and migrant Head Start programs, and services for children
with disabilities;
! payments to outlying territories, not to exceed one-half of 1% of the
total annual appropriation. The territories include Guam, American
Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands,
Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau;
! training and technical assistance (not less than 2% of the total annual
appropriation, of which at least $3 million must be related to family
literacy);
! discretionary payments made by the Secretary, including the costs
(other than federal salaries) of local program monitoring and
correcting deficiencies and conducting proceedings to terminate
Head Start grantees; and
! payments for research, demonstration and evaluation activities.
Of remaining Head Start appropriations (after reserving the amounts described
above and adjusting the prior year appropriation to reflect the percentage change in
the Consumer Price Index), “regular” Head Start funds are allotted among states
according to the following formula, which was established in the 1998 amendments:
! each state first receives an amount equal to the amount received by
grantees in that state for FY1998, and any amounts available above
the FY1998 level are distributed proportionately among states on the
basis of the number of children under 5 years old whose family
income is below the federal poverty line.
Although the amounts allocated according to the above formula are actually
distributed directly to local grantees, the Secretary may use a portion of these funds
to make grants to the states, to foster collaboration within the state among Head Start
and other activities designed to benefit low-income children and families. These
state collaboration grants typically range between $125,000 and $225,000 per state.

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(See Table 3 at the end of this report for estimated state allocations for Head Start
for FY2004.)
President’s FY2005 Budget Request. On February 2, 2004, President
Bush released his budget for FY2005. The Administration’s FY2005 budget includes
a $169 million increase for Head Start, which would raise it to $6.944 billion.
Proposed in this budget request is a new set-aside of $45 million for nine state pilot
projects whose purpose is to coordinate preschool programs and grants into a
comprehensive system. The increase in total funding also reflects an increase of
$124 million for maintaining competitive staff salaries and promoting early literacy
and cognitive development as part of Head Start programs. (For more information
on proposals discussed in the Administration’s recent budgets – FY2005 and FY2004
– see President’s Head Start Proposals and Initiatives, later in this report.)
FY2004 Funding (P.L. 108-199). On January 23, 2004, an omnibus
appropriations bill for FY2004 (H.R. 2673/H. Rept. 108-401) was signed into law
(P.L. 108-199). The omnibus bill consolidates appropriations for multiple agencies,
including the Department of HHS, the administering agency for Head Start. The
Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-199) provides $6.775 billion for
Head Start, of which $1.4 billion becomes available in FY2005. (Note: while in
FY2003, Head Start was not subject to the across-the-board offset, in the FY2004
law Head Start is subject to the 0.59% rescission. The $6.775 billion reflects the
rescission, and amounts to $108 million more than was provided in FY2003. Before
the rescission was taken, the funding level mirrored the President’s request of $6.816
billion.)
President’s FY2004 Budget Request. The Administration’s budget for
FY2004 (released February 3, 2003) requested $6.816 billion for Head Start (of
which $1.4 billion would be advance appropriated for FY2005). In the FY2004
budget documents, the Administration estimated that in FY2004 almost 923,000
children will receive Head Start services, including 62,000 in Early Head Start.
Budget documents also stated that the increased funding, coupled with the
President’s proposed changes allowing states to administer Head Start in
coordination with other preschool programs, will enable the program to maintain
current service levels and increase enrollment by up to 10,500 children. (Note that
HHS has since revised its estimates to anticipate 919,271 children to be served by
Head Start in FY2004, of which 62,000 would be served by Early Head Start.)
In addition, the President proposed to change current law’s set-aside for training
and technical assistance (T/TA) from at least 2% of the total Head Start
appropriation to up to 2%. According to the Administration, this change would
provide the Secretary with the discretionary authority to allocate Head Start funds
each year in order to maximize benefits to children and families. The budget also
explained that “in order to improve coordination between Head Start and other
Federal, State, and local programs affecting pre-school children, the President plans
to move responsibility for managing the Head Start program from the Department of

