On February 7th I had the honor of presenting at the Region IV Head Start Association’s 2017 Annual Training Conference. The title of my presentation was “Planning for full enrollment using PIR and Census data.” The synopsis provided in the conference’s program is below.

How many Head Start eligible children are in Region IV? Where do those children live and is Head Start serving them? Using Region IV as a model, attendees will learn how to analyze economic and demographic trends and plan for full enrollment in the context of a community assessment.

The basics of the process presented were:

• Key data points from the US Census and American Community Survey can be used to track trends in the Head Start eligible population.
• These data points can be broken down geographically, from the state and county level on down to Census Tracts and zip codes.
• These data points can then be compared horizontally (that is, over time) with key data from Program Information Reports.
• Comparisons can then be made vertically (that is, comparing smaller geographies such as counties to the larger geographies that they are part of.)
• Using these geographical and time based analyses programs can show where the Head Start eligible population is growing, where the population is under served, and where resources should be allocated.

An example of a discovery from this analysis for Region IV is that the region is underfunded when compared to the rest of the United States. Region IV has about 43.5 funded Head Start slots for every 100 estimated eligible children while the United States has just over 50 funded Head Start slots for every 100 estimated eligible children. Tennessee, a state within Region IV, is even more under funded with about 41.5 funded Head Start slots for every 100 estimated eligible children.

Download the presentation

A full PDF of the presentation along with all background data used to produce the analysis of Region IV can be found at following Google Drive folder. Also included is state by state expanded economic data.

Region IV Presentation Google Drive Folder: Planning for Full Enrollment Using Census and PIR Data.

Your program’s data

I offered to all attendees an overview of their program’s service area at the county level. Contact me with your program’s name and the counties you serve to receive your demographic overview. This overview will include a table showing the follwing 2009-2015 data for your county:

• Population
• Percent of the population under the age of 5
• Estimated number of children under the age of 5
• Poverty rate for families with children under the age of 5
• Estimated number of Head Start and Early Head Start eligible children
• The number of eligible children enrolled in your Head Start program (compare this to the estimated number of Head Start eligible children above)
• The number of over income children enrolled in your Head Start program
• Your program’s funded enrollment

Also included will be a bar graph plotting your program’s enrollment and funded enrollment compared to the estimated Head Start eligible population. For an example, see the graph for Region IV below.

I provide full Community Assessment planning, analysis and writing as well as accessible, affordable Demographic Reports for Head Start programs. Contact me if you would like a bid proposal for your Head Start program.

I recently had the privilege of working with an AI/AN Program on completion of their 5-year non competitive grant application. In organizing the grant writing process I followed an outline and instructions provided by a grants specialist from the Office of Head Start. The grants specialist presented at the 2015 NIHSDA Region XI Conference in Sacramento, California. Here is the outline of his presentation. It includes the instructions for the application along with further guidance and explanation from OHS.

I have adapted his presentation to a grant application template with a hyper-linked table of contents and full OHS instructions and guidance for each section included in embedded comments. The template is in Google Docs, and may be copied and used to complete your program’s 5-Year grant application.

In the template you will find all major sections of the grant application narrative (excluding the Budget section, which will be added later), sub-sections, questions, and sub-questions; all of the required topics you must cover in your 5-Year grant.

All topics within the grant application are hyper linked as sections in the table of contents in 5 heading levels (4 heading levels are shown in the above screenshot.) Further OHS instructions are in [brackets] and further explanations of each section are in comments linked to the highlighted text [What are you looking for?] All explanations, instructions, and comments are pulled from the aforementioned 5-Year grant presentation given at the 2015 NIHSDA Conference.

To use the template you can either:

1. Click on “File” and “Make a Copy”. This allows you to make an exact duplicate of the document in Google Docs. Using the outline in Google Docs stores the file in Google Drive, and sharing settings can be altered to keep the document private, or share it with others to view, comment or collaborate on your 5-Year Grant application. This method is recommended if you are comfortable with using and collaborating on Google Docs.
2. Click on “File” and “Download as”. This allows you to download the document as a Microsoft Word document (or other format) to store locally on your computer’s hard drive. Due to compatibility issues this may alter the layout of the outline. It also may make it difficult to update the Table of Contents automatically as this is a feature built into Google Docs with a third party application. This method is recommended if you are uncomfortable with collaborating on Google Docs and would like to work in a local copy of your grant application instead of one that is stored online.

If you have questions, comments, or are in need of assistance in completing your 5-Year Grant Application you can contact me.

NHSDA Executive Director Yasmina Vinci write on the Designation Renewal System at Huffington Post:

In 2007, Congress attempted to strengthen the accountability of Head Start programs by requiring open competition for Head Start grants in communities where local programs were not offering high-quality services.

Since 2011, the Office of Head Start has been implementing the Designation Renewal System (DRS) to put that goal into action, but the design of this system has led to a number of unproductive and unintended consequences.

This fall, as the third cycle of DRS closed, the National Head Start Association (NHSA) released Analysis of the Designation Renewal System: Cohorts One to Three, summarizing the outcomes for programs and communities thus far and highlighting opportunities to address those unintended consequences and make the DRS more effective. As the report concluded:

● The DRS still falls short of fully meeting the Congressional intent of targeting competition at poor quality grantees.
● Basic reforms are needed to make the DRS consistent, reasonable, and predictable.
● Conceptual reforms are needed to support programs in working toward high quality, not compliance.

Right now, the DRS requires programs to enter competition if they hit one or more of seven triggers. Overall, 74% of programs going into competition are currently getting their grants back at the end of a grueling 18-month process. Depending on what trigger caused them to compete, programs might be more or less likely than that to get their grant back. This confirms what the Head Start field knows to be true: the triggers for competition were designed in ways that catch low-quality programs but also catch other good programs.

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