Government Affairs Update Week of October 1, 2010
Date Posted: 10/01/2010
Week of October 1, 2010 Because of the Office of Head Start’s recent publication of its proposed regulation for re-competing Head Start and Early Head Start grantees, congressional action regarding federal funding for Head Start and Early Head Start programs, and the exciting news generated during last week’s successful NHSA Leadership Institute, Hill Reception Honoring Retiring Senators Christophe Dodd and George Voinovich, and The Dream Lives On: Celebrating 45 Years of Head Start dinner, reception, and program, we have produced a combined issue of theGovernment Affairs Update and NHSA News You Can Use. Happy Head Start Awareness Month! Make sure you do something in your community to celebrate throughout the month of October. Good News about You
NHSA in Action
Last Week’s Leadership Institute and Celebration of 45 years of Head Start Government Affairs Update
Upcoming NHSA Events
NHSA Membership Services
NHSA Affiliate Relations Update
NHSA Research Services for You
Resources for You
GOOD NEWS ABOUT YOU April Ritter, a Parent in Washington State, Tells Her Head Start Story on Video During last week’s January 2010 Leadership Institute, April Ritter, a Head Start parent in Washington state, met with Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, Director of the Office of Head Start and described how the Head Start program helped her daughter hear for the first time. To view this inspirational video, click here. NHSA IN ACTION Yasmina Vinci Represents NHSA at Maine Educare Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Earlier this week, Yasmina Vinci traveled to Waterville, Maine to represent NHSA at the Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for a new Educare Facility. This is the first rural Educare facility in the nation and it is expected to serve about 200 Early Head Start and Head Start children and their families. Ben Allen Attended National Stakeholder meeting at HHS about Child Outcomes Framework Ben Allen, NHSA's Public Policy and Research Director attended a national stakeholder's meeting at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about the revising the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework. The Office of Head Start has proposed to use the developmental domains of the framework as part of its proposed Head Start re-competition system. Carolyn Stennett Presented at the Northeast Regional Meeting of the Virginia Head Start Association Earlier this week, Carolyn Stennett, NHSA Deputy Director and General Counsel, presented at the Northeast Regional Meeting of the Virginia Head Start Association. She discussed the ARRA funding cliff and the Office of Head Start’s recent proposed regulation on Head Start recompetition. LAST WEEK’S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE Just when we thought that our semi-annual Leadership Institute could not get any better-- it DID. What happened this September? It was a heady combination of a redesigned format, enhanced visits to the Hill (and breakfast with Senators Voinovich and Dodd), fabulous presenters addressing the most cutting-edge issues (from immigration to measurement of outcomes to the new language of Head Start), culminating serendipitously with a set of important announcements by the Office of Head Start Director Sanchez-Fuentes and her staff. It was magic. It was about giving Head Start leaders – directors, staff, and parents - invaluable opportunities to learn, reflect, ask, talk, remind their Members of Congress what is important, and network. It was clear that Head Start is on the move. We are sorry if you missed it. And then there was The Dream Lives On: Celebration of 45 years of Head Start. There is no way to describe in words this evening. But only if you were there, would you have felt the energy, the excitement, and the awe as Mrs. O’Neal spoke about her four sons, without even naming the one whose name we all know, who went to Head Start, and who now draws the crowds wherever he goes. Or, as the two former Head Start parents, one from Louisiana and one from Iowa, both now prominent Early Head Start/Head Start leaders were honored. Or , as Gayle Cunningham was recognized for the excellence, not only of her program, but of her spirit and her diligent sharing of Head Start’s great insights to improve the rest of early childhood practice. Or, as Dreya Holmes, now all of 14, who at the age of 11 mobilized the community to create a water spray park to replace an abandoned swimming pool, had tears when she saw the admiration of the Head Start community. And to make it special, the national leadership of the early childhood community and many other Head Start friends turned out to celebrate with us this dream that lives on. What a kick-off to the Head Start month, which starts October 1st!!! And then the whole country heard about Head Start’s celebration when Exchange Every Day posted this. GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS UPDATE Congress Approves the End of Fiscal Year 2010 