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Health and Human Services to the Department of Education.”1 It proposed that this
transition begin in 2004, with the Department of Education assuming full
responsibility for the program in 2005. Such a transition would require legislative
changes, and has yet to be proposed in Congress.
FY2003 Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations. Fiscal year 2003 funding
for the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education was provided in the Consolidated
Appropriations Resolution, 2003 (P.L. 108-7), signed into law on February 20, 2003.
The law includes $6.668 billion for Head Start (of which $1.4 billion was advance
appropriated, and became available in FY2004). Unlike many other discretionary
programs funded under the law, Head Start was not subject to the across-the-board
rescission included in the law.2
Prior to the signing of P.L. 108-7, Congress passed a series of continuing
resolutions (CRs) extending funding for programs, including Head Start, into
FY2003. Prior to the CRs, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its
version of a Labor/HHS/Ed bill (S. 2766/S.Rept. 107-216). The Committee’s
proposed funding level for Head Start was $6.870 billion for FY2003. The House
introduced a version of its FY2003 appropriations bill (H.R. 5320) for
Labor/HHS/ED. There was no committee action, and the bill requested the same
funding level for Head Start as that proposed by the President in his FY2003 budget.
President’s FY2003 Budget Request. The Administration’s FY2003
budget included a $130 million increase for Head Start, which would have brought
it to $6.667 billion. Of that total, $1.4 billion would have been advance appropriated
for FY2004. Similar to the FY2002 budget document, the FY2003 budget called for
making school readiness — pre-reading and numeracy skills — Head Start’s top
priority. Moreover, the Administration expressed support for a plan to move Head
Start to the Department of Education as part of the program’s reauthorization in
2003, and highlighted that HHS and ED had formed a task force to assess ways to
improve Head Start and facilitate the transfer between agencies. The budget also
maintained support ($75 million) for ED’s Early Reading First program, to help
prepare young children to read in existing preschool and Head Start programs.
FY2002 Funding. On January 10, 2002, H.R. 3061, the bill making FY2002
appropriations for the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education, was signed into
law (P.L. 107-116). It included $6.538 billion for Head Start, of which $5.138 was
available in FY2002, and $1.4 billion in FY2003. The FY2002 total Head Start
appropriation exceeded the FY2001 level ($6.2 billion) by $338 million. It also was
greater than the amount requested by the President in his FY2002 budget ($6.32
billion). The Administration had asserted that its proposed increase would be used
to maintain current services and enrollment levels. Despite the Administration’s
1 See Fiscal Year 2004 Budget of the U.S. Government: Analytical Perspectives, p. 251.
2 H.J.Res. 2, as amended and passed by the Senate, (and ultimately passed into the FY2003
appropriations law) included S.Amdt. 188 (offered by Senator Dodd), which exempted the
Head Start funding from rescission. However, the advance appropriation for FY2004 ($1.4
billion) was later subject to an across-the-board rescission (0.59%) included in the FY2004
Appropriations Act (P.L. 108-199).

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intent to reverse the practice (which began in FY2000) of advance appropriating
funds for Head Start, the FY2002 appropriations bill reserved $1.4 billion of the
$6.538 billion appropriated to become available in FY2003. The advance funding
component has been used as a budgetary mechanism to spread out the obligation of
funds for the program, without having programmatic impacts.
FY2001 Funding. The FY2001 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 106-
554) appropriated $6.2 billion for the Head Start program. Of this amount, $4.8
billion was available for FY2001, and $1.4 billion became available in FY2002.
Eligibility. As authorized by law, HHS regulations require that at least 90%
of children enrolled by each Head Start grantee must come from families with
income at or below the official federal poverty guideline ($18,400 for a family of four
in 2003) or from families receiving welfare assistance. Up to 10% of the children
may be from families whose incomes exceed the poverty guideline. Regulations also
require grantees to reserve at least 10% of their slots for children with disabilities.
Head Start is authorized to serve children at any age prior to compulsory school
attendance; however, most children are 3- and 4-year-olds. However, the 1994
reauthorization did create the Early Head Start program, which serves children under
age 3. In FY2002, according to HHS fact sheets, children under age 3 represented
only 7% of total enrollment.
Under the 1998 amendments, a child who has been determined to be low-
income and who is participating in Head Start may continue to be considered low-
income for another program year. The 1998 amendments also provide grantees with
additional flexibility in determining family income and therefore, eligibility for
participation. Specifically, the amendments authorize grantees to consider family
income during the 12 months before the month in which an application is submitted,
or during the calendar year before the calendar year in which an application is
submitted.
Participation. Data from HHS show funded enrollment for Head Start in
FY2002 to have totaled 912,345 children (of whom more than 62,000 were under age
3).3 This is an increase from the FY2001 level of 905,235, and the 857,664 total
from FY2000. It should be noted that “funded enrollment” refers to the number of
Head Start “slots” that are funded, not the total number of children served throughout
the year (accounting for turnover), which is higher. In his most recent budget, the
President estimates that in FY2005, 919,000 children will receive Head Start
services, including 62,000 in Early Head Start.4 .
3 Additional program data can be found on the HHS Head Start Bureau’s website
[http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/hsb/research/2003.htm]
4 It should be noted that these enrollment figures are estimates that are revised over time. For
example, when the FY2004 budget request was released in February 2003, the
Administration foresaw almost 923,000 children receiving Head Start services in 2004. The
HHS budget justification accompanying the FY2005 budget had revised that FY2004
estimate to just over 919,000 children.

