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Head Start Practices Survey Does your program provide lead screening, fatherhood programming or share curricula with schools? We want to know about it! Help NHSA broadcast all the best practices of Head Start programs. In just five minutes, directors can complete this survey and help us demonstrate that excellence in Head Start isn't rare - it's everywhere. Take the survey now!
Home Visiting Survey The Affordable Care Act (ACA) dedicated $1.5 billion to home visiting for expectant families and families with young children. As part of the ACA, the Home Visiting Research Network (HVRN) was established in July 2012 and is responsible for setting a national agenda for home visiting research. The agenda will identify key priorities for research activities, funding, and training over the next ten years. To create that agenda, the team at Johns Hopkins is surveying home visiting stakeholders (including practitioners, parents, and advocates) to identify key research priorities. If you work in home visiting or want to help inform this research agenda, take the survey today! (In the coming months, as many of you have asked for, NHSA will be establishing a learning group around home visiting! If you're interested in learning more, stay tuned or email Emmalie Dropkin at edropkin@nhsa.org.)
Focus Group Conference Call for Head Start Education and Center Managers/Coordinators Are you a Head Start Education and Center Manager or Coordinator? We need you! NHSA is hosting a focus group conference call for one of our partners and seek your input as an on-the-ground expert! If you can spare half an hour on December 18th at 1:30 PM EST, please contact Jane Adams at jadams@nhsa.org to sign up!
NHSA Disaster Relief Fund for Victims of Hurricane Sandy The devastation of Hurricane Sandy has impacted many Head Start programs, their families, children and staff along the East Coast. It wreaked on Community Partners, Inc., a Head Start in Far Rockaway, NY. Did you know that NHSA has a disaster relief fund that can provide assistance to programs affected by Hurricane Sandy for expenses that are not covered by insurance? If your program was affected, apply for our disaster relief fund here.
If you are fortunate to have avoided Sandy, please consider making a donation to the NHSA disaster relief fund today! Every dollar donated to the fund will go DIRECTLY to Head Start and Early Head Start programs, staff, and families devastated by the hurricane. Given the extent of the destruction, your help is badly needed now. Let's come together as a Head Start community and support each other during these trying times. And many thanks to the programs that have already contributed generously.
29th Annual Parent Conference in Grapevine, Texas is right around the corner! 
The 29th Annual Parent Conference and Engagement Institutes are right around the corner! This event is the only national conference to deliver high-quality training and educational opportunities to Head Start parents and to those who work with or on behalf of parents. At the parent conference attendees will have the opportunity to engage with four Head Start National Resource Centers that will share best practices, practical resources and information in two institutes, a presentation series, and several sessions, participate in intense exploration during Pre-Conference Sessions and Special Tracks, attend more than 100 educational sessions and a special Directors Series and even participate in an Abriendo Puertas Train the Trainer event! This year we have the added pleasure of featuring two very special guests during our closing, Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, Director Office of Head Start, and Debbie Clement, an Author, Musician, and Educator. Still haven’t signed up? Register today!
Need Books? Five Things Every Head Start Should Know
- Having books to read – at home and in the classroom – is the number one predictor of reading success.
- NHSA is partnering with First Book (www.firstbook.org) to help all Head Start centers gain access to high-quality, free and low-cost new books.
- As an NHSA member, you can sign up with First Book for FREE online at www.firstbook.org/register.
- Head Start programs can shop online at the First Book Marketplace (www.fbmarketplace.org) to select from thousands of award-winning and high-quality new books at 50-90% below retail price.
- The First Book National Book Bank distributes millions of brand-new, free books every year to Head Start centers and other programs serving kids in need. Want more great news? Head Start restricted federal funds can be used to cover the shipping and handling fees of these free books and resources [Head Start Standards 1304.3 (5)].
That’s right – it’s that easy! Get access to the resources your kids need by signing up for free today at www.firstbook.org/register.
Abriendo Puertas Training Opportunity at the 29th Annual Parent Conference  You may already be aware of Abriendo Puertas, a peer-to-peer train-the-trainer program developed by Families in Schools, but did you know this valuable training is scholarship-based? That means there is no cost to you for the training itself! In fact, there are minimal costs for your agency that NHSA can help offset by providing your program with $500 for each participant. When participants have completed this training and after facilitating a 2-day training of their own to other professional staff we offer them a stipend of $1500. This is an effective and dynamic way to train parents.
NHSA will offer a three-day Facilitators Training for 20 individuals from Dec 1-3 in Grapevine, Texas in conjunction with our 29th Annual Head Start Parent Conference and Family Engagement Institutes. Those who attend the Facilitator Training will be ready to deploy the Abriendo Puertas curriculum in their local communities and at regional and state Head Start/Early Head Start gatherings.
To participate in the Facilitator Training Network, download and complete the application. Participants' travel and accommodations must be provided by the local agency. If participants choose to attend the 29th Annual Head Start Parent Conference and Family Engagement Institutes, agencies are responsible to pay those registration fees.
