Underenrollment has been a longstanding problem for Head Start/Early Head Start programs. Underenrollment has been exacerbated by unprecedented challenges facing programs seeking to fully staff their programs with quality teachers (in particular).
Legal and Strategic Issues for HS/EHS Programs Seeking to Address Underenrollment
Underenrollment has been a longstanding problem for Head Start/Early Head Start programs. Underenrollment has been exacerbated by unprecedented challenges facing programs seeking to fully staff their programs with quality teachers (in particular). Without a full teaching staff, programs cannot fully enroll students. Additionally, 2023 is the first year of Head Start’s Full Enrollment Initiative (ACF-PI-HS-18-04) to be implemented since the start of the COVID pandemic. Earlier this year, an estimated 225 grantees (including some of the speaker’s clients) received letters from Head Start designating their program as ‘chronically underenrolled,’ Reportedly, an additional 1200 underenrollment letters will be sent out to grantees by Head Start throughout the rest of 2023. Programs who receive the ‘letter’ and are not able to achieve 97% enrollment within a year may be subject to ‘recapturing, withholding or reducing the annual funding and funded enrollment.’
Programs know that one of the core issues leading to chronic underenrollment is lack of staffing (particularly teaching staff). In this program, we’ll discuss how your program can offer incentives and bonuses to improve staff recruitment and retention while avoiding a dreaded ‘disallowed cost’ finding (a finding that could result with your program owing Head Start money). Another strategy to address ‘chronic underenrollment’ is to apply for a ‘change of scope’ by converting Head Start slots to Early Head Start slots or reducing the number of funded slots. If you have less Head Start slots to fill, you automatically get closer to 97% enrollment than not. In this program, we’ll discuss issues for programs to consider before, during and after applying for a ‘change of scope.’
While the scope (no pun intended) of this presentation should probably be the subject of an entire conference, we will endeavor to bring up the important issues, address the critical questions and provide the attendee with some directions on how to avoid a chronic underenrollment letter or how to take actions to get to 97% within a year if your program has received such a letter.