We have been contacted by numerous Head Start directors, staff, and parents from across the country asking for help to stop the current approach adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the “Designation Renewal System” (DRS). These regulations were issued in response to changes that Congress made to the Head Start Act in December of 2007. We supported the changes made to the Head Start Act to require low quality Head Start agencies to compete for continued funding based on the outcome of a qualitative assessment process. However, it is evident that the established DRS does not come anywhere close to measuring the quality of the services provided by Head Start agencies.
By way of background the DRS, as implemented by HHS, uses a system of individual “triggers.” If one trigger is “tripped,” an agency is deemed a low performing Head Start program and is on the list for recompetition. The two triggers that HHS has exclusively relied on are one or more deficiencies in a single review or a low score on the CLASS instrument (a newly adopted assessment of individual teacher performances). The use of the CLASS is, in many ways worse, since the CLASS is a relatively new assessment device and, other than the score, HHS refuses to provide the agency being reviewed with any information about how the score was derived and denied due process rights to question and/or dispute findings. Neither trigger should be used alone and in isolation to make qualitative judgments about Head Start programs, if for no other reason than Congress told HHS not to do so.
Additionally there are obvious problems with the timeliness of the data used in making the determinations. This system has now led and will continue to lead to absurd results. The deficiency used by HHS can be years old and the agency could have immediately or made corrections years ago. These facts are immaterial to HHS. The existence of one of these triggers is all it takes to turn a long-standing reputable Head Start agency into a low performer. So far, over 250 Head Start agencies have been so labeled.
The single trigger mechanism is not realistic when you consider the fact that Head Start programs are comprehensive with over 1,800 separate regulatory requirements. Many of you may even know of high-quality agencies that have been put on the “list.” We ask then, in the name of simple fairness and in consideration for the long-standing integrity of the Head Start program, that Congress carefully examines the differences between what the Head Start Act requires and what HHS has and continues to do with the DRS.
There is no doubt that this system is not what Congress wanted in 2007 when it reauthorized the Head Start Act. Among the examples of what Congress did want and HHS ignored are the following:
CONGRESS’ INSTRUCTIONS
- The House report accompanying the 2007 Reauthorization of the Head Start Act, explicitly prohibited HHS from merely counting deficiencies as a means of making the required qualitative determinations.
- Section 641 (b) (5) of the Head Start Act states that HHS “Shall not use the results of a single assessment as the sole method for assessing program effectiveness or making agency funding determinations.
- Section 641 (c)(1) requires HHS to “develop a system for designation renewal that integrates the recommendations of the expert panel . . . to determine if a Head Start agency is delivering a high-quality and comprehensive Head Start program that meets the educational, health, nutritional, and social needs of the children and families it serves, and meets program and financial management requirements and standards …”
- Section 641 (c) (6) of the Act based on language about “unresolved deficiencies” implies quite clearly and strongly that resolved or corrected deficiencies should not be a basis for determining that an agency is of low quality.
HHS’ ACTIONS
- HHS has not followed the House’s directive by implementing a system of solely counting deficiencies. Over 100 programs have been labeled low quality because they have a single or low number of corrected deficiencies.
- The DRS rules do use the results of a single classroom assessment (the “class”) to label a program low quality and puts that program into recompetition for an additional five years of funding.
- Instead of developing a broad based qualitative assessment as recommended by the expert panel, HHS implemented the system of single triggers. A single trigger is hardly going to assess the capabilities of a Head Start agency to provide “educational, health, nutritional, and social” services that meet the “needs of the children and families it serves.” In other words, the entire approach is unlawful.
- Under the DRS, the mere existence of a deficiency no matter how old or long ago it was corrected, the agency is automatically determined to be of low quality.
These are but a few of the significant problems with the manner in which HHS is administering the Head Start program that we know the Head Start community would like to bring to your attention. Moreover, long-standing agencies across this nation are vulnerable and subjected to an arbitrary and inaccurate system for measuring the quality of their Head Start agencies. Such action runs the likely risk of causing irreversible damage to this notably highly successful Federal program. There have already been 250 agencies that have been labeled as “low performing”. In the approaching months and years to come, the implementation of the DRS will continue to cause profound and negative effects on the families served by Head Start agencies across the country to say nothing of the unprecedented diversion of agency staff time and literally tens of millions of local and federal dollars spent on the execution of this wasteful undertaking as agencies are tossed aside for the wrong reasons.
We know how busy you are, however, time is short and the DRS system plows on. We urge you as our representatives who enacted the 2007 Head Start Act to please utilize your long-established authority to hold hearings to investigate all aspects of the destructive impact the DRS is having on programs and the utter failure of these regulations to measure the quality of local agencies and to comply with the clear directives of Congress.
We are very willing and able to supply you with contact names and agencies that will share their experiences. The names of the persons who are noted signers of this request to you are individuals who have provided significant time and resources to the development and positive implementation of our highly regarded Head Start program, which has been favored with the receipt of bipartisan support since its inception almost 50 years ago