Summary: In fiscal year 1995, Head Start--the centerpiece of federal early childhood programs--was appropriated $3.5 billion to provide a range of service to preschool-aged children from poor families. Today, about 1,400 local agencies, known as grantees, sponsor these programs and serve 752,000 children. Local programs provide education, nutrition, health, and social services to low-income children and opportunities for parental involvement and enrichment. Since 1990, Congress has boosted Head Start funding by 135 percent to enable more children to participate and to improve the quality of services. However, some Head Start grantees, as expected, did not spend all of the funds awarded to them each year and carried this unspent money forward for use in subsequent years. This report discusses (1) the amount of Head State funding unspent by program grantees at the end of budget years 1992, 1993, and 1994 and the reasons for these unspent funds; (2) the proportion of carryover funds that was added to grantee awards or that offset grantee awards in subsequent years; (3) the proportion of carryover funds that are one or more grantee budget years old; and (4) the grantees' intended use of carryover funds.
