WKU News

The NHSA has provided the below news article on the overview of preliminary awards for the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership Project.

 NHSA Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership Project

Overview of Preliminary Awards

Submitted by Emmalie Dropkin on Mon, 12/22/2014 - 10:46

http://earlyheadstartchildcare.nhsa.org/node/108

In December 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a list of Preliminary Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership and Early Head Start Expansion Awards. The list included 234 preliminary grantees, while noting that "HHS will continue to negotiate with these and other applicant agencies to award all grants on a rolling basis beginning January 1, 2015. The full allocation of $500 million will be awarded by the end of March 2015." While the projected award amounts are estimates and the list is likely to shift somewhat as negotiations continue, we offer an analysis of the initial list below.

Overview

• 234 preliminary grantees were named in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
• About a quarter of grants were for less than $1 million, and half were between $1 million and $2 million. One quarter were larger. (A $1 million grant would serve approximately 120 children if the cost per child were near the national average Early Head Start cost per child of $12,500.) 
• Six state/district governments received grants - Alabama, Georgia, Delaware, California, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia - of which only PA had held an Early Head Start grant previously.
• 203 agencies on the list (86%) already operate Head Start and/or Early Head Start.
• The preliminary list includes 7 tribal governments or organizations and 9 organizations that have operated Migrant and Seasonal Head Start in the past.

Demographics

• Among the 203 agencies in negotiations who have established Head Start and/or Early Head Start programs:

• One third reported operating center-based and/or family child care partnerships in last year's Head Start Program Information Report.
• Grantees' agency types (school system, Community Action, government, non-profit) generally reflect the balance of Early Head Start grantees nationally.
• Grantees with fewer than 500 children are underrepresented, and larger grantees are overrepresented. This may reflect the greater capacity of larger grantees to create applications on a short time frame and scale existing infrastructure.
• Besides the five states, agencies included four universities, three Child Care Resource and Referral agencies, and a mix of non-profit and for-profit child care care providers including YWCAs, United Ways, and Community Action programs.

• Among the 31 agencies new to Early Head Start:

Once final awards are made, there will be additional questions to explore about the proportions of expansion and partnership grants awarded, as well as the balance between center-based and family child care partnerships among grantees. Regardless, the prospect of reaching more than 30,000 infants and toddlers and their families with high-quality services should be a thrilling one for the entire early childhood care and education community.

- See more at: http://earlyheadstartchildcare.nhsa.org/node/108#sthash.ChaeXlga.dpuf