(a) Family goal setting. (1) Grantee and delegate agencies must engage in a process of collaborative partnership-building with parents to establish mutual trust and to identify family goals, strengths, and necessary services and other supports. This process must be initiated as early after enrollment as possible and it must take into consideration each family's readiness and willingness to participate in the process.
(2) As part of this ongoing partnership, grantee and delegate agencies must offer parents opportunities to develop and implement individualized family partnership agreements that describe family goals, responsibilities, timetables and strategies for achieving these goals as well as progress in achieving them. In home-based program options, this agreement must include the above information as well as the specific roles of parents in home visits and group socialization activities (see 45 CFR 1306.33(b)).
(3) To avoid duplication of effort, or conflict with, any preexisting family plans developed between other programs and the Early Head Start or Head Start family, the family partnership agreement must take into account, and build upon as appropriate, information obtained from the family and other community agencies concerning preexisting family plans. Grantee and delegate agencies must coordinate, to the extent possible, with families and other agencies to support the accomplishment of goals in the preexisting plans.
(4) A variety of opportunities must be created by grantee and delegate agencies for interaction with parents throughout the year.
(5) Meetings and interactions with families must be respectful of each family's diversity and cultural and ethnic background.
(b) Accessing community services and resources. (1) Grantee and delegate agencies must work collaboratively with all participating parents to identify and continually access, either directly or through referrals, services and resources that are responsive to each family's interests and goals, including:
(i) Emergency or crisis assistance in areas such as food, housing, clothing, and transportation;
(ii) Education and other appropriate interventions, including opportunities for parents to participate in counseling programs or to receive information on mental health issues that place families at risk, such as substance abuse, child abuse and neglect, and domestic violence; and
(iii) Opportunities for continuing education and employment training and other employment services through formal and informal networks in the community.
(2) Grantee and delegate agencies must follow-up with each family to determine whether the kind, quality, and timeliness of the services received through referrals met the families' expectations and circumstances.
(c) Services to pregnant women who are enrolled in programs serving pregnant women, infants, and toddlers. (1) Early Head Start grantee and delegate agencies must assist pregnant women to access comprehensive prenatal and postpartum care, through referrals, immediately after enrollment in the program. This care must include:
(i) Early and continuing risk assessments, which include an assessment of nutritional status as well as nutrition counseling and food assistance, if necessary;
(ii) Health promotion and treatment, including medical and dental examinations on a schedule deemed appropriate by the attending health care providers as early in the pregnancy as possible; and
(iii) Mental health interventions and follow-up, including substance abuse prevention and treatment services, as needed.
(2) Grantee and delegate agencies must provide pregnant women and other family members, as appropriate, with prenatal education on fetal development (including risks from smoking and alcohol), labor and delivery, and postpartum recovery (including maternal depression).
(3) Grantee and delegate agencies must provide information on the benefits of breast feeding to all pregnant and nursing mothers. For those who choose to breast feed in center-based programs, arrangements must be provided as necessary.
(d) Parent involvement—general. (1) In addition to involving parents in program policy-making and operations (see 45 CFR 1304.50), grantee and delegate agencies must provide parent involvement and education activities that are responsive to the ongoing and expressed needs of the parents, both as individuals and as members of a group. Other community agencies should be encouraged to assist in the planning and implementation of such programs.
(2) Early Head Start and Head Start settings must be open to parents during all program hours. Parents must be welcomed as visitors and encouraged to observe children as often as possible and to participate with children in group activities. The participation of parents in any program activity must be voluntary, and must not be required as a condition of the child's enrollment.
(3) Grantee and delegate agencies must provide parents with opportunities to participate in the program as employees or volunteers (see 45 CFR 1304.52(b)(3) for additional requirements about hiring parents).
(e) Parent involvement in child development and education. (1) Grantee and delegate agencies must provide opportunities to include parents in the development of the program's curriculum and approach to child development and education (see 45 CFR 1304.3(a)(5) for a definition of curriculum).
(2) Grantees and delegate agencies operating home-based program options must build upon the principles of adult learning to assist, encourage, and support parents as they foster the growth and development of their children.
(3) Grantee and delegate agencies must provide opportunities for parents to enhance their parenting skills, knowledge, and understanding of the educational and developmental needs and activities of their children and to share concerns about their children with program staff (see 45 CFR 1304.21 for additional requirements related to parent involvement).
(4) Grantee and delegate agencies must provide, either directly or through referrals to other local agencies, opportunities for children and families to participate in family literacy services by:
(i) Increasing family access to materials, services, and activities essential to family literacy development; and
(ii) Assisting parents as adult learners to recognize and address their own literacy goals.