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Table 2. Estimates of Head Start Populations
and Percent Served, FY2002
(number in thousands)
Population
Economically
FY2002
Percent
Age
March 2003
Eligible 2002
Enrollment
Served
Under 3
11,423
2,443
64
3%
Age 3
4,086
834
328
39%
Age 4
4,085
807
474
59%
Age 3-4 (combined)
8,171
1,641
803
49%
Age 5 and above
7,678
1,450
46
3%
Source: Table prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) using data from the March
2003 Current Population Survey (CPS). Estimates of economic eligibility are based on the percentage
of children living in families with annual income below Federal Poverty Income Guidelines or in
families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), in 2002. Head Start enrollment
estimates are based on data and estimates from HHS.
Early Head Start. Early Head Start (EHS) was established in the 1994
reauthorization legislation (P.L. 103-252), to serve infants and toddlers who are
generally too young to participate in the regular Head Start program. The law
requires that a portion of Head Start’s total appropriation be set aside to fund the
EHS program. For FY1998, Congress earmarked more than was required by law for
EHS, and the statutory set-aside was increased in the 1998 amendments to Head
Start. One of the few legislative changes sought by the Clinton Administration,
during the 1998 debate on Head Start, was an increase in the EHS program. The
current law EHS set-asides are: 7.5% in FY1999, 8% in FY2000, 9% in FY2001,
and 10% in each of FY2002 and FY2003. (Although only authorized through
FY2003, the FY2004 allotments maintain the 10% set-aside for Early Head Start.)
The first EHS grants were awarded in September 1995, and totaled $47 million.
In FY2000, $421 million was used to support nearly 600 projects in all 50 states, the
District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. These projects served approximately 45,000
low-income families with children under the age of three.
EHS grantees must design programs which respond to the strengths and needs
of individual families with services including education, in and out of the home;
home visits, especially for families with newborns and infants; parent education,
including parent-child activities; comprehensive health services, including services
to women during and after pregnancy; and ongoing parental support through case
management and peer groups. All programs must conduct an assessment of
community resources and needs and must ensure the recruitment and development
of high quality staff.
In addition to increasing EHS appropriations, the 1998 amendments also require
that an EHS research and evaluation plan be developed to identify successful
program models and variables contributing to program outcomes and to lay
groundwork for future longitudinal studies.

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President’s Head Start Proposals and Initiatives. In his past two
budgets (FY2004 and FY2005), and in other accompanying documents, President
Bush has proposed significant changes to the Head Start program. In certain cases
(e.g. state option to administer Head Start), his proposals have been adopted in a
modified form within reauthorization bills still subject to further debate; in other
cases (e.g. Head Start transfer to Department of Education) his proposals lie dormant,
with no legislative sponsor. Lastly, there are Administration initiatives that are
underway, and have not required congressional approval.
State Option to Administer Head Start. On February 3, 2003, alongside
release of the President’s FY2004 Budget, the Administration issued a press release
announcing the President’s proposal to make changes to the Head Start program.5
This was followed by a White House document outlining the Administration’s
assessment of the current status of the Head Start program, and its plans for the
program in the future.6 The Administration stated that the top goal of the Head Start
reauthorization should be to improve both Head Start and other preschool programs
to ensure that children are prepared to enter kindergarten. The President asserted that
states should have the opportunity to administer the program, provided they
demonstrate how Head Start will be coordinated with other preschool programs and
services to emphasize developing skills and behaviors including language
development; pre-reading skills; numeracy; and social and emotional competence,
while meeting state-established accountability standards.
Under the President’s proposal, interested states would submit a plan for the
approval of both HHS and the Department of Education, in which they outline: state
preschool goals and activities; a state accountability program; an explanation of how
the current level of enrollment of Head Start eligible 3- and 4-year olds will be
maintained (if not exceeded); information regarding the most recent year’s spending
on Head Start and state preschool programs, and assurances that this level will be at
a minimum maintained; plans for assuring professional development for staff; and
the plans for coordination of programs and funding (state and federal) for the purpose
of promoting school readiness. Programs specifically mentioned are Head Start,
Early Head Start, Title I preschool, the special education preschool program (IDEA),
state-funded preschool, and the Child Care and Development Block Grant.
The President’s more recent budget (FY2005) does not reiterate plans to allow
all the states the option to administer Head Start, but does continue to promote the
goal of improved coordination among Head Start and other early childhood and child
care programs, through a new set of pilot programs. (See below). Note that in the
House reauthorization bill (H.R. 2210) a maximum of eight states would be afforded
the option of administering the Head Start program. The Senate bill (S. 1940) does
not provide for state administration of Head Start.
5 For additional information, the press release from the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) is available at [http://www.dhhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20030203.html]
6 This document, entitled “Head Start Policy Book” on the White House web site, can be
read at [http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/earlychildhood/hspolicybook/summary.html]

