[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 20, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8056-S8057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HEAD START FOR SCHOOL READINESS ACT

  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Head Start 
for School Readiness Act of 2007. This legislation is a bipartisan 
effort by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to 
reauthorize the Head Start Act.
  The Head Start Program was established in 1965 as part of the war on 
poverty by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The purpose of the program was, 
and remains, to provide educational and other developmental services to 
children in very low-income families. Since its creation, Head Start 
has been a comprehensive early childhood development program that 
provides educational, health, nutritional, social, and other services 
to low-income preschool-aged children and their families. Head Start 
currently provides services to over 900,000 children and their families 
through a network of over 1,600 public and private agencies.
  The legislation before us today builds on work started last Congress 
by the HELP Committee under my leadership. The Head Start for School 
Readiness Act ensures that low-income children receive the educational 
and developmental services they need to be ready to learn and be 
successful in school.
  I want to thank Senator Kennedy for his ongoing commitment to working 
on a bipartisan basis, which has resulted in legislation that meets the 
needs of children and families who participate in the Head Start 
Program throughout our Nation. I would also like to thank our 
colleagues, Senators Alexander and Dodd, for their fine work and 
dedication to this important program.
  Head Start was created to level the playing field for low-income 
children by providing them with education and development activities. 
This program recognizes that children do not start school with the same 
set of experiences and knowledge and helps provide low-income children 
with some of the experiences and knowledge their more affluent peers 
have as they start their elementary school experience. The Head Start 
Program also recognizes the important role that families play in a 
child's development and encourages their regular participation in the 
program.
  This legislation helps ensure that children in the Head Start Program 
will be better prepared to enter school with the skills necessary to 
succeed. It is well documented in early childhood education research 
that students who are not reading at grade level by the third grade 
will struggle with reading the rest of their lives. Head Start provides 
early education for over 900,000 children each year, most of whom would 
not have the opportunity to attend preschool programs elsewhere. The 
future of these children is why we have all worked so hard to improve 
and strengthen this act. The legislation before us today will help Head 
Start Programs provide children with the early learning skills and 
early childhood development activities they need to be successful. Head 
Start introduces many of these children to books, the alphabet, 
numbers, as well as how to play and share with their classmates. Head 
Start provides the building blocks children need for success later in 
life.
  The Head Start for School Readiness Act builds on what many great 
Head Start providers are already doing. Working from recommendations 
from the National Academy of Sciences, this bill adds educational 
standards related to language skills, literacy and numeracy skills, as 
well as cognitive, emotional, and physical development. Steps are also 
taken to ensure that limited English proficient children are provided 
assistance in acquiring the English language.
  I am particularly pleased with the accountability provisions put 
forth in this legislation. The legislation before us today includes 
important changes to the Head Start Program related to the evaluation 
and review of grantees. The timeframe for Head Start grantees to appeal 
decisions made by the Secretary to terminate grants is now limited. In 
some instances, Head Start grantees have been found to be operating 
programs that are unsafe or misusing Federal funds--and are often 
continuing those bad practices for months--as long as 600 days in some 
cases--during the termination process. This equates to children not 
receiving quality services, and instead of being prepared for success, 
they fall further behind.
  Additional steps have been taken in this legislation to increase the 
quality of Head Start Programs, including providing the Secretary the 
authority to terminate a grantee that has multiple and recurring 
deficiencies that has not made significant and substantial progress 
toward correcting those deficiencies. This legislation provides greater 
clarity for grantees as to what constitutes a program deficiency. Many 
of us have heard from grantees across the country who expressed 
frustration with the lack of consistency with which the provisions of 
the Head Start Program is enforced. For that reason this legislation 
includes provisions related to interrator reliability--this will help 
ensure consistency in the review of Head Start Programs across the 
country.
  Changes were made to the distribution of grant funds to ensure that 
programs maintain their funded levels of enrollment. We understand that 
families served by the Head Start Program tend to be more migratory and 
that full enrollment at Centers is often difficult to maintain. 
However, we also know that many programs have waiting lists and that 
thousands of eligible children are not currently being served. This 
legislation balances those needs by providing flexibility in meeting 
full enrollment, but also requiring funds to be moved from chronically 
under-enrolled programs.