Coming Up on Wednesday, November 28th: Fiscal Monitoring (New for the FY 2013 Protocol) from 3-5 pm EST. A Head Start Legal Advisory Service Webinar. Don’t miss the fiscal section of our monitoring series. Attend the Head Start Legal Advisory Service’s upcoming webinar on Fiscal Monitoring, led by Ted Waters of Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP, to learn about this year’s key indicators for on-site monitoring reviews and pitfalls to avoid on Wednesday, November 28th from 3-5 pm EST. The fiscal section is quite different than in years past. At the end of this webinar, you will be able to: - Read actual questions in the new tool on fiscal management systems as the lawyers do (and see what to watch out for);
- List pitfalls that reviewers often look for; and
- Improve your ideas about documenting issues to “prove up” your compliance.
Please note this webinar only covers fiscal questions. Please see our other Monitoring webinars for other key parts of the Monitoring Protocol. Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, CFOs and Fiscal Staff, but all are welcome to attend. Coming Up on Wednesday, December 5th: Eligibility and ERSEA Monitoring (New for the FY 2013 Protocol) from 3-5 pm EST. A Head Start Legal Advisory Service Webinar. Position your program for a successful monitoring review. Attend the Head Start Legal Advisory Service’s upcoming webinar on Eligibility and ERSEA Monitoring, led by Ted Waters of Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP, to learn about this year’s emphasis on eligibility and ERSEA issues on Wednesday, December 5th from 3-5 pm EST. The monitoring review process is now linked to recompetition, so be sure to sign up for this webinar! At the end of this webinar, you will be able to: - Read actual questions in the new tool on ERSEA and related subjects as the lawyers do (and see what to watch out for);
- List pitfalls that reviewers often look for; and
- Improve your ideas about documenting issues to “prove up” your compliance.
Please note this webinar only covers ERSEA and eligibility-related questions. Please see our other Monitoring webinars for other key parts of the Monitoring Protocol. Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, ERSEA Staff, but all are welcome to attend. The Head Start Legal Advisory Service is a collaboration between the law firm of Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP and the National Head Start Association. Click here for the full schedule of Head Start Legal Advisory Service webinars, to learn about our new reduced pricing, and to register for either or both webinars.
The NHSA/CapLaw Webinar Series CAPLAW (Community Action Program Legal Services, Inc.) has partnered with NHSA to deliver timely training and resources on a wide variety of legal, governance and management topics of importance to NHSA members. (CAPLAW is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization dedicated to providing the legal, governance and management resources necessary to sustain and strengthen the national Community Action Agency network.)
Three Webinars have been scheduled and are available free of charge for NHSA members. Perfecting the Roles and Responsibilities of a Head Start Board
December 13, 2012, 2 – 3 p.m. Eastern Time
Presented by Allison Ma’luf, Esq., CAPLAW
An engaged and active governing body is essential to ensuring a high performing, legally compliant Head Start program. In this session we will review the statutory responsibilities of a Head Start board as they relate to the board’s role in overseeing the Head Start program and managing the risks associated with it. We will also briefly discuss the conflict of interest requirements applicable to Head Start boards along with the policies and procedures boards should have in place to ensure legal compliance.
For more information, click here. To register, login to NHSA's member-only site here. The Webinar is free for members!
Mark your calendars for these upcoming NHSA/CAPLAW Webinars: Employment Law Round-up
February 20, 2013, 2 – 3 p.m. Eastern Time
Have you ever wondered or asked yourself any one of the following: How do we account for Head Start employees’ training time? What is the best process to follow to avoid a discrimination claim while maintaining compliance with the Head Start criminal background checks requirement? How do we handle leave requests for Head Start employees who are laid off during the summer months? Don’t miss this session where we will discuss approaches and strategies for addressing these and other thornier employment law issues relating to wage and hour determinations, leave requests and criminal background checks including implications of the new EEOC guidance on an employer’s use of criminal records. Procurement Fundamentals
December 13, 2012, 2 – 3 p.m. Eastern Time
There have been a significant number of Head Start review findings in the procurement area. Don’t get caught short. Learn about the basic requirements under the federal grant regulations and how to apply them to your program. You will hear about some problem areas that have surfaced, including failure to have “open and free competition” and conflicts of interest in purchasing decisions.
Keeping You Warm During the Holiday Season: NHSA and One Warm Coat With winter just around the corner we know that the children in your programs and their siblings and parents will need a warm coat to wear. Many have coats that are too worn to wear, they have outgrown them or they simply do not have a coat of their own. One Warm Coat works with volunteers across the country that want to help provide a warm coat to everyone who needs one. Last year thousands individuals, groups and sponsors held a coat drive through One Warm Coat and each of them selected an agency to donate the coats to; hundreds of thousands of coats were donated. If you are not registered already with One Warm Coat, please register today. It is easy and free and will allow those thousands of organizers to find you and help you provide coats for your children and their families. Don’t delay. Register now!
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