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Pilot Projects for Coordination. The FY2005 budget request includes $45
million to support the President’s initiative to improve Head Start by funding nine
state pilot projects to coordinate Head Start, state preschool programs, and federal
child care grants into a comprehensive system of early childhood programs.
According to the Administration’s budget documents, coordination is a means of
improving preschool programs in general, to help ensure that children enter school
prepared to succeed. The nine pilot projects are intended to assist states with
implementing reforms that promote better coordination, and in turn, school readiness.
Marriage and Healthy Family Development. The President’s FY2005
budget states that in FY2005, the Head Start program will “offer training for between
2,000 and 3,000 Head Start parents in a science-based curriculum designed to
improve early language and literacy skill outcomes.” This activity is a component
of the President’s Marriage and Healthy Family Development Initiative.
Transfer to Department of Education. The FY2004 budget explained that
“in order to improve coordination between Head Start and other Federal, State, and
local programs affecting pre-school children, the President plans to move
responsibility for managing the Head Start program from the Department of Health
and Human Services to the Department of Education.”7 It proposed that this
transition begin in 2004, with the Department of Education assuming full
responsibility for the program in 2005. However, such a transition would require a
change to the Head Start statute, and that has yet to be proposed in either the House
or Senate reauthorization legislation. Moreover, the recently released FY2005 budget
does not mention any plan to transfer the Head Start program from HHS.
History of the Proposed Transfer of Head Start to the Department of
Education. During his 2000 presidential campaign, President Bush proposed
moving the Head Start program from HHS to the Department of Education as part
of an effort to prioritize the education (school-readiness) component of Head Start
over the health, nutrition, and social service components of the program. The
President proposed a Reading First reform agenda aimed at making pre-reading and
numeracy skills Head Start’s top priority. By also supporting an early childhood
reading initiative in the Department of Education, along with a reading program
focused on children in kindergarten through second grade who are at risk of falling
behind, the President’s goal is to ensure that young children participating in existing
preschool and Head Start programs are able to read by the time they reach third
grade.
Many Head Start advocates believe that the Head Start program should remain
in HHS. Because Head Start offers a wide variety of services beyond traditional
education, there is concern that transferring the program to the Department of
Education could restrict Head Start to a narrow, classroom program, without the broad
set of human services currently provided. Opponents of the shift further suggest that
moving the program from an agency where children receive comprehensive services,
to one focused on education, would compromise the parental and community action
strengths of Head Start. When promoting the proposal in the FY2004 budget, an aide
7 See Fiscal Year 2004 Budget of the U.S. Government: Analytical Perspectives, p. 251.

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to the President assured that the proposed move did not intend to interrupt any of the
social service components, but to stress the most important part of Head Start, which
the President believes is literacy development. At the time of proposing it, the
President described the transfer as consistent with his priorities, and expressed hope
that moving the program to the Department of Education would increase the chances
of making every child a proficient reader by third grade. Some of those in favor of
keeping Head Start in HHS argue that Head Start currently focuses on getting children
ready for school, including readiness in language and early literacy.
There is a history of proposed transfers of the Head Start program. In 1978,
President Carter proposed to transfer Head Start to the Department of Education.
Edward Zigler, a noted architect of Head Start, was one of the most ardent opponents
of the transfer, for the reasons cited above. While the Reagan Administration tried to
include Head Start in a block grant, up until now, no president since Carter had
recommended a transfer of Head Start to the Department of Education. As mentioned
earlier, however, the neither the House nor Senate reauthorization bill (H.R. 2210 and
S. 1940) includes the proposal to transfer Head Start to the Department of Education,
and the President’s most recent budget is silent on the issue of a transfer.
Aside from proposals that require congressional approval, the Administration has
moved ahead with two additional efforts that are in keeping with the Administration’s
Good Start, Grow Smart: Early Childhood initiative, but that do not require legislative
changes to the Head Start Act:
Project STEP. The Strategic Teacher Education Program, also known as
Project STEP, described by the Head Start Bureau as “a comprehensive, multi-faceted,
sequential professional development endeavor to ensure teachers use research-based
strategies to implement early and emergent literacy.” As part of this development,
during the summer and fall of 2002, 3,000 Head Start staff and 100 state child care
administrators received 32 hours of training in strategies to support children’s
emerging literacy. Those who were trained are expected to serve as “mentor coaches”
for staff within their respective Head Start programs.
National Reporting System. The development and implementation of a
national reporting system that can be used to assess the effectiveness of Head Start
programs in achieving successful outcomes for children in terms of school readiness
— particularly the areas of literacy and number knowledge — is underway, not having
required legislative action. This national reporting system was implemented for the
first time in fall 2003, and is designed to assess Head Start 4- and 5-year olds twice
a year on educational performance measures — using indicators that were included
in legislation as part of the 1998 reauthorization of Head Start (P.L. 105- 285, Sec.
108 (b)(5)).
Reauthorization Bills in 108th Congress. The Head Start Act is due to be
reauthorized this fiscal year. At this point the House has passed a reauthorization bill
(H.R.2210), while S. 1940, the bipartisan bill approved and reported by the Senate
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee on November 24, 2003,
awaits full Senate action. Prior to the HELP committee’s activity on S. 1940, Senator
Dodd introduced another reauthorization bill (S. 1483), a bill with some similar
provisions to the bill (S. 1940) reported out of committee.