Continuing Resolution Happy Fiscal New Year! As you may recall fiscal year 2010 ended yesterday, September 30, 2010 and the new fiscal year (FY 2011) begins today. Yet the House and Senate did not pass into law any of the FY 2011 Appropriations bills. Therefore, this week the House and Senate passed into law a Continuing Resolution (“CR”), also referred to as a stop-gap measure, to continue the flow of federal funds. (On September 29, 2010, the Senate passed the measure 69-30, and the House followed suit, on September 30, 2010 with a vote of 228-194.) The President is expected to sign the CR into law on Friday, which marks the first day of FY2011. With this CR passed, both the House and Senate are heading into Recess again for the 2010 election season. The CR is set to expire on December 3, 2010. The CR mostly maintains FY 2010 funding levels for the next 64 days, and allows the government to continue operating until FY 2011 appropriations bills (likely in “omnibus” form that is, all lumped together into one) can be passed into law. The total amount of the CR is about $219 billion — roughly $9 billion below the FY2010 level (due to savings in Census Bureau programs and military base closings). A few key items of note included in the CR:
For more information on the CR, please click here and search for H.R. 3081 (the legislative vehicle for FY 2011 continuing appropriations). Office of Head Start Released Its Proposed Re-Competition Regulations Last week on September 22, 2010, the Administration for Children and Families published the draft of the Re-Competition regulations that the field has been waiting for since the Head Start Act was reauthorized. The draft regulations can be found here. A summary of the proposed rule by the Department of Health and Human Services can be found here. In short, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) provides seven triggers that, if they occur, would make a grantee re-compete through an open competition for its grant in the next 5 year grant round. It also provides a new list of items that grantees would be required to report to OHS. These are draft regulations so the field is entitled to comment on them before they are finalized and go into effect. We cannot stress enough how important it is for your input in this process. This needs to happen in a couple of ways:
The bottom line: Don’t delay! Review the NPRM and provide us with your feedback today! GAO Released Its Final Head Start Eligibility Report As you may recall, in May of this year, Chairman George Miller of the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on findings by the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”), the investigative arm of Congress, regarding how certain Head Start programs made eligibility determinations for incoming children and families. After a long delay, this week (Tuesday, September 28, 2010), the GAO finally released its complete Head Start Eligibility Report. It contains primarily the same information alleged in this summer’s hearing with a bit more detail and also notes several claims that the GAO was unable to substantiate. The effects of this eligibility report are likely to linger – Congress expects better accountability for the funds it provides to communities and the Office of Head Start has already begun to provide additional guidance about eligibility determinations. For a copy of the GAO’s final report (GAO-10-1049) released this week, please click here. For testimony from the hearing held by Congress back in May, please click here. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Reorganized the Administration for Children and Families The Administration for Children and Families has just announced a reorganization of its offices by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Child Care Bureau is no longer housed in the Office of family Assistance. Instead, the Child Care Bureau is now called the Office of Child Care reporting directly to the Assistant Secretary for children and Families. An Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary and Inter-Departmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development now exists. For more information about this reorganization, click here. The Consumer Product Safety Commission Requests Comments on Its Baby Crib Safety Standards October 6th is the deadline for the public to submit comments on baby crib safety standards proposed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. These standards would apply to anyone who produces and sells cribs to Head Start, Early Head Start and child care programs. To read the proposed regulation, click here. UPCOMING NHSA EVENTS The 27th Annual Head Start Parent Conference – Parent Engagement: The Necessary Ingredient Join us at the only national parent conference delivering high-quality training and educational opportunities to Head Start parents and those who provide Head Start services to parents. The conference will be held in Virginia Beach, Virginia, December 10-14, 2010. For more information, click here. Save the Date! NHSA’s