The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 signed on Jan. 17, 2014 includes an increase of approximately $1.025 billion in Head Start funding over the fiscal year 2013 funding level. The increase will restore 5.27 percent reduction grantees received from sequestration and provide grantees with a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). It also will expand Early Head Start-Child Care (EHS-CC) Partnerships.

Each grantee may apply for a COLA increase of 1.3 percent of the FY 2012 base funding level.  Base funding excludes training and technical assistance funds and any one-time funding grantees may have received in FY 2012.  COLA funds are to be used to increase staff salaries and fringe benefits and to pay for higher operating costs.  Programs that use COLA funds to increase staff salaries should increase the hourly rate of pay and permanently increase the Head Start pay scale rather than only increase the salaries of current employees. Sections 653 and 640(j) of the Head Start Act provide further guidance on the uses and limitations of the COLA funds. Section 653 of the Act restricts compensation to a Head Start employee that is higher than the average rate of compensation paid for substantially comparable services in the area where the program is operating.  Section 640(j) of the Act requires that the compensation of Head Start employees must be improved regardless of whether the agency has the ability to improve the compensation of staff employed by the agency that do not provide Head Start services.

During the 2012-2013 program year, the Office of Head Start (OHS) used the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS™) Pre-K Teacher-Child Observation Instrument during its on-site reviews of grantees. CLASS-reliable reviewers visited a random sample of preschool classrooms to obtain grantee-level scores. This document provides descriptive statistics of the 2013 grantee-level CLASS™ data.  Read more.   

2013 Head Start Audit Supplement

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-133 requires annual audits of states, local governments, and nonprofit organizations that expend $500,000 or more from federal awards in a fiscal year.  Head Start and Early Head Start grantees and delegate agencies are audited using the OMB A-133 Compliance Supplement, which includes both general compliance requirements and requirements specific to Head Start. The current Compliance Supplement was issued in March 2013, and is applicable to fiscal years beginning after June 30, 2013.

Health Update of Obesity Rate for Young Children   

Federal health authorities recently reported a 43 percent drop in the obesity rate among 2- to 5-year-old children over the past decade, the first broad decline in an epidemic that often leads to lifelong struggles with weight and higher risks for cancer, heart disease and stroke. The drop emerged from a major federal health survey that experts say is the gold standard for evidence on what Americans weigh.  New evidence has shown that children who are overweight or obese at 3 to 5 years old are five times as likely to be overweight or obese as adults.  Read more.