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The School Readiness Act of 2003 (H.R. 2210) — passed by the
House. This bill to reauthorize the Head Start Act was introduced in the House by
Representative Castle on May 2, 2003, with eight Republican co-sponsors. The
originally introduced bill was subsequently amended at both the subcommittee and
full committee level, and was passed by the House on July 25, 2003.
H.R. 2210, as amended by the full Committee on Education and the Workforce
on June 19, 2003, included two titles; the first would amend sections of the current
Head Start law, and the second would introduce a new option for eight qualifying
states to administer their own federal Head Start funds. (The bill as originally
introduced would have provided this option to all qualifying states, but as amended
would limit the option to eight qualifying states over the five year period of the
legislation.) H.R. 2210 was reported from the full Committee on Education and the
Workforce with a vote of 27 (Republicans) to 20 (Democrats), and subsequently was
passed by the House by a one-vote margin of 217-216. Prior to passage, Rep. George
Miller offered a substitute bill on the floor (H.Amdt. 322), which proposed to retain
the changes to Title I as included in H.R. 2210, with the exception of the bill
language allowing discrimination in employment based on religion. The substitute
bill would have struck Title II (the section proposing state demonstration projects).
The Miller amendment failed by a vote of 200-229.
H.R. 2210 as passed would authorize an appropriation for Head Start in FY2004
of $6.87 billion, and such sums as necessary in FY2005 through FY2008. If
appropriated, this would reflect a $200 million increase above the FY2003 funding
level of $6.67 billion. The President’s budget request for FY2004 includes $6.816
billion for Head Start, which is $54 million less than the amount H.R. 2210 would
authorize.
Major features of the bill’s Title I (“Program Improvements”) include: increased
credentials for Head Start teachers; a 2% cap on the percentage of funds to be reserved
for training and technical assistance (under current law, the floor is set at 2%);
increased requirements to promote collaboration and coordination among early
childhood programs; a 60% set-aside of excess appropriation funds for quality
improvement; a requirement that at least 10% of the total Head Start appropriation be
reserved for Early Head Start; and new language that would explicitly allow faith-
based Head Start programs to discriminate in hiring, based on religion (Sec. 116).
The proposal to increase credentials for Head Start teachers would require that
by 2008, 50% of Head Start teachers have a B.A. or advanced degree in early
childhood education. (Current law requires that 50% of Head Start teachers
nationwide have an A.A. or above in early childhood education by 2003. That
requirement was met.) In addition, within 3 years after the date of enactment, this
legislation would require that the Secretary require all Head Start teachers in center-
based programs, hired following the date of enactment, to have an A.A. degree or
above in early childhood education, or be enrolled in a program of study leading to an
A.A. degree in early childhood education, with an agreement to complete the program
within 3 years of being hired.
Title II (“State Demonstration Program”) of the bill contains provisions that
would allow up to eight qualifying states to participate in “state demonstration

