Susan Gale Perry, CCAoA Chief Executive Officer, issued the following statement after comprehensive review of the Department of Health & Human Services' Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) titled, “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs.”
She said:
"After carefully reviewing the Administration's plan to make significant changes to Head Start, we have concluded that many of the proposed changes risk weakening the very things children facing the greatest barriers need for healthy development and learning.
We took our time because we believe we should always be looking for ways to reduce unnecessary administrative burden and ensure Head Start continues to evolve with the needs of children, families, and communities.
We know from our on-the-ground network working in every state that it is possible to reduce unnecessary burden without reducing what children receive; to give local programs flexibility without making quality optional; and to expand access without asking children, families and educators to accept less in return.
But too many of the proposed changes undermine some of the very reasons that Head Start produces real and measurable benefits for children and families—in healthy development, educational attainment and economic well-being.
-
- Standards that protect children are not red tape.
-
- Having enough teachers to give children individual attention and giving those teachers the conditions to do their jobs well is not an administrative burden.
-
- Comprehensive health, developmental and family supports are not bureaucratic excess.
-
- Helping children experiencing homelessness get through the door is not government inefficiency.
-
- Supporting children with disabilities and developmental delays and keeping children in the classroom rather than excluding them are not unnecessary federal mandates.
-
- Giving educators the ability to communicate with children in ways that support how they learn and develop is not goverment overreach.
The measure of a Head Start policy isn't how many rules it eliminates. It's whether children and families are better off because of it.
Let’s start by listening to the people who know Head Start best - those doing the work and the families whose children it serves.
As the only national organization with a network of state and local organizations that supports every part of the child care system, Child Care Aware® of America and the network we represent know what is needed to make child care work for children, families, providers, and communities. These changes are not it."
Read - Previous Statement, August 7, 2027
See - Our Head Start NPRM Resource Hub