(5) In addition to the two home visits, teachers in center-based programs must conduct staff-parent conferences, as needed, but no less than two per program year, to enhance the knowledge and understanding of both staff and parents of the educational and developmental progress and activities of children in the program (see 45 CFR 1304.21(a)(2)(iii) and 45 CFR 1304.40(i) for additional requirements about staff-parent conferences and home visits).
(f) Parent involvement in health, nutrition, and mental health education. (1) Grantee and delegate agencies must provide medical, dental, nutrition, and mental health education programs for program staff, parents, and families.
(2) Grantee and delegate agencies must ensure that, at a minimum, the medical and dental health education program:
(i) Assists parents in understanding how to enroll and participate in a system of ongoing family health care.
(ii) Encourages parents to become active partners in their children's medical and dental health care process and to accompany their child to medical and dental examinations and appointments; and
(iii) Provides parents with the opportunity to learn the principles of preventive medical and dental health, emergency first-aid, occupational and environmental hazards, and safety practices for use in the classroom and in the home. In addition to information on general topics (e.g., maternal and child health and the prevention of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), information specific to the health needs of individual children must also be made available to the extent possible.
(3) Grantee and delegate agencies must ensure that the nutrition education program includes, at a minimum:
(i) Nutrition education in the selection and preparation of foods to meet family needs and in the management of food budgets; and
(ii) Parent discussions with program staff about the nutritional status of their child.
(4) Grantee and delegate agencies must ensure that the mental health education program provides, at a minimum (see 45 CFR 1304.24 for issues related to mental health education):
(i) A variety of group opportunities for parents and program staff to identify and discuss issues related to child mental health;
(ii) Individual opportunities for parents to discuss mental health issues related to their child and family with program staff; and
(iii) The active involvement of parents in planning and implementing any mental health interventions for their children.
(g) Parent involvement in community advocacy. (1) Grantee and delegate agencies must:
(i) Support and encourage parents to influence the character and goals of community services in order to make them more responsive to their interests and needs; and
(ii) Establish procedures to provide families with comprehensive information about community resources (see 45 CFR 1304.41(a)(2) for additional requirements).
(2) Parents must be provided regular opportunities to work together, and with other community members, on activities that they have helped develop and in which they have expressed an interest.
(h) Parent involvement in transition activities. (1) Grantee and delegate agencies must assist parents in becoming their children's advocate as they transition both into Early Head Start or Head Start from the home or other child care setting, and from Head Start to elementary school, a Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act preschool program, or a child care setting.
(2) Staff must work to prepare parents to become their children's advocate through transition periods by providing that, at a minimum, a staff-parent meeting is held toward the end of the child's participation in the program to enable parents to understand the child's progress while enrolled in Early Head Start or Head Start.
(3) To promote the continued involvement of Head Start parents in the education and development of their children upon transition to school, grantee and delegate agencies must:
(i) Provide education and training to parents to prepare them to exercise their rights and responsibilities concerning the education of their children in the school setting; and
(ii) Assist parents to communicate with teachers and other school personnel so that parents can participate in decisions related to their children's education.
(4) See 45 CFR 1304.41(c) for additional standards related to children's transition to and from Early Head Start or Head Start.
(i) Parent involvement in home visits. (1) Grantee and delegate agencies must not require that parents permit home visits as a condition of the child's participation in Early Head Start or Head Start center-based program options. Every effort must be made to explain the advantages of home visits to the parents.
(2) The child's teacher in center-based programs must make no less than two home visits per program year to the home of each enrolled child, unless the parents expressly forbid such visits, in accordance with the requirements of 45 CFR 1306.32(b)(8). Other staff working with the family must make or join home visits, as appropriate.
(3) Grantee and delegate agencies must schedule home visits at times that are mutually convenient for the parents or primary caregivers and staff.
(4) In cases where parents whose children are enrolled in the center-based program option ask that the home visits be conducted outside the home, or in cases where a visit to the home presents significant safety hazards for staff, the home visit may take place at an Early Head Start or Head Start site or at another safe location that affords privacy. Home visits in home-based program options must be conducted in the family's home. (See 45 CFR 1306.33 regarding the home-based program option.)
(5) In addition, grantee and delegate agencies operating home-based program options must meet the requirements of 45 CFR 1306.33(a)(1) regarding home visits.
(6) Grantee and delegate agencies serving infants and toddlers must arrange for health staff to visit each newborn within two weeks after the infant's birth to ensure the well-being of both the mother and the child.