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programs” in which their allocation of federal Head Start funding would be
administered by the state (as opposed to current law’s system of direct federal to local
grantees). To qualify, a state must have an existing state-supported system of public-
pre-kindergarten; standards for school readiness that are aligned with state
kindergarten through twelfth grade; prior year state and local spending at a level of at
least 50% of the federal Head Start funds to be allocated to the state; and an
established “means” for interagency coordination and collaboration. States would
need to demonstrate that their standards “generally meet or exceed the standards that
ensure the quality and effectiveness of programs operated by Head Start agencies.”
A local grantee currently receiving funds would continue to receive funds, from
the participating state, for at least three years after that state receives approval to
participate in the program (assuming the grantee has no uncorrected deficiencies
identified in monitoring reports from the most recent 5-year period).
Head Start Improvements for School Readiness Act (S. 1940/ S.Rept
108-208). This bill to reauthorize Head Start was introduced and reported by
Chairman Gregg of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on
November 24, 2003. There are significant differences between the House bill (H.R.
2210) and the bill reported by the HELP committee. Most notably, S. 1940, unlike the
House-passed H.R. 2210, does not provide any state the option to administer the Head
Start program. A summary of many of the bill’s provisions follows.
As reported, S. 1940 does not include a funding authorization amount for
FY2004, but would authorize $7.215 billion for FY2005, $7.615 billion for FY2006,
$8.015 billion for FY2007, and such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years
2008 and 2009. The bill would make changes to the way in which Head Start funds
are allocated, allowing not less than 4% to Indians, and not less than 5% to migrant
and seasonal Head Start programs (provided this can be done without reducing the
total number of children funded by Head Start). The bill would also change the way
in which remaining funds (after the set-asides, including exactly 2% for training and
technical assistance) would be allocated, giving priority to grantees in states serving
the smallest percentages of eligible children, and distributing a portion of the funds
on a competitive basis. The bill would provide a 60% set-aside of excess
appropriation funds for quality improvement.
The percentage of funds allotted for the Early Head Start program would be
maintained at 10% in FY2004, and would gradually increase to 18% in FY2009.
Collaboration grants would be awarded to each state by the Secretary, and each state’s
Governor would designate a State Advisory Council to advise states on collaboration
between Head Start and other entities involved with early child care and education.
The bill would authorize $90 million for the Secretary to make a maximum of
200 grants (of at least $100,000 per year for 5 years) to Head Start agencies nominated
by Governors as “Centers of Excellence” in early childhood. Grants could be used for
purposes such as: furthering best practices, serving more children, and providing
additional training for staff.
The bill would also address the population of children eligible for Head Start
services by increasing the eligibility level to 130% of the poverty line. Programs

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would also be required to keep an active waiting list at all times. S. 1940 would
require monthly enrollment reporting to the Secretary, and if actual enrollment were
found to be lower than 95% of funded enrollment for a period of a year, technical
assistance would be required to be provided to alleviate chronic underenrollment. If
the underenrollment were to persist after 18 months of technical assistance, the bill
would allow for the grantee’s base grant to be reduced by a percentage reflecting the
underenrollment.
The bill provides for the Secretary to make training and technical assistance
funds available to support a regional or state system of early childhood education and
training and technical assistance. The bill also outlines a variety of uses for those
funds.
Other provisions in the bill include: increasing Head Start staff qualifications
and requirements (ultimately requiring that no later than September 30, 2010, 50% of
all Head Start teachers in center-based programs have both a B.A. degree relating to
early childhood and demonstrated teaching competencies); requiring that school
readiness-related goals be established by a Head Start agency before designating it as
such; commissioning a National Academy of Sciences panel to review a range of
issues related to early childhood care and education (including assessments); and
authorizing $10 million for FY2004 to award grants for tribal college (or university)
Head Start partnerships.
Head Start Coordination and School Readiness Act (S. 1483) —
introduced (Dodd). This bill to reauthorize Head Start was introduced by Senator
Dodd on July 29, 2003. Unlike the House bill, S. 1483 does not provide any state the
option to administer the Head Start program. Included in the bill are provisions to
require expanded coordination and collaboration among Head Start and other
agencies, and to provide funding for doing so. The bill would establish state Head
Start Quality Improvement and Collaboration (HSQIC) Offices, expanding the
functions of state Head Start Collaboration Offices. The HSQIC Offices would work
in consultation with State advisory councils (also newly defined in the bill) to improve
coordination among programs, and to plan for a state system of training and technical
assistance. Advisory councils would be composed of representatives from a wide
range of early child hood programs, agencies and organizations in the state, including
Head Start.
The bill would authorize $8.570 billion for FY2004, $10.445 billion for FY2005,
$12.384 billion for FY2006, $14.334 billion for FY2007, and $16.332 billion for
FY2008.
Under this bill, center-based Head Start program classrooms would be required
within eight years (at most) to have at least one teacher with a B.A. degree in early
childhood education (or an advanced degree in related field). Like the House bill, this
bill proposes that within 3 years of enactment, the Secretary of HHS would require
that newly hired Head Start teachers (for center-based programs) have an A.A., B.A.
or advanced degree in early childhood education, or be currently enrolled (or enrolled
within a year) in an associate degree program in early childhood education. S. 1483
would authorize new additional funding to be used to meet the increased staff

