[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 242 (Wednesday, December 17, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66111-66112]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-32954]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Head Start Program; Notice of Award
AGENCY: Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration
for Children and Families, HHS.
ACTION: Notice of Sole Source Award to Administer the Head Start Child
Development Credentialing Program.
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SUMMARY: The Head Start Bureau announces its intention to enter into a
noncompetitively awarded cooperative agreement with The Council for
Early Childhood Professional Recognition to administer the Child
Development Associate (CDA) Credentialing Program. The CDA Program is a
national project to credential qualified caregivers who work with
children birth to age five in a variety of public and private agency
settings, and in a variety of roles, including as center-based
caregivers of infants and toddlers or preschool age children, as home
visitors, or as family child care providers.
If there are organizations interested in competing for this grant
to administer the Head Start Child Development Credentialing Program,
they are requested to express their interest by contacting either E.
Dollie Wolverton or Lynda Perez by January 16, 1998.
DATES: Effective on January 16, 1998.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: E. Dollie Wolverton, Head Start
Bureau, ACYF, P.O. Box 1182, Washington, D.C. 20013, (202) 205-8418
(Not a toll free call); or Lynda Perez, Grants Officer, Head Start
Bureau, ACYF, P.O. Box 1182, Washington, D.C. 20013, (202) 205-7359
(Not a toll free call).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The project period for this cooperative agreement will be four
years. The award is approximately $1,000,000 annually. The authority
for this credentialing program is section 648(e) of the Head Start Act
(42 U.S.C. 9843).
The Head Start Program is committed to staff development for all
individuals employed in local programs to increase the understanding
and skills necessary to carry out their jobs, as well as professional
development leading to credentials and degrees. In addition to ongoing
staff development, section 648A of the Head Start Act directs the
Secretary to ensure that each of the 55,000 Head Start classrooms for
preschool-age children has a qualified teacher, with a minimum of a CDA
credential.
Those who are credentialed include prekindergarten staff from the
various military sectors, child care, church-affiliated preschools,
Title I school-based programs, and Head Start. Also, the revised Head
Start Program Performance Standards, which become effective January 1,
1998, include new standards for infant and toddler programs and the
requirement that infant and toddler teachers also be qualified by
January 1, 1999, and thereafter within one year of hire, holding a CDA
credential at a minimum.
Beginning in 1972, ACYF has supported various organizations to
administer the CDA National Credentialing Program. These organizations
included a Consortium of several child development and early childhood
education associations and the Bank Street College of Education. The
first decade of this credential award program was unstable and
problematic due, in large measure, to the fact that the grant was
recompeted frequently, leading to several changes in administering
organizations and resulting breaks in services. The general instability
and under-use of the CDA credential system caused concern to the
Department and the Congress. The Department requested that the National
Association for the Education of Young Children create a non-profit
subsidiary to become a free standing organization that would
permanently administer the CDA credentialing program. Accordingly, the
Council for Early Childhood Professional Recognition was established to
administer the national CDA Credentialing Program through a cooperative
agreement. The intent of maintaining a permanent home for the national
Child Development Associate credentialing program was reinforced in
1992, when Section 7 of the 1992 Juvenile Justice Act, entitled, ``Head
Start Training Improvement,'' amended the Head Start Act, requiring the
funding of an organization to administer a centralized child
development credential and national assessment program.
II. Reason for Sole Source Award
The Council for Early Childhood Professional Recognition has
effectively restored public confidence in the CDA Credential and
increased the number of credentials awarded. The number of candidates
credentialed each year has steadily grown from about 2,000 credentialed
candidates annually to nearly 8,000 per year. As of June 1997, nearly
83,000 teachers, home visitors and family child care providers have
been credentialed. The Council has also increased the recognition and
credibility of the CDA Credential among the States, and now 47 States,
the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico recognize the Child
Development Associate credential as the requirement for the licensing
of a child care center. This provides those certified with the CDA
credential with the mobility to move from State-to-State with State
recognition of their credential and qualifications.
The Council is efficiently and cost-effectively administering the
National CDA Credentialing Program at a time when the demand for the
credential has greatly increased. This allows the Council to maintain
the assessment and credentialing fee to the candidate (the majority are
low-income) at $325.
Because of the mandate for qualified teachers of infants and
toddlers and preschool age children, welfare reform, and the
President's intended expansion of the Head Start Program to serve one
million eligible children by the year 2002, the need for qualified,
credentialed staff is an urgent matter, particularly given the annual
turnover rate of 17 percent among Head Start staff. To address the
expansion of the
[[Page 66112]]
Head Start Program and the expansion of services by other agencies
providing child care and early childhood education, it is estimated
that approximately 8,000 CDA candidates will require assessment and a
credential award during each of the next four years.
In the face of these challenges, the Department seeks to ensure the
continuity of the administration of this unique national credentialing
program, which provides affordable credentialing award services which
are nationally recognized, cost effective, represent quality standards
for staff working with children ages birth to five years, and enjoy the
confidence of the States, institutions of higher learning, and the
field of early childhood.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Program Number 93.600,
Project Head Start)
Dated: December 11, 1997.
James A. Harrell,
Deputy Commissioner, Administration on Children, Youth and Families.
[FR Doc. 97-32954 Filed 12-16-97; 8:45 am]
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