By Shira Small

Since its inception in 1965, Head Start has helped families with low incomes access early education and social services. Its reach expanded with the creation of Early Head Start in 1994, which extended access to education, nutrition services, prenatal health resources, social and mental health services, and more to families with children under the age of three and pregnant women. Over 40 million children and their families have benefitted from Head Start resources since its creation, and in 2023 alone the program was funded to serve 778,420 children and pregnant women. Head Start has had a significant impact on the children and families who are able to access it, and its continued improvement will be essential in helping families find and afford care.

In an effort to improve the program and support the workforce, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a new final rule that increases wages for the Head Start workforce, improves its mental health supports, and enhances services to better meet the needs of children and families across the country.

CLASP supports these changes and has been actively involved in providing feedback on the proposed rule, submitting public comments earlier this year. Our comments focused on opportunities to center equity and improve implementation without overburdening providers and families at a critical juncture for the child care sector. They were primarily focused on CLASP areas of expertise including mental health, suspension and expulsion, data equity, accessibility, and benefits. The final rule was responsive to our feedback and the broader feedback of the Head Start community. Some key improvements in the public comment include:

Increasing workforce compensation and benefits.

The final rule bolsters teacher wages and benefits, which the Office of Head Start (OHS) estimates will increase Head Start teacher salaries by $10,000. Some of the new benefits include paid leave for full-time employees; access to low- or no-cost behavioral health services; and health care coverage for all employees, including those working part-time. The final rule also includes a provision that provides the secretary with the option to implement a waiver in 2028 for wage parity if investments are not sufficient to implement the provision. This is in response to concerns about the significant cost of these provisions and the need for additional investment to fulfil them.

Modernizing Head Start’s engagement with families through data equity.

The new final rule includes improved data equity practices that align with CLASP’s recommendations to center community engagement and responsible data collection. It requires that data gathering be informed by the community and be intentionally designed to identify community strengths, needs, and resources. The final rule’s community engagement practices ensure programs meet the needs of all prospective and enrolled families, including those with diverse schedules, disabilities, levels of language access, family structures or generational differences, literacy levels, and cultural backgrounds.

Implementing equitable and well-documented suspension and expulsion practices.

Head Start has long been a leader in implementing positive policies that have significantly reduced inequitable treatment and suspension and expulsion of children in Head Start programs. The final rule outlines the definition of suspension for these programs, underlines their temporary intent, and more clearly outlines how programs must support the expeditious return of children to their regular care and classrooms.

Supporting children, families, and providers’ mental health and well-being.

The final rule better integrates mental health supports into all aspects of the Head Start program and strengthens the role of mental health consultants. This includes clarifying expectations for wellness for programs and requiring programs to better incorporate mental health into the services they offer to families.

We applaud HHS for the positive improvements included in the new final rule and are glad to see many of our comments reflected in the finalized version. These changes will tremendously support the Head Start workforce, children, and families if the sector is funded at the level needed to implement these new policies. We look forward to working with OHS and Head Start programs to implement these new requirements in the most equitable way possible while advocating for the resources necessary to fully fund these improvements and the child care and early education system more broadly.

>> Read more about CLASP’s work on Head Start.