January 2010 Leadership Institute Last week’s NHSA Leadership Institute had record attendance. Attendees gained access to presentations by and conversations with Office of Head Start officials and national policy and research experts. NHSA’s next Leadership Institute will be held January 24-27, 2011 at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC. Stay tuned for future information from us. NHSA MEMBERSHIP SERVICES New Resource for Program and Associate NHSA Members Attention Program and Associate Members! NHSA brings you Exchange Articles on Demand, an online resource with over 2200 articles including topics ranging from supervision to special needs, biting to bake sales, from discipline to diapers, and literacy to legal issues -- the list is endless! Watch for an email coming from us soon giving you your account name and password. RESOURCES FOR YOU New Oral Health Resources for the Head Start Community The National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center just published national and state oral health resources for the Head Start community. To access these resources, click here. Get the Scoop on Early Childhood Policy Developments on an Audio Conference Helen Blank with the National Women’s Law Center and Danielle Ewen with the Center for Law and Social Policy will be holding an audio conference entitled, “Congress Is Wrapping Up: Get the Scoop on Early Childhood” on October 6 at 4 pm EDT. To register for this free audio conference, click here. Upcoming Webinar about the Evaluations of State Home Visiting Programs The Pew Center on the States’ Home Visiting Campaign will be holding a webinar on impact evaluations of Healthy Families New York and Pennsylvania’s Nurse-Family Partnership’s home visiting programs. The webinar will be on October 4 at 2 pm EDT. Click here to register for this webinar. Future Webinar on Emergency Food Assistance for Hispanic Children and Their Families On October 5 at 2 pm EDT, the Urban Institute will be hosting a webinar examining the food needs of Hispanic children and their families, the role of private food assistance to supplement governmental nutrition programs and services, and policy options to reduce food insecurity among these children and families. To register for this webinar, click here. Upcoming Head Start Legal Advisory Service Webinars Led by Ted Waters and Zoe Beckerman, the Head Start Legal Advisory Service, a collaboration between Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP and the National Head Start Association, is in full swing! Don’t miss out on these upcoming, cost effective training webinars. You can register by clicking here. Are you new to Head Start or Early Head Start? Or have you not undergone a review in a while? If so, it is important to understand that Head Start programs must undergo federal programmatic monitoring at least once every three years. This year, we’ve heard that OHS plans a series of unannounced reviews in which the monitoring team will just show up unexpectedly. In addition, the monitoring review process will soon be linked to re-competition. So don’t miss out! Join us on this webinar to learn:
Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, other Head Start Management, any program personnel who are new to the monitoring process, but all are welcome. (This webinar does not walk you through the new protocol, but our other upcoming webinars do.) Head Start programs are required to provide a 20% match of non-federal funds for the operation of their programs. This match (or “non-federal share”) applies to regular Head Start and Early Head Start funds, as well as those received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Year in and year out, non-federal share is an ongoing trouble area for programs. Join us in this webinar to learn or refresh:
Based on our review of numerous examples from the field, we’ll also discuss what we think your non-federal share documentation forms should look like. Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, Fiscal Staff, and Management Team, but anyone is welcome. Your Neighboring Programs Are Also Signing Up for On-Demand Training Board and Policy Member Governance Boot Camp. This series is designed to ensure that you can provide cutting-edge governance training to both your Board and your Policy Council – in short segments that can fit into their regular meetings. Each of these two webinars is comprised of discrete, short topics of 20-30 minutes in duration. So you can show one segment at one Board or Policy Council meeting, and another segment at the next. The presentations are “on-demand” so that they can be watched at your Board or Policy Council’s convenience. Target Audiences: Boards of Directors/Governing Bodies, Policy Council and Committees, and Senior Management or staff that work with them. Click here for more information and to register for either our live webinars or our on-demand content like Board and Policy Member Governance Boot Camp. Please feel free to share this issue of NHSA News You Can Use with others in your networks |
