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Head Start Reauthorization: A Side-by-Side Comparison of House- and Senate-Passed Versions of H.R. 1429 and Current Law (CRS Report for Congress)

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Release Date Revised Nov. 13, 2007
Report Number RL33968
Report Type Report
Authors Melinda Gish, Domestic Social Policy Division
Source Agency Congressional Research Service
Older Revisions
  • Premium   April 18, 2007 (88 pages, $24.95) add
Summary:

Head Start, a federal program that has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1965, was last reauthorized in 1998 for fiscal years 1999-2003. The program has remained funded in subsequent years through the annual appropriations process. After unsuccessful efforts by the past two Congresses to complete the reauthorization process, efforts to do so are underway in the 110th Congress. The House and Senate have each passed their own version of a reauthorization bill (H.R. 1429), and on November 9, 2007, conferees filed a conference report (H.Rept. 110-439). This report does not yet reflect the provisions included in the conference agreement. The Improving Head Start Act of 2007 (H.R. 1429) was introduced by Representative Kildee on March 9, 2007. The following week, the House Committee on Education and Labor debated, amended, and approved the bill (42-1), and the committee's written report accompanying the legislation (H.Rept. 110-67) was filed on March 23, 2007. That bill was taken to the House floor on May 2, and was approved (with nine amendments) by a vote of 365-48. The Head Start for School Readiness Act (S. 556) was introduced by Senator Kennedy on February 12, 2007, and approved via voice vote by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) on February 14. The Chairman's amended version of the bill was subsequently reported on March 29, 2007, with a written report (S.Rept. 110-49) filed April 10, 2007. On June 19, under unanimous consent, the full Senate passed the committee's bill, with a few technical changes, under the House bill number (H.R. 1429). Both reauthorization bills amend Head Start with the goal of improving the program's ability to promote low-income children's school readiness by supporting their cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. The means for doing so encompass a wide range of provisions, covering issues of program funding, administration, eligibility, accountability, quality, governance, and coordination. Authorization levels for funding would be increased above current funding amounts by both bills, and eligibility would be expanded to allow for serving children up to 130% of the poverty line. Both bills include provisions that would increase competition for Head Start grants, by limiting the period for which a grantee may receive grant funds to five years, before recompetition may be required. Other similarities include increasing the percentage of the appropriation to be reserved for Early Head Start; emphasizing coordination and collaboration with other state and local early childhood programs; increasing staff qualifications; specifying requirements of shared governance principles in statute; and suspending use of the National Reporting System. Although the overall areas addressed by the two reauthorization bills are similar, a side-by-side comparison of provisions, alongside current law, reveals notable differences in detail. The table does not reflect the provisions agreed to in conference.