[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 96 (Friday, July 17, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE HEAD START ACT OF 1998

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. FRANK RIGGS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 16, 1998

  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a bill to extend the 
Head Start program. This legislation strengthens the quality and 
accountability of Head Start while supporting those receiving Temporary 
Assistance to Needy Families, the goals of welfare reform, 
collaborations at the local, State, and national levels, and Head Start 
staff. For the first time ever, Head Start will be judged on its 
outcomes for children and families.
  The Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, 
Youth, and Families that I chair has heard testimony in four hearings 
from respected academicians, researchers, educators, parents, and 
practitioners. These witnesses and the many experts with whom committee 
staff spoke consistently called for an increased focus on outcomes and 
for higher Head Start staff qualifications. Great care has been taken 
to craft a bill that addresses these issues by emphasizing quality, 
accountability, flexibility and collaboration.
  We have proposed a simple and effective update of the formula 
allotting Head Start funds to states: 1998 would become the ``hold 
harmless'' year for funding. Future expansion and quality 
appropriations would be allotted based solely on child poverty 
statistics, thus avoiding possible negative impacts on States 
successful in moving recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy 
Families into jobs. No State would lose Head Start funding under this 
proposal.
  We have redefined the primary purpose of Head Start in this bill to 
be school readiness. The bill adds new education performance standards 
and measures that strengthen the cognitive development of children, and 
requires that the majority of Head Start teachers must have at least an 
associate degree in early childhood education by the end of the 
reauthorization period in 2003.
  To support the need for increased teacher training and greater 
attention to school readiness, emphasis has been shifted for a limited 
period of time from expansion to quality. This will give programs an 
opportunity to address teacher salaries and program quality. Teachers 
are specifically targeted in the bill for needed salary increases based 
upon their education and credentials.
  The professional development of teachers and other Head Start staff 
is enhanced under this legislation by explicitly allowing the use of 
funds for training in language, literacy, English acquisition, and 
child disabilities, and by the provision of special collaboration 
grants that encourage Head Start participation in State, regional, and 
local early childhood professional development systems.
  These special collaboration grants also can be used for similar 
collaborative efforts to develop more full-day, full-year child care/
Head Start services. Similarly, waivers of income eligibility rules 
would be allowed through joint agreement of the Governor, the State 
Head Start Association, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 
Up to 25 percent of a program's enrollment could be ``over income,'' 
but families could not exceed 140 percent of the poverty level. In 
cases where Child Care Development Block Grant or other child care 
funds are blended to offer combined Head Start/child care services, 
copayments by Head Start parents would be explicitly allowed to meet 
the requirements of the cofunding agency.
  Funding priority for any increased appropriations is given by this 
bill to expansion of full-day, full-year services to meet the child 
care needs of working poor. Additionally, Early Head Start funding 
would grow to 10 percent of Head Start funding by the year 2003 to 
serve more children in the critical years before age three.
  To help prepare Head Start children for success in kindergarten, a 
new section in the bill defines in greater detail transition activities 
and goals. The needs of Head Start parents are addressed with start-up 
funding for up to 100 family literacy demonstrations. Training and 
technical assistance will be available to all Head Start family 
literacy programs. The best of these programs would be designated as 
mentor programs; they would assist other agencies with the 
implementation and improvement of family literacy. Progress towards 
quality also would be achieved by allowing for-profit entities to 
participate with public and non-profit entities in any open grant 
competitions for Head Start funding.
  Accountability is the other key issue emphasized in this bill. As 
mentioned earlier, school readiness has been reestablished as the goal 
of Head Start, and new transition goals and educational performance 
standards and measures will be implemented. Head Start agencies are 
also required to ensure that parents receiving Temporary Assistance to 
Needy Families who are enrolled in the program meet paternity 
requirements. Other single Head Start parents shall receive information 
about resources for establishing paternity. In addition, the bill 
directs that local performance measures be established for child and 
family outcomes at the individual grantee level by January 1, 1999.
  The biggest accountability question is whether Head Start truly makes 
a difference for children and families; a large-scale impact study has 
never been conducted. For this reason, a national study on the impact 
of Head Start services is commissioned in this bill to provide the kind 
of information that policy makers so sorely need.
  Head Start is a program that benefits America's most vulnerable 
children. It is our solemn duty as policy and law makers to ensure that 
these at-risk children and their families receive the quality 
developmental and educational services that they need to be successful 
in school and become productive members of society. I urge all of my 
colleagues on a bipartisan basis to support this measure.

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