  Senator Dodd has provided valuable leadership as we worked to develop 
a clear policy on the roles and responsibilities of the governing 
bodies and policy councils. We have worked together to clarify and 
strengthen the roles of the governing body and policy councils while 
preserving the important role of parents. After careful review, the 
committee found that many of the important fiscal and legal 
responsibilities of Head Start grantees were not explicitly assigned.
  Unfortunately there have been too many examples of programs that have 
failed the children, families, and community they were funded to serve 
due to appalling financial mismanagement. Cases were brought to the 
committee that detailed excessive and inappropriate expenditures, lost 
funds, and reduced services to children because proper financial 
management techniques were not in place. Too often the truth was hidden 
from governing bodies and policy councils alike.
  The bill clarifies those responsibilities leading to more consistent, 
high-quality fiscal and legal management, which will ensure these 
programs are serving children in the best possible way. Changes in this 
legislation address the concerning situations mentioned earlier by 
placing fiscal responsibility with the governing body. It is absolutely 
necessary and vital that one entity maintain fiscal and legal control 
of the Federal grant dollars. That

[[Page S8057]]

said, we maintain the equally vital and necessary role of the policy 
councils in setting program priorities, classroom activities, and 
personnel changes. We believe this careful balance will help ensure the 
continued integrity of the Head Start Program for years to come.
  We recognize that a vast majority of the Head Start agencies provide 
high quality, comprehensive services for children in the Head Start 
Programs. However, the provisions in this bill will create an important 
incentive for programs to operate at their best and in the best 
interest of the children they serve.
  I want to particularly note emphasis we have placed on the role of 
parents in Head Start Programs. It is vital to remember that this 
program provides services to children and their families. Parents 
provide valuable insight and experience as to what a Head Start Program 
should do for children. In fact, this legislation increases the 
presence of parents in Head Start Programs, strengthens services for 
families, and provides training and development opportunities for 
parents that do serve on the policy councils and governing bodies.
  This legislation also increases the coordination, collaboration, and 
excellence of early childhood education and care programs. It enhances 
the role of the State director of Head Start collaboration to ensure 
that Head Start Programs are maximizing their potential by stretching 
dollars, promoting partnerships to meet State and local needs, and 
developing strategic plans to meet future and current goals. This 
legislation also allows each State to apply for funds to support a 
State advisory council on early care and education to conduct a 
statewide needs assessment, identify collaboration opportunities, and 
support additional data collection. Additional encouragement of 
coordination and collaboration will stretch Federal, State and local 
resources to provide additional resources to disadvantaged children 
across the country.
  Finally, this legislation requires the Department of Health and Human 
Services to cease any further development or implementation of the 
National Reporting System. While I believe that the assessment of 
children in the Head Start Program is important, I believe that the 
assessment must be both age and developmentally appropriate. This 
legislation requires a review and update of the assessments, standards, 
and measures used in Head Start Programs by the Panel on Developmental 
Outcomes and Assessments for Young Children of the National Academy of 
Sciences. Once the panel completes its recommendations, the Secretary 
is then allowed to revisit the issue of assessment in Head Start 
Programs.
  The members of the HELP Committee, and in particular Senators 
Alexander, Kennedy, and Dodd, have worked tirelessly on this 
legislation. The final product before us today is a comprehensive and 
bipartisan reauthorization of the Head Start Program. I wish to thank 
Senators Kennedy, Alexander, and Dodd and the other members of the 
committee for their assistance in moving this legislation to the floor. 
Passage of this legislation will ensure that low-income children are 
prepared not only for success in school but for later success in life.
  Finally, I would like to thank the staff of members of the HELP 
Committee who have spent countless hours preparing this legislation for 
passage by the Senate. In particular I would like to thank Roberto 
Rodriguez with Senator Kennedy, Catherine Hildum and Sharon Lewis with 
Senator Dodd, David Cleary and Sarah Rittling with Senator Alexander, 
and Beth Buehlmann and Lindsay Hunsicker of my staff.
  It is my hope that our bipartisan efforts will continue to produce 
results as we move to final passage of this legislation and on to a 
conference committee with the House of Representatives. We must all 
work together to get a bipartisan product to President Bush for his 
signature as soon as possible.

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