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qualification requirements: $387 million for FY2004, rising to $841 million for
FY2008.
Other Head Start Legislation. Several Head Start bills of narrower scope
than the reauthorization bills outlined above have been introduced this Congress. S.
1474 (Alexander), The Head Start Centers of Excellence Act of 2003, would establish
grant programs to fund 200 Head Start agencies designated by HHS as “Centers of
Excellence in Early Childhood.” This bill would also award grants to states to
establish state councils that would identify barriers to, and opportunities for,
coordination and collaboration among early childhood programs. S. 1444 (Harkin)
would gradually increase the set-aside for Early Head Start to 20% in FY2008. The
overall authorization of appropriations for FY2003-2008 would be set at “such sums
as may be necessary.” H.R. 2543 (Berkley) would amend the Head Start Act to
provide additional funding for states with increased numbers of Head Start-eligible
children. S. 1469 (Bingaman) would amend the Head Start Act to provide grants to
Tribal Colleges and Universities to increase the number of post-secondary degrees in
early childhood education and related fields earned by Indian Head Start agency staff.
H.R. 2291 (DeLauro)/S. 140 (Feinstein) would amend the Higher Education Act to
extend loan forgiveness for certain loans to Head Start teachers. H.R. 2945 (P.
Kennedy)/S. 1620 (Bingaman) would condition the implementation of assessment
procedures in connection with the Head Start National Reporting System on Child
Outcomes.
1998 Reauthorization. Although Head Start has traditionally enjoyed
widespread support, the program has not been without criticism. Concern has been
expressed about the quality of services and the program’s potential for sustaining
positive effects over the long-term. The 1998 amendments to Head Start, included in
the legislation preauthorizing the program in 1998, continue to emphasize the need for
quality improvement.
The 1998 reauthorization law (P.L. 105-285) increased the amount of new
appropriations that must be used for quality improvement activities, at least until
FY2003, and slows the pace at which the program can expand. The law requires HHS
to develop specific education performance standards, and establishes teacher and staff
training related to these standards as a priority use of quality improvement funds. The
law encourages payment of higher salaries for staff with higher levels of education and
training, and requires every Head Start classroom to have a teacher with demonstrated
competency to perform certain functions related to school readiness and child
development. The legislation also requires that, by September 30, 2003, half of all
Head Start teachers nationwide must have at least an associate, bachelors, or graduate
degree in early childhood education or development, or in a related field with
experience teaching preschool children. According to HHS Head Start Program
Information Report (PIR) data, this requirement was met in the 2002 program year,
reaching just over 50% — up from 37% holding a postsecondary degree in 1999.
The law further requires HHS to develop results-based performance measures, and to
review the effectiveness of individual programs in meeting those measures.
Long-Term Benefits. During the 1998 reauthorization of Head Start, several
congressional committees expressed interest in a rigorous evaluation component for
Head Start. While there is widespread agreement that Head Start produces significant

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short-term gains, there continues to be disagreement over the program’s long-term
benefits. Several studies in the 1980s and early 1990s found a “fade-out” of Head
Start benefits for children during their later school years, but some researchers have
questioned whether this apparent fade-out was due to the children’s preschool
experience or the poor quality of the schooling they later received. A 1995 report by
the Packard Foundation presents evidence that high-quality early childhood education
for low-income children, including Head Start, does produce long-term educational,
economic, and societal gains.8 Head Start programs included in the review generally
showed significant favorable effects on grade retention and special education
placement. Multi-service Head Start programs did not fare as well as better-funded
public preschool programs in overall effectiveness measures, although the report noted
that Head Start participants tend to be more disadvantaged, so that comparisons could
be affected by preexisting conditions.
GAO published a Head Start literature review in 1997, in which it concluded that
an extensive body of literature exists, but the research is inadequate to draw
conclusions about the impact of Head Start on a national basis (Head Start: Research
Provides Little Information on Impact of Current Program, HEHS-97-59, April
1997). GAO noted that most of the studies were on cognitive outcomes and did not
evaluate such program components as nutrition or health-related services. Moreover,
the quality of some of the research was poor and none of the studies used a nationally
representative sample that would enable conclusions to be drawn about the national
program. However, GAO pointed out that HHS currently has a variety of research and
evaluation activities underway that will eventually produce information about the
program’s impact.
The 1998 amendments to Head Start mandate and reserve funds for additional
studies on the impact of Head Start. The law also requires all Head Start agencies to
coordinate with the local education agency and community schools, to develop
procedures for the transition of Head Start children into kindergarten and elementary
school. The law also requires HHS to provide technical assistance to Head Start
programs to help ensure school readiness of children and to promote family literacy.
FACES and Head Start Impact Study. Two evaluation efforts underway
which are designed to measure the effectiveness of the Head Start program are the
Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) and the National Impact Study.
FACES, initially launched in 1997 (with the most recent cohort starting in Fall
of 2000), is a periodic, longitudinal study of successive nationally representative
samples of children and families in Head Start programs. The purpose of the study
is to provide descriptions of the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical
development of Head Start children; the characteristics, well-being, and
accomplishments of families; the observed quality of Head Start classrooms; and the
characteristics, needs, and opinions of Head Start teachers and other program staff.
Children and parents are studied at entry into the program, followed for one or two
8 The Future of Children, Long-term Outcomes of Early Childhood Programs, The David
and Lucille Packard Foundation, Winter 1995. (Available via the web at:
[http://www.futureofchildren.org/pubs-info2825/pubs-info.htm?doc_id=77657]

