DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

Requires the Secretary to develop a disaster preparedness plan and advise Head Start agencies on such plan. The bill also requires the Secretary to evaluate the barriers to serving Head Start families after hurricanes Rita and Katrina and to evaluate methods for improved coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

IV. COMMITTEE VIEWS

OVERVIEW

Head Start is the premiere early education program in this country. Started in 1965 under President Johnson, it is a highly successful, research-based, comprehensive child development and early education program for low-income children, birth to five years old, and their families. It has played an important role in improving the lives of

more than 20 million children and their families in its long history. Its goal is to help disadvantaged children be better prepared to succeed in school and in life by addressing the needs of the whole child and providing comprehensive services such as health and nutrition in addition to education--the approach child development experts believe is the most effective. Parental involvement has long been a cornerstone of Head Start because parents are children's most important and influential teachers; and, to have long-term success, the program must consider the family as well as the child. These important principles remain central to the program today.

Poverty is one of the strongest predictors of lower school success: an `achievement gap' between low-income children and their more affluent peers begins before kindergarten and continues through elementary and secondary education. After nearly a decade of decline in national child poverty, the rate of child poverty began to rise in 2002. Today, more than 12 million children in America live in poverty, including approximately 20 percent of children under age six. Poverty rates are substantially higher for ethnic and racial minorities. A large income gap exists between White, African American and Hispanic families: in 2005, the median income for White families with children under 18 was nearly twice as high as that of African American and Hispanic families. In 2005, 37.4 percent of African American, 31.2 percent of Hispanic, and 17.3 percent of White children under age six lived in poverty. In addition, more than eight million children and teenagers do not have health insurance. Research finds that experiencing poverty as a child leads to more health and mental problems throughout one's life, less academic success, and less stable employment as an adult. Head Start continues to be one part of a multi-faceted approach to reducing the impact of poverty on children and families and eliminating the achievement gap. As this Committee examines ways to improve Head Start, it also recognizes that it is unrealistic to believe that Head Start can be the magic cure that eradicates the achievement gap.

Head Start is one of the most evaluated federal programs, and research concludes that Head Start works. Research confirms that children who attend Head Start enter school better prepared than low-income children who do not attend the program and, further, that children who attend Head Start make significant gains relative to national norms in vocabulary, early writing, letter recognition and social behavior. Head Start students show IQ gains, are less likely to need special education services, to repeat a grade, or commit crimes in adolescence and are more likely to graduate from high school.

Research from the well-respected longitudinal study, `The Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey' (FACES), also found that children who attend Head Start make great strides in closing the achievement gap. FACES found that children made modest but significant gains in areas of cognitive development during the Head Start year and made even greater gains over the kindergarten year so that by the end of kindergarten Head Start graduates were `essentially at national norms in early reading and writing, and about one third of a standard deviation below national norms in vocabulary, general knowledge and early math.' These findings suggest that not only do children in Head Start learn key skills in the program, but Head Start also prepares children to better benefit from teaching when they arrive at elementary school.

Recent research conducted with the highest standards confirms that Head Start helps children make gains in cognitive development and narrows the achievement gap. In June 2005, the Department of Health and Human Services (the Department or HHS) released a report on the first year fmdings from the Impact Study--a congressionally mandated study requiring the Secretary to evaluate the impact of Head Start on the children and families it serves. This longitudinal, randomized control group design study will follow children through the end of first grade and evaluate the effect of Head Start over this period. The findings from the first year were very encouraging: Head Start improved children's pre-reading skills, pre-writing skills, vocabulary and parent-reported literacy skills. The study also found that after less than one school year, Head Start narrowed the achievement gap by 45 percent in the area of pre-reading and by 28 percent in pre-writing.

Moreover, the Impact Study demonstrates that Head Start influenced important parenting practices, including increasing the frequency with which parents read to their child. In addition, Head Start decreased hyperactivity in three year olds. Significant effects were not found in the areas of oral comprehension, phonological awareness, early math and many areas of social and emotional development--suggesting key areas for program improvement.

There are two ways for Head Start to better narrow the achievement gap between low-income children and their more affluent peers--one is to increase program effectiveness, the second is to increase program enrollment. Both approaches are equally necessary and Congress must do more to improve program quality and expand services to serve more infants and toddlers through Early Head Start and more preschoolers through Head Start. The Committee intends to accomplish both these goals with the enactment of the Improving Head Start Act of 2007. If we truly believe that no child should be left behind, working to improve the quality and increase the funding of Head Start must be a top domestic priority.