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years of program participation, and followed-up at the end of the child’s kindergarten
year.9
The National Impact Study, mandated by the 1998 reauthorization law (P.L. 105-
285), began in FY2001, and is designed to provide a national analysis of the impact
of Head Start on the development and school-readiness of low-income children. The
HHS study requires random assignment of children to Head Start and non-Head Start
groups, with attention being paid to the type and quality of other care and services that
the control group receives. Data collection began in the Fall of 2002, and results of
the study are not expected until 2006.
Coordination with Child Care. Particularly in light of welfare reform
requirements instituted in 1996, which have caused more parents to work or
participate in training activities, Head Start is working to respond to the needs of
families for full-time child care. In recent years, HHS has used some of the Head Start
expansion funds to build partnerships with child care providers to deliver full-day,
full-year services. The 1998 amendments also were intended to encourage
collaboration between child care and Head Start and to promote the development of
unified early education and child care plans that will increase the availability of full-
time services. The law authorizes the Secretary of HHS to provide supplemental
collaboration funds to states that undertake such unified planning or other innovative
collaborative initiatives.
The 1998 amendments also direct the Secretary to identify barriers to
collaboration and to develop a mechanism for resolving programmatic conflicts, and
to provide technical assistance related to the provision of full-day, full-year services.
In addition, factors to be considered in awarding Head Start expansion grants, under
the 1998 amendments, include the applicant’s ability to coordinate with other
community child care providers and preschool programs to provide full-day, full-year
services. Moreover, the law authorizes Head Start agencies to charge fees for
extended-day services provided to children, if necessary as part of a collaboration with
another agency.
9 For information on recent findings from the FACES study research team, see “What Are
We Learning About Program Quality and Child Development?” by Ruth Hubbell, available
at [http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/core/ongoing_research/faces/nhsa/nhsa_home.html]

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Table 3. Head Start FY2004 State Allocations (Estimates)
State
Amount
State
Amount
Alabama
$105,318,000
Nevada
23,704,000
Alaska
12,329,000
New Hampshire
13,236,000
Arizona
101,846,000
New Jersey
128,827,000
Arkansas
63,691,000
New Mexico
51,701,000
California
825,026,000
New York
429,401,000
Colorado
67,537,000
North Carolina
139,697,000
Connecticut
51,449,000
North Dakota
16,976,000
Delaware
12,746,000
Ohio
243,773,000
District of Columbia
24,815,000
Oklahoma
80,099,000
Florida
259,767,000
Oregon
58,667,000
Georgia
166,491,000
Pennsylvania
226,319,000
Hawaii
22,620,000
Puerto Rico
247,073,000
Idaho
22,184,000
Rhode Island
21,804,000
Illinois
267,439,000
South Carolina
81,562,000
Indiana
95,084,000
South Dakota
18,607,000
Iowa
50,945,000
Tennessee
118,010,000
Kansas
50,330,000
Texas
473,192,000
Kentucky
106,579,000
Utah
37,322,000
Louisiana
144,261,000
Vermont
13,403,000
Maine
27,441,000
Virginia
97,820,000
Maryland
77,118,000
Washington
99,659,000
Massachusetts
107,237,000
West Virginia
50,049,000
Michigan
231,852,000
Wisconsin
89,553,000
Minnesota
71,544,000
Wyoming
12,229,000
Mississippi
159,789,000
Virgin Islands
10,159,000
Missouri
117,594,000
Outer Pacific
15,381,000
Montana
20,705,000
American Indian
186,474,000
Nebraska
35,593,000
Migrant Programs
264,545,000
Source: Table prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) based on the
Department of Health and Human (HHS) Budget Justifications for FY2005.
Note: Estimated state allocations do not include estimated funding for technical
assistance ($105 million), Research, Development and Evaluation ($20 million), and
Program Support ($27 million). Total FY2004 Head Start funding= $6.775 billion.

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